Monitoring southwest Greenlands ice sheet melt with ambient seismic noise

The Greenland ice sheet presently accounts for ~70% of global ice sheet mass loss. Because this mass loss is associated with sea-level rise at a rate of 0.7 mm/year, the development of improved monitoring techniques to observe ongoing changes in ice sheet mass balance is of paramount concern. Spaceb...

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Main Authors: Mordret, Aurelien, Mikesell, T. Dylan, Harig, Christopher, Lipovsky, Bradley P., Prieto Gomez, German A.
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102453
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7998-5417
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author Mordret, Aurelien
Mikesell, T. Dylan
Harig, Christopher
Lipovsky, Bradley P.
Prieto Gomez, German A.
author2 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
author_facet Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Mordret, Aurelien
Mikesell, T. Dylan
Harig, Christopher
Lipovsky, Bradley P.
Prieto Gomez, German A.
author_sort Mordret, Aurelien
collection MIT
description The Greenland ice sheet presently accounts for ~70% of global ice sheet mass loss. Because this mass loss is associated with sea-level rise at a rate of 0.7 mm/year, the development of improved monitoring techniques to observe ongoing changes in ice sheet mass balance is of paramount concern. Spaceborne mass balance techniques are commonly used; however, they are inadequate for many purposes because of their low spatial and/or temporal resolution. We demonstrate that small variations in seismic wave speed in Earth’s crust, as measured with the correlation of seismic noise, may be used to infer seasonal ice sheet mass balance. Seasonal loading and unloading of glacial mass induces strain in the crust, and these strains then result in seismic velocity changes due to poroelastic processes. Our method provides a new and independent way of monitoring (in near real time) ice sheet mass balance, yielding new constraints on ice sheet evolution and its contribution to global sea-level changes. An increased number of seismic stations in the vicinity of ice sheets will enhance our ability to create detailed space-time records of ice mass variations.
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spelling mit-1721.1/1024532022-09-30T13:31:43Z Monitoring southwest Greenlands ice sheet melt with ambient seismic noise Mordret, Aurelien Mikesell, T. Dylan Harig, Christopher Lipovsky, Bradley P. Prieto Gomez, German A. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Mordret, Aurelien Mikesell, T. Dylan Prieto Gomez, German A. The Greenland ice sheet presently accounts for ~70% of global ice sheet mass loss. Because this mass loss is associated with sea-level rise at a rate of 0.7 mm/year, the development of improved monitoring techniques to observe ongoing changes in ice sheet mass balance is of paramount concern. Spaceborne mass balance techniques are commonly used; however, they are inadequate for many purposes because of their low spatial and/or temporal resolution. We demonstrate that small variations in seismic wave speed in Earth’s crust, as measured with the correlation of seismic noise, may be used to infer seasonal ice sheet mass balance. Seasonal loading and unloading of glacial mass induces strain in the crust, and these strains then result in seismic velocity changes due to poroelastic processes. Our method provides a new and independent way of monitoring (in near real time) ice sheet mass balance, yielding new constraints on ice sheet evolution and its contribution to global sea-level changes. An increased number of seismic stations in the vicinity of ice sheets will enhance our ability to create detailed space-time records of ice mass variations. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant EAR-1415907) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Award 1144883) 2016-05-11T17:00:12Z 2016-05-11T17:00:12Z 2016-05 2015-10 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2375-2548 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102453 Mordret, A., T. D. Mikesell, C. Harig, B. P. Lipovsky, and G. A. Prieto. “Monitoring Southwest Greenlands Ice Sheet Melt with Ambient Seismic Noise.” Science Advances 2, no. 5 (May 6, 2016): e1501538–e1501538. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7998-5417 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1501538 Science Advances Creative Commons Attribution http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) AAAS
spellingShingle Mordret, Aurelien
Mikesell, T. Dylan
Harig, Christopher
Lipovsky, Bradley P.
Prieto Gomez, German A.
Monitoring southwest Greenlands ice sheet melt with ambient seismic noise
title Monitoring southwest Greenlands ice sheet melt with ambient seismic noise
title_full Monitoring southwest Greenlands ice sheet melt with ambient seismic noise
title_fullStr Monitoring southwest Greenlands ice sheet melt with ambient seismic noise
title_full_unstemmed Monitoring southwest Greenlands ice sheet melt with ambient seismic noise
title_short Monitoring southwest Greenlands ice sheet melt with ambient seismic noise
title_sort monitoring southwest greenlands ice sheet melt with ambient seismic noise
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102453
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7998-5417
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