Foreign News
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.
Landslides like this, scientists say, are happening more frequently with climate change – as the glaciers that support Greenland’s mountains melt.
The results of the investigation into this event, which are published in the journal Science are the result of a detective mission involving an international team of scientists and the Danish Navy.
“When colleagues first spotted this signal last year, it looked nothing like an earthquake. We called it an ‘unidentified seismic object’,” recalled Dr Stephen Hicks from UCL, one of the scientists involved.
“It kept appearing – every 90 seconds for nine days.”
A group of curious scientists started to discuss the baffling signal on an online chat platform.
“At the same time, colleagues from Denmark, who do a lot of fieldwork in Greenland, received reports of a tsunami that happened in a remote fjord,” explained Dr Hicks. “So then we joined forces.”
The team used the seismic data to pin down the location of the signal’s source to Dickson Fjord in East Greenland. They then gathered other clues, including satellite imagery and photographs of the fjord that were taken by the Danish Navy just before the signal appeared.
A satellite image showed a cloud of dust in a gully in the fjord. Comparing photographs before and after the event revealed that a mountain had collapsed and swept part of a glacier into the water.
The researchers eventually worked out that 25 million cubic metres of rock – a volume equivalent of 25 Empire State Buildings – slammed into the water, causing a 200m-high “mega-tsunami”.
In the “after” photographs of the location, a mark is visible on the glacier – left by the sediment that the giant wave hurled upwards.
Tsunamis, usually caused by underground earthquakes, dissipate within hours in the open ocean. But this wave was trapped.
“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 mould that showed how, instead of dissipating , it sloshed back and forth for nine days.
“We’ve never seen such a large scale movement of water over such a long period,” said Dr Hicks.
Scientists say the landslide was caused by rising temperatures in Greenland, which have melted the glacier at the base of the mountain.
“That glacier was supporting this mountain, and it got so thin that it just stopped holding it up,” said Dr Hicks. “It shows how climate change is now impacting these areas.”
While this event was in a a remote area, these fjords are visited by some Arctic cruise ships. Fortunately none were in the area where this landslide occurred. But the lead researcher, Dr Kristian Svennevig from the National Geological Surveys for Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), said this was an increasingly common phenomenon in the Arctic.
“We are witnessing a rise in giant, tsunami-causing landslides, particularly in Greenland,” he told BBC News.
“While the Dickson Fjord event alone doesn’t confirm this trend, its unprecedented scale underscores the need to carry out more research.”
The event at Dickson Fjord, Dr Hicks added, “is the perhaps first time a climate change event has impacted the crust beneath our feet all the world over.”
(BBC)
At least two people have been killed when an Air Canada Express flight from Montreal struck a ground vehicle while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, according to several United States media outlets. The airport has been closed and flights diverted.
Kathryn Garcia, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, said 32 of the 41 people who were injured had been released on Monday while nine remained in hospital with “serious injuries”. Those injured included passengers, crew members and the two officers on the fire truck. Both officers remained hospitalised with non-life-threatening injuries.
The aircraft, operated by Jazz Aviation, a regional partner of Air Canada, struck a firefighting truck on Runway 4 about 11:40pm on Sunday (03:40 GMT on Monday) as the vehicle drove to a separate incident, the Port Authority said.
A preliminary passenger list showed 76 people on board Flight AC8646, including four crew members, Jazz Aviation said in a statement.
The CRJ-900 aircraft struck the vehicle at a speed of 39 kilometres per hour (24 miles per hour), the flight tracking website Flightradar24 said.
“The airport is currently closed to facilitate the response and allow for a thorough investigation,” the Port Authority said in a statement to the AFP news agency.
Emergency response protocols were “immediately activated”, it said.
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a ground stop for all departures to LaGuardia due to the aircraft emergency with the airport closure in effect until 05:30 GMT. The probability of an extension was listed as high.
[Aljazeera]
Along Beirut’s downtown waterfront, Alaa is looking for somewhere to rest his head.
The Syrian refugee, originally from the occupied Golan Heights, is now homeless. He explained that he had already spent the day wandering around the Lebanese capital trying to find shelter.
He used to live in Dahiyeh – the southern suburbs of Beirut that have been pummelled by Israeli attacks, which have now killed MORE THAN 1,000 across Lebanon.
Now, he’s just looking for somewhere he can be safe. And in that context, Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim festival that began on Friday, is far from his mind.
When asked if he had any plans for Eid, he replied in the negative. Instead, his focus was on getting a tent.
“I got rejected from staying in a school, then I went to sleep on the corniche,” Alaa said. “Then people from the municipality told me to come here to downtown Beirut’s waterfront.”
Alaa wasn’t able to find a tent and is sleeping in the open air for now. But others in the area have, transforming a downtown more famous for its expensive restaurants and bars into a tent city for those displaced by the fighting. Across Lebanon, more than a million people have been displaced.
Lebanese are uncertain when this war will end, particularly as they have barely recovered from the conflict with Israel that ran between October 2023 and November 2024.
It makes celebrations difficult – a common theme across the countries affected by the current conflict.
In Iran, now in its third week of US-Israeli attacks – with no sign of an immediate end and an economic crisis that preceded the conflict, people are struggling to afford any of the items typically bought during the holiday season.
And it is potentially dangerous for people to shop at places like Tehran’s grand bazaar, which has been damaged by the bombing.
