In the previous year, a bizarre seismic signal which was detected in September, sounded more like a slow motion natural shudder which lasted for another three days instead of undergoing an earthquake. This oddity made the scientist s curious as to what could be its cause.
First, some scientists assumed that this is an ‘unidentified seismic object’ because this wasn’t classified as an earthquake. This, as BBC reported, is according to Dr Stephen Hicks, a member of the team involved, UCL.
Also, it is noteworthy that Hicks stated that the signal lasted for every 90 seconds for a whole nine days and this made the scientists become more curious and in search of the actual reason for the phenomenon.
The researchers used the seismic data to identify the source of the signal to be Dickson Fjord, East Greenland. They also collected other evidence, such as satellite pictures and field photographs of the fjord taken by the Danish Navy shortly before the signal occurred.
What has been captured in the satellite image was a plumes of dust from along the Fjord Gully that had been disturbed. When however feature matching photographs taken later than this revealed water having been released. This was due to the collapse of a mountain and the resultant falling off of a block of the glacier into the water.
The scientists after requisite analysis, estimated that 25 million cubic meters of rock had plunged into the water further igniting a great landslide in the Green land fjord. This landslip created a 200 meter high ‘mega tsunami’ which ‘shook the Earth’ for a period of 9 days.
The wave was ‘confined’ in the constricted fjord and bent itself in circle for a duration of 9 days and causing the shakes.
Generally, tsunamis occasionally brought about by an under-sea earthquakes, do not last long in the deep waters of the oceans. Nevertheless, this wave escaped and the BBC stated that this wave remained ‘captive.’
“About 200 kilometers from the open ocean, this landslide took place,” Dr. Hicks noted. “Because these fjord systems are quite complicated, so the wave was unable to lose its energy.”
The researchers see the cause of the landslide in warming temperatures that have led to the receding of the glacier situated at the bottom of the mountain in Greenland.
The research concluded that “Climate change causes feedback processes between the cryosphere and the hydrosphere and mass wasting phenomena, and such signals as the one described by the authors may be useful in comprehension of such phenomena.”
