Aram Fathian
@aramfathian.bsky.social
Postdoc researcher @UCalgary | PhD @RWTH | Natural Hazards | Active Tectonics | Paleoseismology | InSAR | opinions are my own
Several months ago, over a period of ~22 hours, I wrote down some thoughts that have been banging around in my head for the past few years. @geomorphica.bsky.social have just published those thoughts. #GeospatialRevolution 🧪⚒️❄️ journals.psu.edu/geomorphica/...
I spoke w Brady Podloski, host of Catastrophes podcast about hazards and disasters in the mountains, including our recent paper in @science.org about the 481m tsunami in Tracy Arm, Alaska (www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...). Check it out. @ucalgaryscience.bsky.social 🧪⚒️ www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xb1...
EP. 48: The 481 Metre Tsunami that Nearly Hit a Cruise Ship
YouTube video by Catastrophe
youtube.com
Don’t miss this
Dr Dan Shugar 🇨🇦@watershedlab.bsky.social · 2mo ago🚨Funding for 2yr postdoc w/ me & @geocron.bsky.social on landslide-tsunami-jökulhlaup project, but (this is the ridiculous part) I need to select someone NOW or I lose the $. If you're NOT in Canada (can be any nationality) and interested, send me your CV and transcripts by midnight MT, June 12. 🧪⚒️
Just watched @aramfathian.bsky.social on Australian ABC talking about climate change, retreating glaciers, steep mountainsides, and mega, and I mean MEGA, tsunamis. youtu.be/KSBtsXGiu1Y I know @michaelemann.bsky.social had some interest in this.
2025 Alaska megatsunami surged water to altitudes of 480 metres | ABC NEWS
YouTube video by ABC News (Australia)
youtu.be
Dr Dan Shugar 🇨🇦@watershedlab.bsky.social · 3mo ago@seismo-steve.bsky.social made this infographic showing some of the world's tallest tsunami runup heights compared to some really really tall buildings.
This is one of those "wait for it" things: simulation of the #TracyArm landslide tsunami by Pat Lynett for our paper that came out this week in @science.org. This one is from the vantage point of a jetski at sea level. 🧪⚒️ www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
In light of our recently published @science.org paper about The Tracy Arm landslide, I'm gonna tell a little story about being wrong and how science works. Join me. www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
A 481-meter-high landslide-tsunami in a cruise ship–frequented Alaska fjord
Early in the morning of 10 August 2025, a >64 × 106 m3 landslide struck Tracy Arm fjord in Alaska. The landslide was preconditioned by glacial retreat caused by climate change. The resulting 481 m run...
science.org
Nice piece from NASA Earth Observatory's Image of the Day about the Tracy Arm landslide tsunami. (read the paper here: www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...) science.nasa.gov/earth/earth-... ⚒️🛰️
Tracy Arm’s Post-Tsunami Landscape - NASA Science
A landslide-triggered tsunami stripped vegetation from the shore of the glacial fjord in summer 2025.
science.nasa.gov
Filmmaker Greg Chaney made a short film about the Tracy Arm tsunami, using footage shot during fieldwork in the autumn that my colleagues Bretwood "Hig" Higman and Pat Lynett took part in. youtu.be/mIziQW3-QJA
The Big Wave - Tracy Arm - 2025 - Tsunami
YouTube video by Gregory Chaney
youtu.be
A piece in @theconversation.com by my co-authors Michael West and @ezgikarasozen.bsky.social from @akearthquake.bsky.social theconversation.com/alaskas-near...
Alaska’s near-record landslide tsunami sent a wave 1,580 feet up the fjord walls – and left clues for building a warning system
The tsunami struck just 12 hours after a cruise ship had left the fjord, rattling the tourism industry.
theconversation.com
@newscientist.com www.newscientist.com/article/2525...
Huge landslide in Alaska caused 481m-high tsunami
When the slope of a mountain above Tracy Arm fjord, in Alaska, gave way on 10 August 2025, 64 million cubic metres of rock fell into the fjord, causing a 5.4 magnitude seismic event
newscientist.com
Really spectacular multimedia piece from Ivan Semeniuk at @theglobeandmail.com www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/scien...
A giant tsunami in Alaska points to future dangers for cruise ships in the North
Last summer’s upheaval in Tracy Arm is a geological hazard that could happen to other northern landscapes, a new study warns
theglobeandmail.com
@cnn.com story from @ellanilsen.bsky.social edition.cnn.com/2026/05/06/c...
Ride a jet ski through a re-creation of an Alaska mega-tsunami with the help of science | CNN
The world’s second-tallest tsunami wave on record tore through the remote Tracy Arm fjord in Alaska last August, leaving immense destruction in its wake. Scientists have made it possible for you to ex...
edition.cnn.com
If you'd like to learn more about the work that the team did and see more footage of the Tracy Arm after the landslide, check out this video. www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIzi...
The Big Wave - Tracy Arm - 2025 - Tsunami
YouTube video by Gregory Chaney
youtube.com
Dr Dan Shugar 🇨🇦@watershedlab.bsky.social · 3mo ago🚨New paper about the second largest tsunami ever recorded, just published in @science.org A short 🧪⚒️🌊 thread #EGU26 @ucalgary.bsky.social @ucalgaryscience.bsky.social doi.org/10.1126/scie...
