Glacier motion: Seismic events and rotation/tilt phenomena

Abstract

The many-year seismic monitoring of the Hans Glacier (South Spitsbergen) made it possible to associate seismic events with dynamic processes taking place in the glacier and related to its movements. The first registrations of seismic events in the Hans Glacier were made by Roman Teisseyre in the summer season of 1962 (Lewandowska and Teisseyre 1964). The study of seismic events on the Hans Glacier are based on two sources of recording. The first is the incessant recording of ice seismicity on the seismological station (HSP) at the Polish Polar Station Hornsund (Gorski 1997). The other is the seasonal seismic survey carried out on the Hans Glacier. The results from the Hans Glacier were compared with analogous studies in the Antarctic and an Alpine glacier. The study of rotation waves which were generated and propagated in ice was initiated in the Hans Glacier region in 2000 (Teisseyre et al. 2004). The study was continued at the Pasterze Glacier in the Austrian Alps. There are two main types of seismic events generated in glaciers: icequakes (Fig. 15.1) related to the release of stresses accumulated in ice, and ice-vibrations (Fig. 15.2) of a relatively long duration and relatively low frequency spectrum (dominant frequencies of 2-12 Hz). © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2006.