A mysterious event that sent shockwaves through Earth for nine consecutive days in September 2023 may finally be understood by science.
An enormous mountain collapse inside East Greenland’s Dickson Fjord created a “mega-tsunami” powerful enough to keep sloshing around, sending seismic waves around the planet for nine days straight, starting Sept. 16, 2023, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. The tsunami was estimated to be roughly 650 feet high, initially baffling scientists the world over.
“When we set out on this scientific adventure, everybody was puzzled and no one had the faintest idea what caused this signal,” lead author and Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland geologist Kristian Svennevig told EurekAlert in a statement. “All we knew was that it was somehow associated with the landslide. We only managed to solve this enigma through a huge interdisciplinary and international effort.”
Belgian researchers – among others @BooneWieter and Roeland Develter – witness spectacular climate-driven landslide and tsunami that shakes earth for nine days – published in Science. https://t.co/YoibqrmVg3@VLIZnews @ULBruxelles @ORB_KSB#marinerobotics #marinerobotics… pic.twitter.com/ADI8NT5PoT
— Flanders Marine Institute – VLIZ (@VLIZnews) September 13, 2024
“It was a big challenge to do an accurate computer simulation of such a long-lasting, sloshing tsunami,” coauthor and UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography seismologist Alice Gabriel added to EurekAlert. (RELATED: American Homes, Infrastructure And People Are Totally Unprepared For ‘The Big One,’ Expert Says)
Thankfully no one was harmed by the massive series of natural disasters, but apparently a $200,000 research station on Ella Island was destroyed. The researchers blamed climate change for the destruction, before one of the other coauthors, Carl Ebeling, also of UC San Diego, noted that “there is stuff out there that we still don’t understand and haven’t seen before.”
The team hopes to inspire others to try and find seismic records of similar events, which can help everyone better understand the complex nature of our ever-changing physical world.