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the Degree Confluence Project
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Sweden

2.0 km (1.2 miles) SSE of Kukkola, Norrbotten, Sweden
Approx. altitude: 29 m (95 ft)
([?] maps: Google MapQuest OpenStreetMap ConfluenceNavigator)
Antipode: 66°S 156°W

Accuracy: 5 m (16 ft)
Quality: good

Click on any of the images for the full-sized picture.

#2: Northern barn #3: GPS and First Day Euro currency

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  66°N 24°E (visit #2)  

#1: Southern barn

(visited by Henrik Sunden)

01-Jan-2002 -- Visiting 2 confluences the same day would be extra fun, so I tried 66N 24E after having done 66N 22E on January 1st, 2002.

First I went to Finland and used 60 Finnish marks to buy a chocolate bar. I got 8 Euro 10 cents back. This was the first day of the new currency Euro in Finland.

Went back to Sweden and Kukkolaforsen and then to a farmhouse just south of 66N at the road. No one was at home. I went on skis to the confluence. The weather was astonishingly mild, -20 C, and overcast.

It was almost dark when I arrived at the confluence point between two barns on a field at about 3:20 p.m. I managed to take 2 pictures that show the two barns, then it was too dark for the camera to focus. I took a flash shot of the GPS and the First Day Euro banknote and coins.

Actually this confluence point is NNW of Kukkola village and the famous fishing waterfalls at Kukkolaforsen. The river Torne älv is the border between Sweden and Finland and is famous for it's ice damming the river in the spring, and consequently flooding large areas of lowland.

Also on the river ice, the first determination of the distance between two northern latitudes was made in the 18th century, and together with similar determinations in France and Peru, it was found that the earth was flattened at the pole. The meter was later defined as 1/10,000,000 of the equator - pole distance. So the Torne river is one of the cornerstones of the latitude - longitude system as we know it today.

Went home in darkness and arrived at Boliden at 6:45 p.m. in falling snow and -16 C.


 All pictures
#1: Southern barn
#2: Northern barn
#3: GPS and First Day Euro currency
ALL: All pictures on one page