Geodetic Journey

The Yarlung Tsangpo gorge and Namjagbarwa mountain are situated south-east in Tibet. This region has not only magnificant scenery, but you find a number of extraordinary geophysical phenomena here. From a geodetic point of view the place is like heaven. Namjagbarwa is a majestic mountain raising more than 7000 meters above sealevel. It's peak can hardly ever be seen especially in the summer season. We were lucky.

We started our journey from Nyiong early in the morning hoping to catch a glimps of the Namjagbarwa. The name means sword in Tibetan and in fact it is like a needle fixing tectonic plates! It is indeed a very special mountain and we were all excited about the possibility to see it even though the chances were slim. In the morning all we saw was mist and clouds - as expected. However, as we went down in the neighbouring valley of Lalung, the sun seemed to come through the mist and clouds. After a brunch in Taxigong, a pictoresque Tibetan village looking very much like we were in Switzerland, we went back to the outlook point. Namjagbarwa was teasing us for hours with an almost look behind the curtain of clouds. Finally we succeeded in seing the peak altogether three times! We can assure you, it was worth the wait!

The day was not over yet, next on the program was the Yarlung Tsangpo gorge. The Namjagbarwa is placed in the middle of the u-turn of the Yarlung Tsangpo in the  world's larges gorge. In this region we also find the largest uplift of the crust due to movements in the earths interior. In Norway we monitor the crustal uplift due to post glacial rebound. The uplift in Norway is fairly high but cannot compete with the 30 mm per year uplift you find here.

Close to the Tibetan village of Pai at the starting point of the Yarlung Tsangpo gorge, we came over a sandstorm on the banks of the river. It was a magnificant view. It cannot be described, but when the internet connections are on our side you'll find pictures of it here.