Kvasshammeren Pegmatite Outcrop, Iveland, Agder, Norwayi

Regional Level Types
Kvasshammeren Pegmatite Outcrop	Outcrop
Iveland	Municipality
Agder	County
Norway	Country

Study of aerial pictures at kart.1881.no had already revealed the presence of one or more pegmatites at Kvasshammer, a low hill, partly in Iveland, and partly in Evje.
The aerial pictures clearly show bands of a white rock protruding out of the surrounding landscape, orientated in a SE-NW direction.
LiDAR images at hoydedata.no show two parallel ridges as part of a ca. 1 km long and max. 180 m wide hill.
These ridges are an easy walk from beginning to the end of the pegmatite, and show a very homogeneous rock, with both albite and microcline, quartz and surprisingly little accessory minerals, apart from some mica.
The feldspar forms crystals/masses of max. 0,5-1m, but usually with inclusions of quartz. The average size is considerably smaller. Mega-crystals seem to be lacking completely.
Graphic granite can be seen regurarly. Quartz occassionally forms grey masses of up to 20 cm in diameter.
The southern ridge seems to be more abundant in albite, while most of the northern ridge is more abundant in microcline.
The feature that makes this pegmatite exceptionally relevant for geologically minded people, are the most wonderfull exposures of the contact zone between the pegmatite and amphibolite.
The exposures that can be seen on some of the pictures are located at 58.5468351,7.8686356. Technically seen, they are in the Evje og Hornnes municipality, but since most of the hill is located in Iveland, they are registered here.
(If some administrator has the time, it might be nice to extend this registration to cover the entire hill, covering its presence in both municipalities.)
While writing this (RW, 7. August 2022) only a small part of the pegmatite has been studied, and future expeditions should be made to complete the study.
The coordinates are for the assumed highest point of hill Kvasshammer at an elevation of 535,3 m.

NOTE
The word "kvass" means sharp, while "hammer" means of course the same as in English, a hammer. It is reasonable to assume that this hill got its name due to the fact that it looks like as if a sharp, long-stretched hammer was slammed into the surrounding rock.
In the Evje og Hornnes municipality is a hill by the same name, only spelled Kvasshammar, with an "a" instead of an "e" at the end. The difference being that the former name is written in nynorsk norwegian, while the second is written in bokmål norwegian.

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