[Silence]
[Instrumental, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Bass, Drums, Piano, Organ, Synth]
[Intro]
[Instrumental Intro: Atmospheric Electric Guitar, Deep Bass Drone, Slow Heavy Drums, Distant Hammond Organ and Dark Synth; Gradually Building Tension]
[Spoken Vocal]
They look permanent…
They aren’t.
Stone remembers.
Ice forgets.
Tumbling… (our regrets)
[Verse 1]
High above the water
Where the frozen mountains stand
Ice has held the pieces
… a giant steady hand
Rock begins to wander
Snow begins to slide
Gravity is waiting
On the mountain’s other side
[Refrain]
Can you see…
(When mountains crumble to the sea)
A giant tsunami
(Can come to be)
[Chorus]
Mountains crumble
Mountains fall
Gravity can move it all
Mountains crumble
To the sea
What was solid
Moves suddenly
Energy!
(Energy!)
Hitting you
(Hitting me)
[Verse 2]
Rock and ice came crashing
From the mountain to the bay
Water rose six hundred feet
And violently gave way
Nine days of oscillation
Nine days of water’s sway
A mountain’s fall became a signal
That the whole Earth could display
[Instrumental]
[Heavy Progressive-Rock Instrumental: Tremolo Electric Guitar, Deep Bass, Massive Drums, Hammond Organ Swells and Low Synth; Building From Slow Pulse Into Sudden Rhythmic Surges]
[Bridge]
One thing moves
Then another
Ice!
(Ice!)
Rock!
(Rock!)
Water!
(Water!)
Wave!
(Wave!)
Gravity!
(Gravity!)
Energy!
(Energy!)
[Spoken Vocal]
Can you see…
(When mountains crumble to the sea)
A giant tsunami
(Can come to be)
Seiche.
[Rap Vocal Break]
That’s the cascade
That’s the chain
Freeze the mountain
Melt the frame
Water enters
Fractures grow
Gravity says
“Let it go”
Stored energy
Waiting there
Twenty-five million cubic meters
In the air
Then the mountain
Isn’t there
And the sea
Comes back at me
Wave goes up
Wave comes down
Fjord becomes
A shaking ground
Nine days
Nine nights
Global instruments
See the lights
Not a myth
Not a tale
A mountain fell
And left a trail
[Breakdown]
[Music Drops to Deep Bass Drone, Sparse Piano and Distant Guitar Harmonics]
Can you see?
[Whispered]
When mountains crumble…
To the sea?
[Soft Response]
A giant tsunami…
Can come to be.
[Final Refrain]
Can you see…
(When mountains crumble to the sea)
A giant tsunami
(Can come to be)
[Final Chorus]
Mountains crumble
Mountains fall
Gravity can move it all
Mountains crumble
To the sea
What looks permanent
Can suddenly flee
Can you see?
(Can you see?)
[Final Bridge]
Cryosphere!
(Hydrosphere!)
Lithosphere!
(All together!)
Ice to water
Water to wave
Mountain to ocean
Grave to grave
A giant…
[Pause]
…wave.
[Final Refrain]
Can you see…
(When mountains crumble to the sea)
A giant tsunami
(Can come to be)
[Outro]
[Instrumental Outro: Massive Guitar Chords, Rolling Tom Drums, Deep Bass and Hammond Organ; Rhythm gradually slows as distant synth and guitar feedback remain]
Mountains crumble…
To the sea…
Gravity waits…
Patiently.
[Spoken, fading]
The mountain doesn’t have to prove…
(It only has to move.)
About the Song
Mountains may look permanent. They are not.
Across Alaska, Greenland, Norway, Chile, New Zealand, and the European Alps, glaciers are retreating, permafrost is thawing, and mountain slopes that were stabilized by ice for centuries or millennia are becoming increasingly unstable.
The result is a dangerous transformation of the high mountains: rockfalls, landslides, glacier collapses, debris flows, and landslide-generated tsunamis.
These are not simply isolated geological curiosities. They are examples of a larger climate-driven interaction among the cryosphere—the frozen part of the Earth system—the hydrosphere, and the lithosphere. As ice disappears, water enters places where it previously could not. As frozen ground thaws, fractures that were once reinforced by ice can weaken. As glaciers retreat, steep slopes can lose part of the support and confinement that helped stabilize them.
The mountains can begin to crumble.
And when they do, enormous amounts of stored gravitational energy can suddenly become kinetic energy.
A Mountain Can Become a Climate Hazard
One of the clearest examples occurred in East Greenland in September 2023.
A massive rock-and-ice avalanche, involving approximately 25 million cubic meters of material, plunged into Dickson Fjord. The impact generated an initial tsunami with a runup of approximately 200 meters—about 650 feet. The confined fjord then acted like a gigantic bathtub, allowing the water to oscillate back and forth as a seiche.
That oscillation continued for nine days.
The movement was powerful enough to generate seismic waves detectable around the world. Scientists eventually determined that the mysterious nine-day signal recorded by seismometers globally was produced by the fjord’s oscillating water.
In other words, a climate-related change in a glacierized mountain landscape produced a chain reaction:
Glacial thinning → slope destabilization → rock-and-ice avalanche → tsunami → seiche → global seismic signal
This is what a climate cascade looks like.
How Is the Climate Energy Hitting You? The Mountains Crumble to the Sea
From the album “Robust“