A magnitude 6.5 earthquake on Jan Mayen on 10 March 2025 triggered a rock avalanche that covered part of the Kjerulf Glacier about 7 km from the epicentre. A GEOMAR Helmholtz team found no comparable earthquake-triggered avalanche on the island in 40 years of satellite images. The paper appeared in PNAS. Warming and permafrost thaw may have weakened the slope; that reading comes from a single event, and warming has not been shown to have produced the avalanche directly.
A magnitude 6.5 earthquake struck Jan Mayen island in the northern Atlantic on 10 March 2025. The shaking triggered a rock avalanche about 7 km from the epicentre; the avalanche ran from a volcanic slope above the Kjerulf Glacier and covered part of the glacier. A team led by the GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, with lead author Guilherme W. S. de Melo, documented that shaking-to-avalanche chain on the island.[1], [2]
On Jan Mayen island in the northern Atlantic, the GEOMAR Helmholtz team reports finding no comparable earthquake-triggered rock avalanche in 40 years of satellite images. Reconstructing the event, it combined local and regional seismic data, ground-shaking modelling, high-resolution satellite imagery, infrasound measurements and climate records and followed the sequence from the shaking to the avalanche that covered part of the Kjerulf Glacier. The peer-reviewed paper appeared in PNAS.[1], [2]
Lead author Guilherme W. S. de Melo says warming and permafrost degradation may melt the ice that binds fractures in volcanic rock and weaken slopes. A rise in the potential for cascading hazards is part of the same reading. That interpretation is drawn from a single event. Warming has not been shown to have produced the avalanche directly. Permafrost was not measured on the slope itself.[1], [2]
