A World Renowned Geoheritage from the Snowball Earth—The Bigganjarga Tillite (Northern Norway)

The Bigganjarga Tillite on the Varanger Peninsula, northern Norway, was described by Hans H. Reusch in 1891 as one of the first evidence of a glaciation older than the Late Quaternary “real ice-age” in Europe. Since the late 1800s, considerable geoscientific research covering lithostratigraphy, sedimentology, paleontology and geochronology have been carried out in the Neoproterozoic and Early Paleozoic successions of East- Finnmark, and the Bigganjarga tillite (also referred to as the Reusch Moraine) is now recognized as a diamictite that correlates with global Marinoan glaciation in Cryogenian time. The Bigganjarga Tillite belongs to the Smalfjord Formation and marks the base of the Vestertana Group which rests on quartzite of the Veidnesbotn Formation with a significant unconformity. The site at Oaibáhčannjárga where Bigganjarga Tillite was first discovered became protected in 1967 and is today an international recognized Geoheritage from the Snowball Earth. New research studies are in progress at the site and the Bigganjarga Tillite is a prime example of how Geological Heritage is selected and recognized for its historic and potential future scientific values.