Mystery tremors were from massive nine-day tsunami
A massive landslide in a Greenland fjord triggered a wave that “shook the Earth” for nine days.
The seismic signal last September was picked up by sensors all over the world, leading scientists to investigate where it had come from.
The landslide - a mountainside of rock that collapsed and carried glacial ice with it - triggered a 200m wave.
That wave was then “trapped” in the narrow fjord - moving back and forth for nine days, generating the vibrations...
“It kept appearing - every 90 seconds for nine days.”
“This landslide happened about 200km inland from the open ocean,” Dr Hicks explained. “And these fjord systems are really complex, so the wave couldn't dissipate its energy.”
The team created a model that showed how, instead of dissipating, it sloshed back and forth for nine days...
A massive landslide in a Greenland fjord triggered a wave that “shook the Earth” for nine days.
The seismic signal last September was picked up by sensors all over the world, leading scientists to investigate where it had come from.
The landslide - a mountainside of rock that collapsed and carried glacial ice with it - triggered a 200m wave.
That wave was then “trapped” in the narrow fjord - moving back and forth for nine days, generating the vibrations...
“It kept appearing - every 90 seconds for nine days.”
“This landslide happened about 200km inland from the open ocean,” Dr Hicks explained. “And these fjord systems are really complex, so the wave couldn't dissipate its energy.”
The team created a model that showed how, instead of dissipating, it sloshed back and forth for nine days...
The surviving witnesses were on a fishing boat in the bay that was washed over the tops of the pine trees on the spit at the entrance to the bay and out to sea. Lituya Bay's geology insures that it has the potential to do this again. 
