Overview
- A magnitude 6.5 earthquake on March 10, 2025 shook Jan Mayen and within minutes triggered a large rock avalanche that spread roughly 1.3 million cubic yards of debris across 30–50% of the Kjerulf Glacier.
- The same event caused rapid calving at the nearby Weyprecht Glacier, a sequence the authors reconstructed using local and regional seismic records, infrasound, GNSS displacement, high-resolution satellite imagery, and ground-shaking models.
- Researchers report that satellite imagery spanning about 40 years shows no prior event of comparable scale at Jan Mayen, making this the first documented earthquake-triggered rock avalanche on the island.
- The paper’s authors conclude that long-term Arctic warming and permafrost degradation likely weakened ice that once bound rock fractures, which increased the slope’s susceptibility to failure when shaken.
- Although Jan Mayen is sparsely inhabited, the study warns that the same chain of processes could raise cascading-hazard risks for populated Arctic and high-mountain regions where thawing permafrost, steep slopes, and seismic activity coincide.