Name: The mega-tsunami that shook Earth for nine days
Uploaded: 2024-09-15T01:30:27.170Z
Duration: 2 min 11 s
Description: Scientists say they figured out what caused a massive nine-day vibration that offers new warnings about human-linked climate change. CNN Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir explains.

Scientists say they figured out what caused a massive nine-day vibration that offers new warnings about human-linked climate change. CNN Chief Climate Correspondent Bill Weir explains.

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Extreme weather events are occurring more frequently amid rising sea-levels and increasing temperatures.

Climate Crisis

Greenland's Dixon Ford has been identified as the site of a massive landslide that led to the formation of a mega-tsunami, shaking the planet for nine days. Researchers collected time-lapse data capturing the events inspiring a year-long investigation involving dozens of scientists. The subsequent findings present new warnings about human-linked climate change.

The mega-tsunami originated from the melting glaciers on Greenland's east side, culminating in a mountain section collapsing into the ocean, displacing enough rock and earth to fill 10,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The seismic wave that followed was detected in Antarctica about an hour later, with a continuous, unfamiliar hum perplexing scientists.

This hum was traced back to a 650-feet tall tsunami wave that remained confined in a fjord, oscillating every 90 seconds for nine days. Typically, tsunamis have the power to cross entire oceans, but the constricted environment of the fjord caused a prolonged effect known as a seiche.

It took around 70 scientists from over a dozen countries analyzing various records to piece together what had happened. This event has highlighted previously unknown seismic activities and offers a real-time example of the Earth reacting to imbalances, with particular emphasis on the impacts of climate change.



The mega-tsunami that shook Earth for nine days

Greenland's Dixon Ford triggered a massive landslide, which spawned a mega-tsunami that shook the planet for nine whole days. This time-lapse captured the triggering events, but its aftermath has taken dozens of scientists a year to work it out. The conclusions offer fresh warnings about human-linked climate change. CNN's Bill Weir joins us now with more. Bill, great to have you with us, as always. I'm telling you, this is an ominous term, calling these events a cascading hazard, anthropogenic issues, again, behind nine days of global shaking. Tell us how this happened. Yeah, cascading hazard. That's a new one for our vocabulary, these scary days. It's really fascinating, the science behind this, Eleni, solving this mystery. It started with drip by drip, glaciers melting up in Greenland on the east side there until last September. A side of the mountain gave way and put enough rock and earth into the ocean to fill 10,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The seismic wave was recorded in Antarctica on the South Pole about an hour later. Then there was this strange hum that earth scientists were hearing. They'd never heard anything like this before. Usually, you hear it after an earthquake. There are pops and whistles as the earth settles, but this was like a steady drone. They went back to the source of that and realized that tsunami wave, 650 feet tall, imagine a wave the size of a 60-story building, it couldn't escape the fjord. Normally, these tsunamis have enough ocean power to cross entire oceans, but this was stuck in the tight, narrow, these winding inlets there and bounced back and forth every 90 seconds for nine days. It took something like 70 scientists from over a dozen countries looking at all kinds of different records to figure this out, but it's one of these light bulb moments where these earth scientists say, we didn't know this was possible. We didn't know what is called a seiche, a sloshing back and forth in an enclosed area could last for nine whole days. We are learning in real time what earth out of balance looks like and things that have never happened in our lifetimes.

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