Preikestolen

Preikestolen, also called Pulpit Rock, is a steep granite cliff in Strand Municipality, Rogaland county, Norway, rising 604 meters above the Lysefjord to a nearly flat summit measuring roughly 25 by 25 meters. The cliff took its distinctive angular plateau shape during the last glacial period, when meltwater seeped into cracks in the granite, froze, and expanded, gradually prying loose large angular blocks that were then carried away by the advancing glacier; the cliff reached roughly its present form about 10,000 years ago, as the ice retreated from it. A deep crack still runs along the plateau, but geological surveys have repeatedly found no evidence that a collapse is likely in the foreseeable future. This entity documents Preikestolen specifically as a geological formation, a granite monolith shaped by glacial ice-wedging along natural joints in the bedrock.