Fri Sep 13 00:56:00 UTC 2024: ## Greenland Landslide Triggers Nine-Day Seismic Event, Raising Climate Change Concerns

**Copenhagen, Denmark** – A massive landslide in a Greenland fjord, triggered by melting ice, caused a nine-day long seismic event last September, researchers have revealed. The event, unprecedented in its duration and global reach, has sparked concerns about the increasing impact of climate change in the Arctic.

The landslide, occurring in the remote and uninhabited Dickson fjord, sent 25 million cubic meters of rock and ice crashing into the water, generating a 200-meter-high tsunami. This mega-tsunami, rocking back and forth in the fjord, created seismic waves that were registered worldwide, reaching as far as the Antarctic.

“The completely unique thing about this event is how long the seismic signal lasted and how constant the frequency was,” explained Kristian Svennevig, a researcher at the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) and co-author of a recent study published in the journal Science.

While landslides and tsunamis have previously produced seismic signals, these have typically lasted only a couple of hours and been localized. The sustained global impact of this event shocked the scientific community, who initially labeled it an “unidentified seismic object” before pinpointing the landslide as the source.

The landslide, which occurred 200 kilometers from the ocean, also caused significant damage 70 kilometers away, with four-meter-high waves damaging a research base on Ella Island. The researchers attribute the collapse to glacier thinning at the base of the mountain, a phenomenon accelerated by climate change.

Svennevig warns that as the Arctic continues to warm, similar events are likely to become more frequent and intense. “We have no experience with dealing with an Arctic as warm as we observe now,” he said, emphasizing the urgent need for early warning systems in these extreme environments.

The discovery highlights the growing threat posed by climate change in the Arctic, with potentially devastating consequences for infrastructure, communities, and the environment. It also underscores the importance of ongoing research and proactive measures to mitigate future risks.

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