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Seismicity at glaciers, ice sheets, and ice shelves provides observational constraint on a number of glaciological processes. Detecting and locating this seismicity, specifically icequakes, is a necessary first step in studying processes such as basal slip, crevassing, imaging ice fabric, and iceberg calving, for example. Most glacier deployments to date use conventional seismic networks, comprised of seismometers distributed over the entire area of interest. However, smaller-aperture seismic arrays can also be used, which are typically sensitive to seismicity distal from the array footprint and require a smaller number of instruments. Here, we investigate the potential of arrays and array-processing methods to detect and locate subsurface microseismicity at glaciers, benchmarking performance against conventional seismic-network-based methods for an example at an Antarctic ice stream. We also provide an array-processing recipe for body-wave cryoseismology applications. Results from an array and a network deployed at Rutford Ice Stream, Antarctica, show that arrays and networks both have strengths and weaknesses. Arrays can detect icequakes from further distances, whereas networks outperform arrays in more comprehensive studies of a particular process due to greater hypocentral constraint within the network extent. We also gain new insights into seismic behaviour at the Rutford Ice Stream. The array detects basal icequakes in what was previously interpreted to be an aseismic region of the bed, as well as new icequake observations downstream and at the ice stream shear margins, where it would be challenging to deploy instruments. Finally, we make some practical recommendations for future array deployments at glaciers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Antarctic ice sheet history is imprinted in the structure and fabric of the ice column. At ice rises, the signature of ice flow history is preserved due to the low strain rates inherent at these independent ice flow centres. We present results from a distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) experiment at Skytrain Ice Rise in the Weddell Sea sector of West Antarctica, aimed at delineating the englacial fabric to improve our understanding of ice sheet history in the region. This pilot experiment demonstrates the feasibility of an innovative technique to delineate ice rise structure. Both direct and reflected P- and S-wave energy, as well as surface wave energy, are observed using a range of source offsets, i.e. a walkaway vertical seismic profile, recorded using fibre optic cable. Significant noise, which results from the cable hanging untethered in the borehole, is modelled and suppressed at the processing stage. At greater depth where the cable is suspended in drilling fluid, seismic interval velocities and attenuation are measured. Vertical P-wave velocities are high (VINT=3984±218 m s -1) and consistent with a strong vertical cluster fabric. Seismic attenuation is high (QINT=75±12) and inconsistent with previous observations in ice sheets over this temperature range. The signal level is too low, and the noise level too high, to undertake analysis of englacial fabric variability. However, modelling of P- and S-wave travel times and amplitudes with a range of fabric geometries, combined with these measurements, demonstrates the capacity of the DAS method to discriminate englacial fabric distribution. From this pilot study we make a number of recommendations for future experiments aimed at quantifying englacial fabric to improve our understanding of recent ice sheet history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Subglacial water plays an important role in ice sheet dynamics and stability. Subglacial lakes are often located at the onset of ice streams and have been hypothesised to enhance ice flow downstream by lubricating the ice–bed interface. The most recent subglacial-lake inventory of Antarctica mapped nearly 400 lakes, of which ∼ 14 % are found in West Antarctica. Despite the potential importance of subglacial water for ice dynamics, there is a lack of detailed subglacial-water characterisation in West Antarctica. Using radio-echo sounding data, we analyse the ice–bed interface to detect subglacial lakes. We report 33 previously uncharted subglacial lakes and present a systematic analysis of their physical properties. This represents a ∼ 40 % increase in subglacial lakes in West Antarctica. Additionally, a new digital elevation model of basal topography of the Ellsworth Subglacial Highlands was built and used to create a hydropotential model to simulate the subglacial hydrological network. This allows us to characterise basal hydrology, determine subglacial water catchments and assess their connectivity. We show that the simulated subglacial hydrological catchments of the Rutford Ice Stream, Pine Island Glacier and Thwaites Glacier do not correspond to their ice surface catchments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Projections of sea-level rise contributions from West Antarctica's dynamically thinning ice streams contain high uncertainty because some of the key processes involved are extremely challenging to observe. An especially poorly observed parameter is sub-decadal stability of ice-stream beds, which may be important for subglacial traction, till continuity and landform development. Only two previous studies have made repeated geophysical measurements of ice-stream beds at the same locations in different years, but both studies were limited in spatial extent. Here, we present the results from repeat radar measurements of the bed of Pine Island Glacier, West Antarctica, conducted 3-6 years apart, along a cumulative ~60 km of profiles. Analysis of the correlation of bed picks between repeat surveys shows that 90% of the bed displays no significant change despite the glacier increasing in speed by up to 40% over the last decade. We attribute the negligible detection of morphological change at the bed of Pine Island Glacier to the ubiquitous presence of a deforming till layer, wherein sediment transport is in steady state, such that sediment is transported along the basal interface without inducing morphological change to the radarsounded basal interface. Given the precision of our measurements, the upper limit of subglacial erosion observed here is 500mma-1, far exceeding erosion rates reported for glacial settings from proglacial sediment yields, but substantially below subglacial erosion rates of 1.0ma-1 previously reported from repeat geophysical surveys in West Antarctica. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]