Mega-Tsunamis: 9-Day Waves Revealed by Satellite Images
- A year-long scientific inquiry has revealed the source of unusual seismic activity that rattled the globe for nine days in September and October 2023: mega-tsunamis in Greenland.
- The Earth experienced minor tremors every 90 seconds during those events, baffling scientists who ruled out typical tectonic activity.
- thomas Monahan, a Schmidt AI in Science fellow at the University of Oxford, and his team sought to confirm this hypothesis.
Scientists have pinpointed teh cause of the unsettling nine-day global tremors of 2023: mega-tsunamis triggered by Greenland’s glacier collapse. Satellite data meticulously connects massive landslides in Dickson Fjord too thes unusual seismic events. This groundbreaking research, published in Nature Communications, reveals how climate change accelerates glacier instability, generating colossal waves and minor tremors around the world.The data, gathered by NASA’s SWOT satellite, provided critical insight into the wave dynamics. By linking satellite snapshots with seismic data, researchers confirmed the definitive connection, excluding weather and tidal conditions. Want to learn more about these mega-tsunamis? news Directory 3 has the latest updates. Discover how this research underscores the global impact of climate change and what’s next for predicting and preparing for these events.
Greenland Mega-Tsunamis Caused Global Seismic Activity
Updated June 3, 2025
A year-long scientific inquiry has revealed the source of unusual seismic activity that rattled the globe for nine days in September and October 2023: mega-tsunamis in Greenland. Researchers, using satellite data, definitively linked massive landslides in Dickson Fjord too the strange tremors.
The Earth experienced minor tremors every 90 seconds during those events, baffling scientists who ruled out typical tectonic activity. Two studies in 2024 suggested that enormous standing waves, or seiches, generated by landslides in East Greenland, were the cause. These waves sloshed within the fjord, triggering small movements in the earth’s crust.
thomas Monahan, a Schmidt AI in Science fellow at the University of Oxford, and his team sought to confirm this hypothesis. Their findings,published in Nature Communications,present the first direct satellite observations of these seiches,establishing a definitive link to the seismic anomalies. The study highlights the impact of climate change and the importance of understanding remote regions.
NASA’s Surface Water Ocean Topography (SWOT) satellite, launched in December 2022, provided crucial data. SWOT maps water height across 90% of the Earth’s surface using satellite altimetry, transmitting radar pulses and measuring their return time. Unlike conventional altimeters, SWOT’s advanced instrument captures high-resolution measurements of surface water levels, even in complex fjord terrains.
“What we’re able to get is essentially an incredibly high-resolution snapshot of what the elevation of the sea surface is doing in these complex regions,” Monahan said.
By linking SWOT snapshots with seismic data from stations thousands of miles away, the researchers reconstructed the wave characteristics, even during periods without satellite observation. They also excluded weather and tidal conditions as potential causes,solidifying the connection between the seiches and the global tremors. The research underscores the importance of monitoring remote regions to understand the global impact of climate change and seismic events.
Monahan explained that the waves originated from a warming glacier collapse.”This created very large landslides, which—when they struck the fjord—produced massive mega-tsunamis on the order of 200 meters or 600 feet tall,” he said.
Monahan added, “This was the first time that a mega-tsunami of that nature had occurred in Eastern Greenland,” noting similar events on Greenland’s west coast. the phenomenon spreading to other parts of the ice sheet “is concerning,” he said, indicating accelerating climate change in the region. The study highlights the global impact of climate change and the importance of monitoring remote regions for seismic activity and potential mega-tsunamis.
“I think what this study really emphasizes is that—well, it sounds silly to say—but climate change is a global phenomenon,” Monahan said.
what’s next
Further research will focus on predicting future mega-tsunami events and assessing their potential global impact,emphasizing the need for continuous monitoring of vulnerable Arctic regions.