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A 650-foot mega-tsunami that shook Greenland's eastern seashore has stunned scientists and triggered a global scientific investigation, with seismic pulses reverberating across the planet for over nine days. The rare event, caused by a catastrophic landslide in the remote Dickson Fjord, has now been linked directly to climate change-induced glacier melt.

On Sept. 16, 2023, over 25 million cubic meters of ice and rock, about 10,000 Olympic-size swimming pools, sheared off a 1.2-kilometer-tall mountain and crashed into the narrow fjord at over 160 km/h (100 mph). The massive impact launched a wave towering 200 meters (656 feet) into the air. In contrast to usual tsunamis, the narrow walls of Dickson Fjord made the water bounce back and forth repeatedly, producing a seiche, a repetitive sloshing pattern of motion that produced vibrations picked up by seismic stations globally, from Alaska to Australia. Seismic data recorded a strange, slow rhythmic beat, a constant beat every 92 seconds that persisted for more than nine entire days. "No normal earthquake acts this way," stated Scripps Institution of Oceanography geophysicist Carl Ebeling. Originally referred to as an "unidentified seismic object", the enigmatic signature was eventually linked to Greenland's Dickson Fjord when new satellite imagery showed a newly collapsed mountain section.

In the opinion of geologists, rising temperatures are destabilizing Greenland's mountainous landscape. The melting of glaciers, which once acted as natural supports, has made slopes increasingly prone to collapse. "This was not merely a landslide; it was a climate event," Professor Alice Gabriel of UC San Diego explained. “The loss of glacier ice undermined the mountain’s base, triggering a chain reaction,” he added. Earlier, such collapses generated fatal tsunamis in Greenland's Karrat Fjord in 2017 and claimed the lives of four people, with the destruction of 11 houses.

High-tech Satellites Unveil The Whole Picture

The discovery came with findings from the SWOT satellite mission. In contrast to previous satellites, SWOT measured a 30-mile-wide band of water at 8-foot resolution, showing how the water surface of the fjord rose and fell in rhythmic pulses, reaching heights of up to 30 feet, many hours after the first wave. "These detailed maps are revolutionizing the way we perceive oceanic extremes," said Oxford University's Professor Thomas Adcock. "We can now monitor rogue waves and storm surges with greater clarity," he added. Though the region around Dickson Fjord is thinly populated, the tsunami wrecked archaeological sites, destroyed an unmanned research station on Ella Island, and resulted in over 200,000 USD worth of equipment losses. The incident has increased demands for early-warning systems in Arctic and fjord areas, particularly as tourism and cruise routes keep growing in vulnerable northern environments.

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Over 70 researchers from 41 institutions collaborated to examine the Greenland mega-tsunami. They used seismic data, computer simulations, and satellite imagery to rebuild the collapse and its consequences. “This was science at its best, a mystery solved through international cooperation,” said Dr. Kristian Svennevig from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland. The incident has sparked interest in mining global seismic archives for other “slow-pulse” events.

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Researchers emphasize that even in the age of satellites, the Earth still holds surprises and threats in its most remote corners. "Climate change is increasing these formerly unusual disasters to occur more frequently. Our capacity for monitoring, modeling, and warning people has to keep up with risks, " said Oxford's Thomas Monahan.