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Mysterious seismic event that shook the earth for 9 days was triggered by a 650-foot tsunami in Greenland, researchers say
A tsunami stemming from a landslide in a Greenland fjord, caused by melting ice, was behind a surprising seismic event last year that shook the earth for nine days, a researcher told AFP on Friday.
According to a report recently published in the scientific journal Science, tremors that were registered in September 2023 originated from the massive wave rocking back and forth in the Dickson fjord in Greenland’s remote east.
“The completely unique thing about this event is how long the seismic signal lasted and how constant the frequency was,” one of the authors of the report, Kristian Svennevig, from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland, told AFP.
“Other landslides and tsunamis have produced seismic signals but only for a couple of hours and very locally. This one was observed globally all the way to the Antarctic,” he said.
The phenomenon initially surprised the scientific community, which began by defining it as an “unidentified seismic object” before determining that the source was the landslide.
In September 2023, 882 million cubic feet of rock and ice — a volume equivalent to 25 Empire State Buildings — fell into the fjord in the remote and uninhabited area, about 124 miles from the ocean.
The landslide triggered a 650-foot-high mega-tsunami at its epicenter.
Over 40 miles away, tsunami waves over a dozen feet high damaged a research base on the island of Ella.
“When colleagues first spotted this signal last year, it looked nothing like an earthquake,” Stephen Hicks, a scientist who has a doctorate in earth sciences and was involved in the report, told BBC News. “It kept appearing — every 90 seconds for nine days.”
A group of scientists started to discuss the strange signal on an online chat platform, according to BBC News.
The team created a model that showed how the wave sloshed back and forth for nine days.
“We’ve never seen such a large scale movement of water over such a long period,” Hicks told BBC News.
The collapse was caused by the thinning of the glacier at the base of the mountain, a process accelerated by climate change, according to the report.
“With the Arctic continuing to warm we may expect the frequency and magnitude of such events to increase in the future,” Svennevig said.
“We have no experience with dealing with an Arctic as warm as we observe now,” he added.
He stressed the need for early warning systems to be put in place, but noted that it was a challenge in such extreme environments.
NEW YORK — Former New York Gov. David Paterson and his stepson were attacked in New York City on Friday night, authorities said.
The incident occurred just before 9 p.m. on Second Avenue near East 96th Street on the Upper East Side, according to the New York City Police Department.
Police said officers were sent to the scene after an assault was reported. When officers arrived, police say they found a 20-year-old man suffering from facial injuries and a 70-year-old man who had head pain. Both victims were taken to a local hospital in stable condition.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the former governor said the two were attacked while “taking a walk around the block near their home by some individuals that had a previous interaction with his stepson.”
The spokesperson said that they were injured “but were able to fight off their attackers.”
Both were taken to Cornell Hospital “as a precaution,” he added.
Police said no arrests have been made and the investigation is ongoing.
The 70-year-old Paterson, a Democrat, served as governor from 2008 to 2010, stepping into the post after the resignation of Eliot Spitzer following his prostitution scandal. He made history at the time as the state’s first-ever Black and legally blind governor.
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A 17-year-old boy was critically injured and a person is in custody after a gunman opened fire on a SEPTA bus in North Philadelphia Friday evening, police said.
At around 6:15 p.m., Philadelphia police were notified about a shooting on a SEPTA bus traveling on Allegheny Avenue near 3rd and 4th streets in North Philadelphia, Inspector D F Pace told CBS News Philadelphia.
There were an estimated 30 people on the bus at the time of the shooting, Pace said, but only the 17-year-old boy was believed to have been shot. Investigators said they believe it was a targeted attack on the teenager and that he was shot in the back of the bus at close range.
According to Pace, the SEPTA bus driver alerted a control center about the shooting, which then relayed the message to Philadelphia police, who responded to the scene shortly.
Officers arrived at the scene and found at least one spent shell casing and blood on the bus, but no shooting victim, Pace said. Investigators later discovered the 17-year-old had been taken to Temple University Hospital where he is said to be in critical condition, according to police.
CBS Philadelphia
Through their preliminary investigation, police learned those involved in the SEPTA shooting may have fled in a silver-colored Kia.
Authorities then found a car matching the description of the Kia speeding in the area and a pursuit began, Pace said. Police got help from a PPD helicopter as they followed the Kia, which ended up crashing at 5th and Greenwood streets in East Mount Airy. Pace said the Kia crashed into a parked car.
The driver of the crashed car ran away but police were still able to take them into custody, Pace said.
Investigators believe there was a second person involved in the shooting who ran from the car before it crashed. Police said they believe this person escaped near Allegheny Avenue and 4th Street, leaving a coat behind.
According to Pace, police also found a gun and a group of spent shell casings believed to be involved in the shooting in the same area.
“It’s very possible that there may have been a shooting inside the bus and also shots fired from outside of the bus toward the bus,” Pace said, “We’re still trying to piece all that together at this time.”
This is an active investigation and police are reviewing surveillance footage from the SEPTA bus.