Many of the effects of climate change are there for all to see, but perhaps even more disturbing are those that are not noticed, but which alone are enough to unleash a cascade of disasters, often of enormous proportions.
It happened recently in Nepal and is happening more and more often in the Arctic: as a study published in explains PNASthe weakening of permafrost in the polar region is amplifying the effects of earthquakes, which in turn can cause landslides, avalanches and other catastrophes.
Cascading disasters
Permafrost, the permanently frozen ground found in Arctic regions (and high-altitude mountains), is critical to the stability of glaciers and mountain slopes. Its deterioration due to rising temperatures therefore risks making the Arctic landscape more fragile: the practical demonstration came on March 10, 2025, when a 6.5 magnitude earthquake hit the small island of Jan Mayen, 500 km north of Iceland but politically under the control of Norway.
The earthquake proved invaluable for researchers at the GEOMAR Helmholtz Center for Ocean Research Kiel, because it allowed them to directly study the causes and effects of weakening permafrost, in what the study authors call “a sensational example of cascading natural disasters.”
Jan Mayen is an island of volcanic origin, but its volcano, Beerenberg, has been dormant since 1980: its slopes are now covered by glaciers, two of which were directly damaged by the earthquake – a more devastating event than usual in a region that has always been seismically active. But why was the March 2025 earthquake so destructive?
A problem not just Arctic
We have actually already given you the answer: the permafrost found under the volcano’s glaciers is increasingly fragile, and consequently so is the ice above it, which is less and less “bound” to the rock. A particularly violent earthquake can cause a collapse more easily than it would in a “healthy” glacier: this is what happened to the Beerenberg glaciers, which collapsed following the earthquake and transported enormous quantities of rock, ice and debris towards the sea. A catastrophic event, which has never happened before in forty years of observations.
Identifying the chain of events that led to the avalanches on the Beerenberg is not only useful for understanding how things work in the Arctic: permafrost covers around 24% of the entire Earth’s surface, and is deteriorating everywhere, destabilizing more and more glaciers and mountain slopes around the world.
Of course, Jan Mayen is an uninhabited island and the avalanches on the Beerenberg had no consequences on human beings, but what happened in Nepal reminds us how fragile certain balances are, and how serious the consequences are when they break.
