An avalanche along Storfjorden (= the big fjord) would create a tsunami at least as large as the one that smashed into Tafjord in 1934, killing 40 people.
Tafjord is deeper into the fjord than the mountain areas near Åknes, where a major avalanche is now feared.
The mountain has been regularly monitored for the past 50 years and has begun to move with increasing speed, with cracks growing at the rate of several centimeter a year. In 2007 changes of up to 3 millimeters (.11 inch) a week have been registered.
The Tafjord avalanche caused a tsunami that was 64 meters (210 feet) high. In 1905 a similar catastrophe struck Loen in Stryn, when Ramnefjellet unleashed a rock slide, and 61 people were killed.
Those disasters were completely unexpected, but the monitoring system that will now be put in place should allow for 24-hour readiness, and the possibility to evacuate residents before the mountain gives way.
