Icelandic Minister for Foreign Affairs Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson has offered assistance to neighbor Greenland after a tsunami apparently hit the west coast of Greenland on Sunday, Vísir reports. Guðlaugur Þór said the thoughts of Icelanders are with Greenlanders.
Guðlaugur Þór stated in an interview with Stöð 2 TV station’s news program that the Greenlandic authorities were grateful for the offer by the Icelandic government. However, it is not yet clear whether they will accept assistance. No Icelanders were believed to have been in the affected area.
Guðlaugur Þór went on to say that the thoughts of the Icelandic people were with the Greenlanders, as both nations are familiar with natural disasters.
According to the latest report from RÚV, four people from one house are missing in the village of Nuugaatsiaq in northwestern Greenland after flooding on Sunday, which was possibly a tsunami, triggered by a magnitude 4 earthquake that occurred late Saturday night. Eleven houses have been damaged, including the village school and grocery store. Nine people were injured in the village, two of them seriously, and the residents have now been evacuated. Tsunami warnings were issued in other villages along the coast as well.
Peter Voss of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland stated in a conversation with the Greenlandic government that their observers showed small tremors in the area on Saturday night. Voss hypothesized that an underwater ridge had triggered the tsunami. He explained that a large part of a mountain might have fallen into the fjord and caused a tsunami.
