Germany's the North Frisian Islands are a chain of low-lying barrier islands on the edge of the North Sea. Denmark's Fano, Mando and Romo islands are also part of the overall group. Further to the southwest these islands are named the East Frisian Islands.
North Frisian Barrier Island is the collective term for three drying shoals due west of the German Halligen in the North Frisian Islands archipelago. The shoals act as natural breakwater for the Halligen and other islands further east. Unpopulated, they remain one of the few areas in the Wadden Sea that are unaffected by direct human interference.
Over many centuries violent North Sea weather (storm tides) and the resulting flooding and land erosion produced this chain of islands. The power of water movement literally washed away, or covered existing land, and then separated what remained from the mainland by the shallow waters of the Wadden Sea.
From the Largeness south to Pell worm Island and the Nordstrand Peninsula, (all) are the remains of the much larger Island of Strand. It was literally (torn apart) into many smaller pieces by a great storm of tidal surges. Renamed the Halligen Islands, hundreds of the original pieces of Strand remains submerged.
Sylt, the most visited of the North Frisian Islands, is connected to the mainland by a long (drivable) embankment. In addition, an airport serves the area. Tours are easily arranged, and all of the North Frisian Islands are well served by regular ferry service.
Tourists and locals alike enjoy health spas, quiet walks along the sandy beaches, cycling, mudflats and sandbar tours and watersports of all description. The entire Frisian Island group has a rich ecosystem and attracts many species of birds and fish.
Eruption
The shoals are subject to constant change and are slowly moving towards the mainland coast to the east. This changes both their location and surface area. During the last 50 years, all three shoals benefitted from their increasing area but their individual development was very diverse. In total, 43.5 million m3 of sand were eroded by wind and water on the west coasts of the shoals, whereas 32.4 million m3 were deposited at the eastern shorelines. Especially Japsand, which is the youngest and smallest of the three shoals, could thereby gain volume and was the fastest moving shoal. Numerical simulations by the University of Kiel have shown the likelihood of a merger between Japsand and Norderoogsand until 2050. This would cover Haling Norderoog in sand, as well as large areas of mudflats which are still east of the sands as of today.
The peak heights of the shoals reach about one metre above the average high tide. In summer, the dry sand is sometimes piled to dunes of several metres height. These are occasionally settled by Elymus grasses. Since 1999 though, increasingly stable and diverse vegetation has been observed at the northern edge of Norderoogsand. The plant carpet helps to accumulate ever more sand, and so the peak dune of Norderoogsand was recorded with 3.50 metres in 2013. Because of this development, Norderoogsand has been called a new island.
The Frisian Islands,
The Frisian Islands are the low-lying chain of islands from 3 to 20 miles (5 to 32 km) off the northern European mainland. They extend in an arc from near the port of Den Helder (northern Netherlands), eastward along the Dutch and German coasts as far as the Elbe River, and then turn sharply north along the coast of Schleswig-Holstein (Germany) and the southern part of the Jutland Peninsula coast (Denmark). Although they form a single physical feature, it is customary to subdivide them into the West, East, and the North Frisian Islands.
