For nine days in September 2023, the world was rocked by mysterious seismic waves that were detected globally every 90 seconds. Earth trembled again the following month with an identical global signal, though it was shorter and less intense. Baffled by the anomalies, researchers dubbed it an “Unidentified Seismic Object.”
Scientists have now confirmed that this literally Earth-shaking event was caused by two mega-tsunamis in Dickson Fjord, a narrow inlet in East Greenland, which were triggered by the effects of human-driven climate change according to a study published on Tuesday in Nature Communications.
Previous research had suggested a link between the strange signals and massive landslides that occurred in the fjord on September 16 and October 11, 2023, but the new study is the first to directly spot the elusive standing waves, called “seiches,” that essentially rang the planet like a giant bell.