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Session: Exploring the Frontier of Environmental Processes using Fiber-optic Sensing [Poster]

Type: Poster

Date: 10/9/2024

Time: 07:00 AM

Room: Stanley Park Ballroom

Looking into a Disappearing Glacier: An Active Source DAS Experiment on Langjökull Ice Cap

The rate at which glaciers lose ice mass is highly controlled by properties within the ice and at the base, such as temperature, composition and mechanical strength of material at the basal interface, and presence of meltwater within the glacier. With the seemingly accelerating disappearance of glaciers in response to climate change, insight into this process is necessary. However, this information is buried under hundreds of meters of ice. Therefore, indirect methods such as seismology give us a non-invasive way to probe the base of glaciers. While traditional geophone arrays can help recover these properties, the short wavelength heterogeneity expected in ice cannot be resolved and, in harsh environments, deployments become increasingly difficult. Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) provides a logistically simpler deployment alternative suited for glacial environments as well as high density coverage for meter-scale resolution. 

Langjökull is a quickly disappearing ice cap in Iceland, losing an estimated 11% of its mass from 1997-2010. The ice cap is also known to host surge events at its southern outlet glaciers where the terminus can advance by over a kilometer in a season, making it a potential hazard to the surrounding communities. Radar techniques have been unable to provide constraints on the rock properties at the base making the origin of these surges unclear, though the proximity to the volcanic zone could indicate porous rock which may be conducive to sliding. In May 2024, we performed an active source survey on a DAS array at Langjökull Glacier. Using a combined plow-deployment system, we are able to deploy the cable without the need for manual trenching. The active source data collected helps us to learn about the feasibility of a short-term DAS glacial deployment, as well as the englacial and subglacial properties which help control glacial mass loss and surge behavior. 

Presenting Author: Auden

Additional Authors