Sarek National Park () is a national park in Jokkmokk Municipality, Lapland in northern Sweden. Established in 1909, the park is among the oldest national parks in Europe. It is adjacent to two other national parks, namely Stora Sjöfallet and Padjelanta. The shape of Sarek National Park is roughly circular with an average diameter of about .
The most noted features of the national park are six of Sweden's thirteen peaks over located within the park's boundaries. Among these is the second highest mountain in Sweden, Sarektjåkkå, and Áhkká which is located just outside the park. The park has about 200 mountains over , 82 of which have names. Sarek is also the name of a geographical area which the national park is part of. The Sarek mountain district includes a total of eight peaks over . Due to the long trek, the mountains in the district are seldom climbed. There are approximately 100 glaciers in Sarek National Park.
Sarek is a popular area for hikers and mountaineers. Beginners in these disciplines are advised to accompany a guide since there are no marked trails or accommodations and only two bridges aside from those in the vicinity of its borders. The area is among those that receives the heaviest rainfall in Sweden, making hiking dependent on weather conditions. It is also intersected by turbulent streams that are hazardous to cross without proper training.
The delta of the Rapa River is considered one of Europe's most noted views and the summit of mount Skierfe offers an overlook of that ice-covered, glacial, through valley.
The Pårte Scientific Station in Sarek (also known as the Pårte observatory) was built in the early 1900s by Swedish mineralogist and geographer Axel Hamberg. All the building material for the huts had to be carried to the site by porters.
Names of locations In Sarek National Park, as in the most of Sápmi, a large number of the locations have names originating from the Sami languages. These languages have several variations and their written forms have changed over time, which explains why some placenames do not always correspond with each other in different sources.
The most common Sami names for locations or features in the park are tjåkkå or tjåkko (mountain), vagge (valley), jåkkå or jåkko (stream), lako (plateau) and ätno (river). An example of this is Rapaätno, meaning Rapa River. These names are also the official Swedish names of the locations.
Geography
Location and borders Sarek National Park is situated in the Jokkmokk Municipality, Norrbotten County, Sweden, north of the Arctic Circle, from the Norwegian border.
The area of the park is and it is adjacent to the national parks Padjelanta (in the west) and Stora Sjöfallet (in the north). The parks have a combined area of approximately . There are also a number of nature reserves nearby.
Topography
Sarek National Park is the most mountainous region in Sweden and it is the part of the country that mostly resembles an alpine countryside. Within the park are 19 summits higher than , the most noted being the second highest summit in Sweden after the Kebnekaise – the Sarektjåkkå with a height of . The lowest altitude in the park is found in the southwest, near Lake Rittakjaure, at .
The park is made up of three types of landscape, sometimes difficult to differentiate between: large valleys, massive mountains, and high plateaux. The largest valley of the park, which is also the most noted, is the Rapa Valley. This valley occupies of the park, including several branches, the most important of which are the Sarvesvagge, which climbs as far as Padjelanta, the Kuopervagge — with an area of nearly — and the Ruotesvagge, surrounded by numerous glaciers, including those of Mount Sarektjåkkå. Among the other notable valleys, outside the Rapadalen network, are the Kukkesvagge that makes up the north-eastern border of the park, and the Njåtsosvagge near the southern border. The largest plateau is the Ivarlako, east of the Pårte massif, with an altitude starting at . West of Pårte, the Luottolako plateau covers an area of and has an even higher altitude at .
Interspersed between the valleys and the plateaux, are massive mountains, often with several summits. The main ones are: Sarektjåkkå, highest point: Stortoppen, Pårte, Pårtetjåkkå, Piellorieppe, Kåtokkaskatjåkkå, Ålkatj, (Akkatjåkko, Äpar, Skårki, Ruotes,
Climate
Hydrography The park's main river is the Rapa River (Rapaätno). It originates from the glaciers of Sarektjåkkå and runs down the Rapa Valley as far as Lake Laitaure, and continues outside the park, where it joins with the Lesser Lule River which becomes a tributary of the Lule River at its confluence. This river is fed by thirty glaciers, contributing to a significant flow. The specific flow, the ratio between the average flow and the drainage basin, from these waters, is the most significant in Sweden. The flow fluctuates strongly with the seasons, having an average of 100 m3⋅s−1 in July and about 4 m3⋅s−1 in winter, resulting in an average annual flow of approximately 30 m3⋅s−1. The river also transports a significant quantity of sediment. In summer, it can carry up to of sediment daily. In winter it only carries a few tons every day, resulting in an annual total of . The sediment gives the river a grey-green colour and forms large deltas. The main delta is formed at the confluence of the Rapaätno with its principal tributary, the river Sarvesjokk.
