The Shifting Ground Beneath Our Feet

The notion that the Earth’s geology is a static backdrop for human affairs has long been a comforting one. We’ve grown accustomed to thinking of mountains as eternal sentinels, their rugged peaks and valleys a testament to the unforgiving power of geological processes. However, recent events have laid bare the lie: climate change is not just an atmospheric phenomenon but a tectonic force reshaping the very foundation of our world.

The alarming rate at which glaciers are retreating has sent shockwaves through the scientific community. In Alaska, Norway, Greenland, and New Zealand, once-stable mountain ranges are crumbling beneath our feet. The ice that held these cliffs together for millennia is melting with unprecedented speed, leaving behind unstable terrain prone to catastrophic landslides.

The collapse of a glacier in Greenland in 2023 generated a 660-foot wave detected on monitoring stations worldwide for nine days. A landslide in Alaska triggered a tsunami in a fjord frequented by cruise ships the following year. These events are not isolated incidents; they’re part of a growing pattern linking glacial loss to increased landslide risk.

The effects of climate change are not limited to ice-covered regions. Permafrost, the frozen earth that holds mountains together at high altitudes and latitudes worldwide, is also thawing rapidly. In the Brooks Range, home of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, long-frozen mountains have begun to spontaneously deform and collapse within the past few decades as their permafrost “glue” gives way.

Scientists are warning about the widespread nature of these changes. Bretwood Higman, an independent Alaskan geologist, notes that the sudden increase in landslide activity is “very dramatic.” The thawing of permafrost threatens not just infrastructure but also communities across Alaska that have had to relocate as their homes, fuel tanks, sewage lagoons, and garbage dumps tip, spill, or sink.

The shifting ground beneath our feet has far-reaching implications. Arctic ground is turning into bogs, roads are buckling, and buildings are swallowing up by melting ice. In Siberia, once-trapped methane explodes from under permafrost to cause 100-foot craters. It’s a stark reminder that when permafrost thaws, “it changes everything,” as Sue Natali, an Arctic-climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center, puts it.

Climate change is also shifting the land at lower latitudes. A warmer atmosphere holds more moisture, leading to more frequent and extreme rainfall events – events that scientists have begun modeling will increase landslide risk. In North Carolina, Hurricane Helene triggered over 2,000 landslides in a week; in California, slopes wiped clean by logging and drought-fueled wildfires slough away after heavy rain.

The economic cost of these landslides is already staggering – $20 billion globally, with costs only set to climb. Other dramatic consequences of shifting precipitation patterns are also emerging, including volcanic eruptions and earthquakes. As University College London volcanologist Bill McGuire noted over a decade ago in his book Waking the Giant , climate change could lead to more volcanic eruptions and earthquakes as the Earth’s crust slowly bounces back from centuries of being weighted down by ice.

The shifting ground beneath our feet is not just a geological phenomenon; it’s a stark reminder that our world is fundamentally changing. As scientists sound the alarm about these changes, policymakers must listen – before the very foundation of our societies is irreparably altered.