The Guardian: Entire Earth vibrated for nine days after climate-triggered mega-tsunami [View all]
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/sep/12/entire-earth-vibrated-climate-triggered-mega-tsunamiEntire Earth vibrated for nine days after climate-triggered mega-tsunami
Landslide in Greenland caused unprecedented seismic event that shows impact of global heating, say scientists
Damian Carrington Environment editor
Thu 12 Sep 2024 14.00 EDT
A landslide and mega-tsunami in
Greenland in September 2023, triggered by the climate crisis, caused the entire Earth to vibrate for nine days, a scientific investigation has found.
The seismic event was detected by earthquake sensors around the world but was so completely unprecedented that the researchers initially had no idea what had caused it. Having now solved the mystery, the scientists said it showed how global heating was already having planetary-scale impacts and that major landslides were possible in places previously believed to be stable as temperatures rapidly rose.
The collapse of a 1,200-metre-high mountain peak into the remote Dickson fjord happened on 16 September 2023 after the melting glacier below was no longer able to hold up the rock face. It triggered an initial wave 200 metres high and the subsequent sloshing of water back and forth in the twisty fjord sent seismic waves through the planet for more than a week.
The landslide and mega-tsunami were the first recorded in eastern Greenland. Arctic regions are being affected by the most rapid global heating, and similar though seismically smaller events have been seen in
western Greenland, Alaska, Canada, Norway and Chile.