In a recent paper published in Communications Earth & Environment<\/a>, geologist Marie Keiding and colleagues from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland and the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute analyzed two newly identified unstable slopes in the Uummannaq Fjord system.<\/p>\n A large slope in Karrat Fjord, just 3 kilometers (1.9 miles) west of the 2017 avalanche, spans 2.65 million square meters above sea level.<\/p>\n The researchers estimate there’s about 400 million cubic meters of material in that slope, waiting to fall. This makes it one of the world’s largest mapped active unstable slopes.<\/p>\n Then, there’s a smaller “yet more imminent” slope in Kangerluarsuk Fjord. A landslide from this slope would displace around 30 million cubic meters of mountain, according to Keiding and the team’s estimates.<\/p>\n It’s this slope that seems to pose the most immediate threat. <\/p>\n Prior to 2015, it was barely visible, but since then it has developed very rapidly, perhaps even accelerating. <\/p>\n “It is likely to fail in whole or in parts within the next few years or decades as a translational rockslide, although the timing of this remains very uncertain,” the team writes<\/a>.<\/p>\n If this slope falls, it could generate a run-up of 3 to 7 meters at the settlement of Ukkusissat<\/a>, about 25 kilometers away, which would arrive just 6 minutes after the initial landslide.<\/p>\n Based on how the 2017 tsunami went down, it’s clear that the waves generated by a landslide at Kangerluarsuk Fjord would pose a serious threat to nearby communities.<\/p>\n But if the entire Karrat Fjord unstable slope were to fail, tsunamis as tall as telephone poles could ricochet across the entire Uummannaq Fjord system. <\/p>\n “While the deep-seated deformation of the Karrat unstable slope appears to be long-term and relatively slow, a collapse of the entire unstable slope cannot be excluded,” the researchers write<\/a>.<\/p>\n “Such a failure could generate a tsunami with run-up exceeding 10 meters more than 100 kilometers away, demonstrating the far-reaching impact of such an event.”<\/p>\n Landslides are a normal process in fjords, but scientists think climate change may be playing a part in the growing risk of such catastrophic landslide activity in Arctic areas by melting the permafrost.<\/p>\n “These slopes and the tsunamis they may cause illustrate an emerging The research has been published in Communications Earth & Environment<\/a>.<\/p>\n This article was fact-checked by Rebecca Dyer<\/a> and edited by Rebecca Dyer<\/a>. While we pride ourselves on our process, we are only human. If you spot a mistake, please let us know<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A catastrophic landslide in Greenland led to a deadly tsunami, and based on the shape of two other…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[85,46,371,141],"class_list":["post-672603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-msft-content","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"YouTube](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/1794324369_387_0.jpg\")
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\nA video of the 2017 tsunami in Nuugaatsiaq.<\/p>\n
hazard in Arctic and high-mountain areas, where progressive permafrost
degradation associated with global warming will increase the frequency and
magnitude of such events,” Keiding and team conclude<\/a>.<\/p>\n