{"id":55187,"date":"2026-08-25T13:17:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T13:17:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/?p=55187"},"modified":"2026-08-25T13:17:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T13:17:28","slug":"mountains-crumble-to-the-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/2026\/08\/25\/mountains-crumble-to-the-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"Mountains Crumble to the Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"

[Silence]
\n[Instrumental, Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar, Bass, Drums, Piano, Organ, Synth]<\/p>\n

\n
\n \"How
\n <\/a>
\n<\/figure>\n

[Intro]
\n[Instrumental Intro: Atmospheric Electric Guitar, Deep Bass Drone, Slow Heavy Drums, Distant Hammond Organ and Dark Synth; Gradually Building Tension]
\n[Spoken Vocal]
\nThey look permanent…<\/p>\n

They aren’t.<\/p>\n

Stone remembers.<\/p>\n

Ice forgets.<\/p>\n

Tumbling… (our regrets)<\/p>\n

[Verse 1]
\nHigh above the water
\nWhere the frozen mountains stand
\nIce has held the pieces
\n… a giant steady hand<\/p>\n

Rock begins to wander
\nSnow begins to slide
\nGravity is waiting
\nOn the mountain’s other side<\/p>\n

[Refrain]
\nCan you see…
\n(When mountains crumble to the sea)
\nA giant tsunami
\n(Can come to be)<\/p>\n

[Chorus]
\nMountains crumble
\nMountains fall
\nGravity can move it all<\/p>\n

Mountains crumble
\nTo the sea
\nWhat was solid
\nMoves suddenly<\/p>\n

Energy!
\n(Energy!)
\nHitting you
\n(Hitting me)<\/p>\n

[Verse 2]
\nRock and ice came crashing
\nFrom the mountain to the bay
\nWater rose six hundred feet
\nAnd violently gave way<\/p>\n

Nine days of oscillation
\nNine days of water’s sway
\nA mountain’s fall became a signal
\nThat the whole Earth could display<\/p>\n

[Instrumental]
\n[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]
\n[Bridge]
\nOne thing moves
\nThen another<\/p>\n

Ice!
\n(Ice!)<\/p>\n

Rock!
\n(Rock!)<\/p>\n

Water!
\n(Water!)<\/p>\n

Wave!
\n(Wave!)<\/p>\n

Gravity!
\n(Gravity!)<\/p>\n

Energy!
\n(Energy!)<\/p>\n

[Spoken Vocal]
\nCan you see…
\n(When mountains crumble to the sea)
\nA giant tsunami
\n(Can come to be)<\/p>\n

Seiche.<\/p>\n

[Rap Vocal Break]
\nThat’s the cascade
\nThat’s the chain<\/p>\n

Freeze the mountain
\nMelt the frame<\/p>\n

Water enters
\nFractures grow<\/p>\n

Gravity says
\n“Let it go”<\/p>\n

Stored energy
\nWaiting there<\/p>\n

Twenty-five million cubic meters
\nIn the air<\/p>\n

Then the mountain
\nIsn’t there<\/p>\n

And the sea
\nComes back at me<\/p>\n

Wave goes up
\nWave comes down<\/p>\n

Fjord becomes
\nA shaking ground<\/p>\n

Nine days
\nNine nights<\/p>\n

Global instruments
\nSee the lights<\/p>\n

Not a myth
\nNot a tale<\/p>\n

A mountain fell
\nAnd left a trail<\/p>\n

[Breakdown]
\n[Music Drops to Deep Bass Drone, Sparse Piano and Distant Guitar Harmonics]
\nCan you see?<\/p>\n

[Whispered]
\nWhen mountains crumble…<\/p>\n

To the sea?<\/p>\n

[Soft Response]
\nA giant tsunami…<\/p>\n

Can come to be.<\/p>\n

[Final Refrain]
\nCan you see…
\n(When mountains crumble to the sea)
\nA giant tsunami
\n(Can come to be)<\/p>\n

[Final Chorus]
\nMountains crumble
\nMountains fall
\nGravity can move it all<\/p>\n

Mountains crumble
\nTo the sea
\nWhat looks permanent
\nCan suddenly flee<\/p>\n

Can you see?
\n(Can you see?)<\/p>\n

[Final Bridge]
\nCryosphere!
\n(Hydrosphere!)<\/p>\n

Lithosphere!
\n(All together!)<\/p>\n

Ice to water
\nWater to wave<\/p>\n

Mountain to ocean
\nGrave to grave<\/p>\n

A giant…<\/p>\n

[Pause]<\/p>\n

…wave.<\/p>\n

[Final Refrain]
\nCan you see…
\n(When mountains crumble to the sea)
\nA giant tsunami
\n(Can come to be)<\/p>\n

[Outro]
\n[Instrumental Outro: Massive Guitar Chords, Rolling Tom Drums, Deep Bass and Hammond Organ; Rhythm gradually slows as distant synth and guitar feedback remain]
\nMountains crumble…<\/p>\n

To the sea…<\/p>\n

Gravity waits…<\/p>\n

Patiently.<\/p>\n

[Spoken, fading]
\nThe mountain doesn’t have to prove…<\/p>\n

(It only has to move.)<\/p>\n

\n
\n \"East
\n <\/a>
\n<\/figure>\n

About the Song
\nMountains may look permanent. They are not.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The result is a dangerous transformation of the high mountains: rockfalls, landslides, glacier collapses, debris flows, and landslide-generated tsunamis.<\/p>\n

These are not simply isolated geological curiosities. They are examples of a larger climate-driven interaction among the cryosphere\u2014the frozen part of the Earth system\u2014the 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.<\/p>\n

The mountains can begin to crumble.<\/p>\n

And when they do, enormous amounts of stored gravitational energy can suddenly become kinetic energy.
\nA Mountain Can Become a Climate Hazard<\/p>\n

One of the clearest examples occurred in East Greenland in September 2023.<\/p>\n

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\u2014about 650 feet. The confined fjord then acted like a gigantic bathtub, allowing the water to oscillate back and forth as a seiche.<\/p>\n

That oscillation continued for nine days.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s oscillating water.<\/p>\n

In other words, a climate-related change in a glacierized mountain landscape produced a chain reaction:<\/p>\n

Glacial thinning \u2192 slope destabilization \u2192 rock-and-ice avalanche \u2192 tsunami \u2192 seiche \u2192 global seismic signal<\/p>\n

This is what a climate cascade looks like.<\/p>\n

How Is the Climate Energy Hitting You? The Mountains Crumble to the Sea<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

From the album “Robust<\/a>“<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[163],"class_list":["post-55187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4d-music","category-uncategorized","tag-climate-change"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55187"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55187\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55196,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55187\/revisions\/55196"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/kingarthur.com\/songwriter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}