Romerike, the vast clay plain north of Oslo, is under major pressure. This is where collapsing ground meets Real Estate. Digging and excavation are the primary causes of quick clay landslides and has caused dozens of deaths over the past years. Yet, Romerike is undergoing a constructin boom, primarily driven by money-driven developers and housing speculators.
This is also the story of the ravines, forgotten fragments of what was once a network of rivers and streams in steep corridors teeming with mushrooms, mycelium, and mosquitoes. About 80% of the ravines was leveled for agricultural purposes between the 60s and 80s. Today, they are filled in to stabilize and prevent landslides. They are often serving as secondary dumping sites for polluted materials from building projects around the capital.
Climate change and episodes of torrential rain are making the ravines reappear again, more dangerous than ever, exposing the local populations to extreme risk.
Quick clay landslide in Ask 30/12/2020
10 people lost their lives when the ground collapsed in this residential area.
no. : (...) etter utvalgets vurdering har menneskelig aktivitet hatt størst betydning for utløsning av alvorlige kvikkleireskred de siste tiårene.
en. : (...) in the Committee's opinion, human activity has had the greatest impact on the triggering of serious quick clay landslides in recent decades.
Official Norwegian Reports
NOU 2022: 3 På trygg grunn - Bedre håndtering av kvikkleirerisiko
Quick clay landslides that have been reported over the past 10 years. The icons illustrate the impacts of the slides, deaths and material loss.
My sister looking for the path in a ravine June 2023.
Marine clay becomes quick when salt particles are washed away with fresh water. When quick clay is disturbed, it collapses, transforming the hard rock-like clay into a liquid state.
Romerike, was once submerged under the sea. When the ice retreated 10,000 years ago, rivers of melting ice transported mud and clay, depositing them on the seabed. As the land rose, fresh water dug out the marine clay, creating deep ravines that carried the water from rainfall and snowmelt.
Oslo's housing development is being pushed out in three directions (black). Especially towards Romerike, northeast of Oslo, home to Norway's main airport. These areas have been below sea level and a lot of quick clay has been mapped here.
The geological phenomenon of quick clay has no name in French. I invented the word “argile coulante" because of its associations with "sable coulant", "quicksand".
The airport was completed in 1998. The improvement of the existing railroads have made sites alons the railroad attractive for housing developers.
Some of these housing projects are built on quick clay. Tall buildings need strong foundations, especially when ground stability is weak. Concerete is used to reinforce the ground while ravines are leveled to increase the stability. Yet, these are short-term solutions based on static data and does not take into account climatic variations and changes in clay composition
Newspaper article from 1995, when the airport was under construction. Norway’s largest groundwater reservoir is stored in the gravel deposits left behind when the inland ice melted, located at Gardermoen.
Oslo Airport is located on Norway's largest groundwater reservoir. Most of the water from this reservoir flows into the rivers Sogna and Vikkja. Airport activity thus controls the amount of water released onto the rest of the plain.
Exhibition flyer “the cry of the ravine”
Workshop at NITJA © Anne Marte Aure
Exhibition and critical dialogue platform at Nitja center for contemporary art in Lillestrøm.
Many hundred thousand people live in a risk zone in Romerike today, some of them showed up