Valley in northern Sweden
Kärkevagge (Northern Sami: Geargevággi, "Stone Valley") is a short (4 km long) valley in Kiruna Municipality, Sweden. It is easily accessed by a good path from the E10 Kiruna-Narvik highway. Rissajaure, the clearest lake in Sweden, is located at the head of the valley.[1] Karkevagge is noted for the Giant Boulder Deposit (GBD) which fills it with huge jumbled blocks, some the size of houses. One of Sweden's leading geoscientists, Anders Rapp, a world pioneer of quantitative geomorphology, studied the valley for 10 years. He suggested that the parallel rows of blocks had descended in waves from the valleyside cliffs.[2] He estimated the volume of the GBD at 50 million cubic metres. However a large angular cavity beside Rissajaure (top right in picture) has a volume of 42 million cubic metres. The GBD probably descended from it as a rock avalanche and spread down the valley on a glacier, giving it a moraine-like form and visual unity as seen from the air.[3]
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