Just before the confluence, the river braids for nearly , forming a zone called Rapaselet. The most noted of the deltas – and an emblem of the park – is the Laitaure delta (Laitauredeltat), which the river forms as it connects with Lake Laitaure. The other significant rivers correspond to the principal valleys listed above. Most of them make up the drainage basin of Lesser Lule River. The rivers in the north part of the park flow into Lake Akkajaure, in the Stora Sjöfallet National Park, forming part of the hydrographic network of Lule älv.
The park also contains several lakes. The largest are the Alkajaure (altitude ), on the border between the Sarek and the Padjelanta park, and the Pierikjaure (altitude ) near the Stora Sjöfallet National Park.
Geology
Formation
The Sarek National Park lies within the Scandinavian Mountains, a mountain chain whose origin is still a matter of debate. The rocks of the Scandinavian Mountains were put in place by the Caledonian orogeny, forming a belt of deformed and displaced rocks now known as the Scandinavian Caledonides. Caledonian rocks overlie rocks of the much older Svecokarelian and Sveconorwegian provinces. The Caledonian rocks actually form large nappes () that have been thrusted over the older rocks. Much of the Caledonian rocks have been eroded since they were put in place meaning that they were once thicker and more contiguous. It is also implyed from the erosion that the nappes of Caledonian rock reached once further east than they do today. The erosion has left remaining massifs of Caledonian rocks and windows of Precambrian rock. The Caledonian orogeny resulted from the collision of the Laurentia and Baltica plates, 450 to 250 million years ago, with the disappearance of the Iapetus Ocean by subduction. This happened just before the formation of the chain and was caused by the appearance of a rift, which finally led to the creation of the Atlantic Ocean. The chain, once split open, continued to erode until it formed a peneplain.
Starting about 60 million years ago, both the Scandinavian and the North-American sections suffered a tectonic uplift. It is unclear what causes this and several hypotheses have been presented. One of the theories is the influence of the Iceland hotspot which could have raised the crust. Another hypothesis is the isostasy related to glaciations caused the uplift. In any of those cases, the uplift allowed the ancient mountain chain to rise several thousand metres.
The area of the national park, and the eastern Sarek Mountains in particular, was the last of part of Fennoscandia to be deglaciated. The last remnants of the Fennoscandian Ice Sheet melted there slightly after 9,700 years BP.
Erosion
The mountain chain was renewed and after that it was subjected to a new period of glacial erosion. In the beginning of the Quaternary period, 15 million years ago, a significant glacial advance occurred. The glaciers began to grow and move into the valleys where they gradually merged to form an ice sheet that covered the entire region. Several further glaciations followed, forming the current landscape, with glacial valleys, cirques, nunataks etc. The degree to which the chain was affected by the erosion depended mainly on the structure of the terrain, which explains the diversity in the topography of the area. The topography of Sarek, similar to that of Kebnekaise, is divided into sharply defined zones, particularly in respect to the two neighbouring national parks. This is mainly due to the existence of diabase and diorite dikes which are more resistant to erosion. The park is intersected by a tangle of dikes created 608 million years ago, an era that probably corresponds with the first appearance of the rift during the formation of the Iapetus ocean. These dikes represent intrusions into the Sarektjåkkå nappe, which is composed of sediments probably deposited in the rift basin.
Glaciers
The park has over 100 glaciers, making it one of the most glacier-rich areas in Sweden. The glaciers are relatively small, the largest being Pårtejekna in Pårte at . However, some of the others are relatively large for Sweden, since the largest Swedish glacier, Stuorrajekna in Sulitelma (south of Padjelanta), measures .
The evolution of the glaciers, particularly that of the Mikka () have been studied since the end of the 19th century, especially by mineralogist and geographer Axel Hamberg. The other glaciers in the park have an evolution similar to that of the Mikka: in 1883 to 1895 they were mostly receding, then advanced a little in 1900 to 1916, after which they started to recede again. Later they stabilised or grew, which was interpreted as being caused by the increase in winter precipitation related to global warming. The effect of the raised summer temperatures has been taken into account when assessing the data. The receding of the glaciers has resumed at a particularly rapid pace during the first years of the 21st century.
Wildlife According to its WWF classification, Sarek National Park is situated in the Scandinavian Montane Birch forest and grasslands ecoregion, with a minor section in the Scandinavian and Russian taiga. With regards to the flora and fauna, Sarek does not have a wide variety of species. This is mainly explained by the fact that most of the park, except the south and south-east part, is above the growth-limit of conifers, which is at an altitude of about in this region. Adding to this, unlike most of the region, Sarek National Park has few vast lakes or swamps. A total of approximately 380 species of vascular plants have been found in the park, as well as 182 species of vertebrates, 24 mammals, 142 birds, 2 reptiles, 2 amphibians and 12 fish. Many of these species are on the Swedish red list of endangered species, notably the large carnivores.
The vegetation follows a fairly strict altitudinal zonation, as a result of the climate, and implying a similar zonation of fauna, although this is often less strict.
Montane zone