REPEATING PATTERNS IN THE EARTH RELIEF 229 



action upon open spaces within the rocks, has here been the cause 

 of the excessive weathering above the more widely gaping joints. 

 High northern latitudes are thus especially favorable for re- 

 vealing all the details in the architectural pattern of the litho- 



FIG. 245. Island groups of the Lofoten archipelago off the northwest coast of 

 Norway, which reveal repeating patterns of the relief in two orders of magnitude 

 (after a photograph by Knudsen). 



sphere shell, and we need not be surprised that when the modern 

 maps of the Norwegian coast are examined, still larger repeating 

 patterns than any 

 that may be seen 

 in the field are to 

 be made out. The 

 Norwegian coast 

 was long ago shown 



to be a Complexly -$IQ. 246. Diagrams to illustrate the composite profiles 



faulted region, and of the islands on the Norwegian coast, a, distant view ; 



these larger divi- &> near view> s h win g the individual joints and the more 



. . widely gaping fractures beneath each sag in the profile. 



sions of the relief 



pattern, instead of being explained as a consequence solely of 

 selective weathering, must be regarded as due largely to fault 

 displacements of the type represented in our model (plate 4C). 

 Yet whether due to displacements or to the more numerous 

 joints, all belong to the same composite system of fractures 

 expressed in the relief. 



