After more than 9 days of global shaking, 2 mysterious earthquakes once caused scientists to panic that they originated from... super sunny places hiding in the Greenland ice - up to 200m high, so strong that they could move the Earth's crust.
In September 2023, seismic measuring devices around the world recorded a strange phenomenon: The Earth shook slightly every 90 seconds, continuously for 9 days. A month later, the same thing happened. No major earthquakes were recorded, no weapons testing, no meteorological collisions, only miraculous shaking that confused scientists.
Nearly a year later, that mystery finally had a solution. And the answer... shocked the world: The super typhoon (also known as seiche) was triggered by a giant ice landslide in the narrow bay of Dickson Fjord, east of Greenland with waves as high as a 60-storey building.
Two studies published in 2024 first hypothesized that the landslide itself led to the formation of super tsunami inside the Greenland narrow bay. The wave does not overflow into the ocean, but is "detained" in the bay - fluctuating back and forth hundreds of times, creating a force of impact that slightly deflected the earth's crust. That is the cause of global shock lasting for many days.
However, the initial data was not convincing enough, until Dr. Thomas Monahan's team (University of Oxford) used NASA's water surface and ocean terrain observation satellite (SWOT). This is the first time in history that humans have taken direct photos of sunflowers "stuck" in the ice bay.
We found a clear abnormality at the time of the impact. The surge in wave height is an undeniable sign that an extreme phenomenon has occurred in the narrow bay, Monahan asserted.
The SWOT satellite ( Surface Water Ocean Topography), launched at the end of 2022, is capable of measuring water surface altitude with extremely high accuracy, to the point of detecting the smallest fluctuations in complex terrain areas such as the ice Bay.
Combining satellite images with seismic data from thousands of kilometers away, the team completely recreated the characteristics of giant waves, while eliminating any other causes such as high tides or weather. All are drawn into one event: two landslides that caused a huge Tsunami.
This is the first time such a super typhoon has occurred in eastern Greenland. Before, we had only recorded it in the west. This is extremely worrying because it shows that the ice is melting rapidly and causing widespread instability, Monahan said.
It sounds funny, but whats happening in Greenland can directly affect our lives. Climate change is a global phenomenon, and remote places like the Arctic are changing the fastest, Monahan warned.