Initital estimates of the landslide mass came from the seismic data, but then @aramfathian.bsky.social @ucalgaryscience.bsky.social built very high-resolution pre- and post-landslide digital elevation models using @planet.com and Vantor/Maxar imagery.
🌊 Our paper on the 2nd highest wave ever recorded – 481 m – is out in Science! A massive landslide-tsunami in Tracy Arm, Alaska, preconditioned by climate change. A genuine near-miss for cruise ship passengers. 🔗 doi.org/10.1126/scie... Thanks for leading this @watershedlab.bsky.social
HERE IT IS! In August 2025, a massive landslide brought a big chunk of mountainside into the Tracy Arm fjord in Alaska, causing the second-largest tsunami ever recorded. My latest for @eos.org is the story of the forensic investigation, and why the culprit is climate change: 🧪
The Forensics of a Skyscraper-Sized Tsunami - Eos
A landslide in Tracy Arm Fjord in Alaska created the second-largest tsunami on record. A new analysis links this abrupt event to the retreat of a glacier and, ultimately, to climate change.
eos.org
Massive Alaska megatsunami was second largest ever recorded www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Massive Alaska megatsunami was second largest ever recorded
New research suggests glacier melt driven by climate change is increasing the risk of giant waves.
bbc.co.uk
One of the neat things was that the seiche (sloshing back and forth of water within the fjord) continued for over a day and we could record the seismic signal that was generated, using seismometers all around the world.
A rockslide-generated tsunami in a Greenland fjord rang Earth for 9 days
Climate change is increasingly predisposing polar regions to large landslides. Tsunamigenic landslides have occurred recently in Greenland (Kalaallit Nunaat), but none have been reported from the east...
science.org
In other words, this landslide tsunami was ENORMOUS. Here is a simulation, coupled with a drone video.
It look a few days to get decent satellite imagery to confirm the landslide and location. Meanwhile, @davepetley.bsky.social wrote a short blog post with initial hypotheses eos.org/thelandslide...
A large, tsunamigenic landslide in Tracy Arm inlet, Alaska
On 10 August 2025, it is likely that a large, tsunamigenic landslide occurred in Tracy Arm inlet, in Alaska.
eos.org
🚨New paper about the second largest tsunami ever recorded, just published in @science.org A short 🧪⚒️🌊 thread #EGU26 @ucalgary.bsky.social @ucalgaryscience.bsky.social doi.org/10.1126/scie...
A 481-meter-high landslide-tsunami in a cruise ship–frequented Alaska fjord
Early in the morning of 10 August 2025, a >64 × 106 m3 landslide struck Tracy Arm fjord in Alaska. The landslide was preconditioned by glacial retreat caused by climate change. The resulting 481 m run...
doi.org
Before and after satellite imagery of the landslide this morning at Nizhny Ubekimakhi in Russia. Note the impounded lake on the east side of the landslide block, which is about 1 km wide. @planet.com @davepetley.bsky.social @glacierhazard.bsky.social
Weather Monitor@weathermonitors.bsky.social · 4mo agoToday, a huge landslide hit Nizhnie Ubekimakhi, Dagestan, Russia. A massive landslide several kilometers long struck the mountain village in the Levashinsky district. Heavy rains since March triggered the disaster, sending tons of earth into a local river and threatening nearby areas with flooding.
Because the Strait of Hormuz and the geological forces that created it are in the news, I present hot-off-the-presses work by @aramfathian.bsky.social, @activefaults.bsky.social et al. doi.org/10.1016/j.qu...
Redirecting
doi.org
Scientific American@sciam.bsky.social · 4mo agoA continental collision trapped oil within what is today Iran. The same collision explains why that oil is trapped behind the Strait of Hormuz now
A vanished Holocene lake once covered Central Iran, a region now defined by deserts. Lake level fell not in one collapse, but through climate-driven pulses of expansion and contraction. Alexander the Great’s route skirts its margins. 🔗 journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
The Zagros orogen does not end at the shoreline. Our study shows that active deformation continues offshore, beneath the shallow waters of the Persian Gulf. Paper link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Dr Dan Shugar 🇨🇦@watershedlab.bsky.social · 7mo agoNew article alert: Onshore-offshore evidence for active tectonics and the propagation of the Zagros deformation front into the Persian Gulf by @aramfathian.bsky.social @activefaults.bsky.social and friends 🧪⚒️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
New article alert: Onshore-offshore evidence for active tectonics and the propagation of the Zagros deformation front into the Persian Gulf by @aramfathian.bsky.social @activefaults.bsky.social and friends 🧪⚒️ www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Onshore-offshore evidence for active tectonics and the propagation of the Zagros deformation front into the Persian Gulf
The Zagros Mountains in southwest Iran are a young orogen displaying the geodynamic evolution in an active continental collision zone. We combine the …
sciencedirect.com
This is a highly useful thread outlining practical tips and unwritten rules in academic applications. Details that are often overlooked but are genuinely critical for navigating each stage of the process. If you are applying, read carefully and keep this in mind as you prepare your materials. 📌📄
Dr Dan Shugar 🇨🇦@watershedlab.bsky.social · 7mo agoAfter reviewing nearly 200 applications from prospective grad students and postdocs over the past few months for a couple different 🧪⚒️ postings, here are some tips, at least as they apply to North American positions. I hope they help future applicants. Share with your networks. 🧵
