Almost a billion years ago, the area of Magma Geopark was about 20 kilometers below the surface of the Earth. Hot magma at depth started to solidify and separate into a variety of rock types, some of which are layered. Storeknuten is a locality where you can see some of this layering in the largest layered intrusion in Western Europe.
The path to Storeknuten passes well-developed layering in rocks belonging to the Bjerkreim-Sokndal layered intrusion. Each of the layers represents the crystallization front which was located on the floor of the magma chamber 926 million years ago. While it was solidifying, pieces of the roof of the magma chamber fell off and sank to the floor where they became engulfed by the advancing crystallization front. These blocks of rock that have been “buried” in other rocks are called inclusions.