For over a week in 2023, the planet got the shakes and nobody knew why.
Now, geologists believe a fjord in Greenland is to blame for the odd seismological event.
You likely didnt notice the quavering, which began last year on September 16.
The aftereffects of a massive September 16, 2023 landslide on a Greenland fjord are seen in this photo, taken three days later.© Danish Army
The shaking was far too slow and subtle for humans to perceive, but the signal was there.
Experts were flummoxed as they detected the odd, subtle tremor reverberating around the world.
An impressively large team of 60 scientists from various specialties came together to solve the mystery.
The waves were powerful enough to reverberate through the Earths crust and trigger the seismic instruments.
All we knew was that it was somehow associated with the landslide.
We only managed to solve this enigma through a huge interdisciplinary and international effort.
The scientists figured out the seiche was to blame by analyzing satellite images and photos of the landslide area.
A 2019studyfound Arctic landslides have increased 60-fold between 1984 and 2015, driven by the melting of ground ice.
This article was updated to include the height of the tsunami.
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