I was involved in a paper published in Science last week that studied a tsunami that occurred in a fjord in East Greenland. That tsunami was caused by a huge rockslide that fell onto a small valley glacier and travelled into the fjord, creating a ‘seiche’ which is back and forth movement of water, kind of like what you get in a bathtub. This seismic signal could be detected for 9 days after the event, sparking a global effort to track down the cause
A huge team was rapidly assembled consisting of experts in seismology, glaciology, geomorphology, modelling and many more. After initially tracking the origin of the signal, the team that spent months modelling the seismic waves and using satellite data to understand exactly what caused this huge event. Working out the sequence of events that led to this event was only possibly through the multidisciplinary team that came together from across the world. A magnificent effort, led by Kristian Svennevig.
I was delighted to play a small role in this, initially helping to track down the source of the signal through satellite imagery.
Paper: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adm9247
BBC news article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cged3jd8llyo
Research Page: William D. Harcourt 