Greenland Tsunami: 4 People Feared Dead

AZ_Dawn · Jun 19, 2017

Tsunami Hits Greenland; At Least 4 Feared Dead

CBC News said:
Four people are feared dead after tsunami waves struck the coast of Greenland on Saturday night.

A 4.1-magnitude earthquake, which struck 28 kilometres north of the northwest village of Nuugaatsiaq, is believed to have partially triggered the tsunami, according to a report from Kalaallit Nunaata Radioa, the national broadcaster in Greenland.

It's suspected that earthquake may have caused an underwater landslide which in turn caused the tsunami.

The CBC article is short and to the point. The Nunatsiaq Online has a more detailed account and a video of the tsunami, if you want it.

Nunatsiaq Online said:
The toll of this past weekend’s tsunami in northwest Greenland might seem small when compared to the 2004 tsunami in Asia where more than 200,000 died but for people in Greenland, with its large landmass and relatively small population, the pain and response to this unexpected natural disaster and shared loss has been huge...

As they said and the video shows, it's not the largest tsunami, but anything that can wash 11 houses out to sea is nothing to be sneezed at.

Brightdreamer · Jun 19, 2017

Wow - that's terrible.

I'm so used to hearing about them in the Pacific ocean that it seems startling to realize that, yes, they can hit anywhere. All it takes is plate tectonics working against you...

AZ_Dawn · Aug 6, 2017

More information on the Greenland tsunami from Georgia Tech. Turns out there was no earthquake; a landslide falling into the Karrat fjord caused the tsunami and set off the seismometers. Also, the tsunami was actually a 90m megatsunami. Fortunately for the survivors, it dissipated fast.

blacbird · Aug 6, 2017

A similar event happened some decades ago in a fiord in southeast Alaska. A landslide into a constricted inlet produced what is regarded as the highest wave ever recorded on earth (~500 meters!). It was in Lituya Bay, a place regarded as evil and cursed by native peoples, probalby with good historical reason. There were three or four fatalities there, as I recall.

But these kinds of rare landslide events aren't really tsunamis, in the classical sense of that Japanese word.

caw

Greenland Tsunami: 4 People Feared Dead

AZ_Dawn

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