The religious element of Eid adds an extra sensitivity for antigovernment Iranians, some of whom now see any sign of religiosity as support for the Islamic Republic. The fact that Nowruz – the Persian New Year – falls on Friday this year means that some in the antigovernment camp will be focused on that celebration instead, and eschewing any events to mark Eid.
[Aljazeera]
King Charles has hosted a spectacular state banquet for the president and first lady of Nigeria, praising the strengths of Nigeria’s partnership with the UK.
After greeting the 160 guests in the Yoruba language, the King spoke of the “living bridge” of the Nigerian community in the UK, in a speech in St George’s Hall at Windsor Castle.
Famous figures at the banquet included England rugby union captain, Maro Itoje, Olympic athlete Christine Ohuruogu and poet Sir Ben Okri, alongside senior royals including Queen Camilla and the Prince and Princess of Wales.
There were special adaptations for Muslims, with the banquet taking place in the fasting month of Ramadan.
A prayer room was set aside in Windsor Castle and the usual lunch hosted by the King on such state visits did not take place.
It’s become a tradition to invent a cocktail for state visits – and in this case the “crimson bloom” was made from non-alcoholic ingredients, combining the Nigerian drink Zobo with English rose soda and hibiscus and ginger syrup.
There were also alcoholic drinks available for guests in St George’s Hall, including fine red and white wines, port and whisky.
The King’s speech reflected on the importance of religious tolerance, in which “people of different faiths can, do, and must live alongside one another in peace”.
He also told President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and First Lady Oluremi Tinubu of the importance of partners such as Nigeria and the UK standing together in difficult times “when rain clouds gather”.
As well as diplomatic ties, King Charles spoke of “Afrobeats filling our concert halls and Nollywood captivating our screens”.
There was also a reflection by the King on the “painful marks” of a shared history, in a reference to colonialism.
“I do not seek to offer words that dissolve the past, for no words can,” said the King, but he hoped for a more optimistic future “worthy of those who bore the pains of the past”.
The banquet, on an elaborately decorated table filled with spring flowers, saw a meat-free menu.
It included:
- Soft boiled quail egg tartlet with watercress and kale and a basil sabayon
- Fillet of turbot, lobster mousse wrapped in spinach, beurre blanc sauce, sprouting broccoli with hollandaise sauce, fricassee of peas and broad beans, Jersey Royal potatoes
- Iced blackcurrant souffle with red fruit coulis
The two-day state visit began on Wednesday morning with a ceremonial welcome at Windsor.
In warm spring sunshine, the president and first lady – wearing traditional robes – were given the ceremonial grandeur of a royal welcome.
There was a carriage procession, bringing the Nigerian visitors into the quadrangle inside Windsor Castle, where a military band, with careful symmetry, paraded on the chequerboard lawn.
There was a gun salute, national anthems were played, guards were inspected and the Household Cavalry kicked up dust as they paraded inside the castle, in front of a viewing stand for the King and Queen and their visitors.
Official gifts were exchanged. The president and Mrs Tinubu were given hand-crafted pottery, a silver photo frame containing a picture of the King and Queen and a silver and enamel bowl.
In return, the King and Queen were given a traditional Yoruba statuette and a jewellery box featuring the faces of important Nigerian women.
President Tinubu is a Muslim and his wife is a Christian and the couple attended an interfaith event at Windsor Castle, designed to build bridges between religions.
It’s at a time of tensions within Nigeria, with a series of suspected suicide bombings this week in the north-eastern state of Borno, in which at least 23 people were killed and 108 injured in attacks blamed on hard-line Islamist militants from the Boko Haram group.
This is Nigeria’s first state visit to the UK for 37 years and such visits are a way of building relationships with international partners.
The Nigeria visit will see a strengthening of business links, including financial services. And there are personal and family connections, with more than 270,000 Nigerian-born people living in the UK.
“This state visit is about turning a historic relationship into a modern economic partnership – transforming trust into opportunity,” said Nigeria’s government spokesman Mohammed Idris.
“Nigeria’s economic reforms are unlocking the potential of Africa’s largest consumer market. The United Kingdom is a natural partner in what comes next.”
Referendum defeat leaves Italy’s Meloni looking more vulnerable
Pakistan T20 cricket league to be held in empty stadiums amid oil crisis
Showers expected in the Western, Southern, Uva and Sabaragamuwa provinces and in Kandy and Nuwara-Eliya districts after 2.00 pm.
Tehran says Trump’s peace talk claims are ‘fake news’
SJB: China, India taking advantage of Lanka’s unregulated oil market
SL to redevelop Trinco tank farm expeditiously
‘Dates have the highest sugar content to fight Coronavirus’
Sunday Island 27 December – Headlines
#SundayIsland 17th December – Headlines
Sunday Island – 28th March
Sunday Island Headlines – 21 March
Sunday Island – 21st February – Headlines
-
News6 days agoCIABOC questions Ex-President GR on house for CJ’s maid
-
News5 days agoBailey Bridge inaugurated at Chilaw
-
Features1 day agoTrincomalee oil tank farm: An engineering marvel
-
News4 days agoCIABOC tells court Kapila gave Rs 60 mn to MR and Rs. 20 mn to Priyankara
-
News5 days agoPay hike demand: CEB workers climb down from 40 % to 15–20%
-
Editorial6 days agoCouple QR-based quota with odd-even rationing
-
Features4 days agoScience and diplomacy in a changing world
-
News3 days agoColombo, Oslo steps up efforts to strengthen bilateral cooperation in key environmental priority areas