"Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory"

For eight months in 1783, Laki volcano spewed lava and belched noxious fumes into the atmosphere. One-quarter of Iceland’s population died.

Imagine 100 million SUVs falling down a slope and you’re in the ballpark. Seismologist Michael West said this slide “shook a decent amount of our planet.”

A massive landslide in Glacier Bay National Park more than a week ago is exciting scientists around the world for the way it was the detected, the images of the slide and the sheer magnitude of it.