Seismicity on the western Greenland Ice Sheet: Surface fracture in the vicinity of active moulins

Carmichael, Joshua D.; Joughin, Ian; Behn, Mark D.; Das, Sarah; King, Matt A.; Stevens, Laura; Lizarralde, Dan

doi:10.1002/2014JF003398

Title: Seismicity on the western Greenland Ice Sheet: Surface fracture in the vicinity of active moulins

Journal Article · Thu Jun 25 00:00:00 EDT 2015 · Journal of Geophysical Research. Earth Surface

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JF003398· OSTI ID:1215646

Carmichael, Joshua D. ^[1]; Joughin, Ian ^[2]; Behn, Mark D. ^[3]; Das, Sarah ^[4]; King, Matt A. ^[5]; Stevens, Laura ^[4]; Lizarralde, Dan ^[4]

Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States); Los Alamos National Lab., Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Univ. of Washington, Seattle, WA (United States)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, MA (United States)
Univ. of Tasmania, Hobart, TAS (Australia)

We analyzed geophone and GPS measurements collected within the ablation zone of the western Greenland Ice Sheet during a ~35 day period of the 2011 melt season to study changes in ice deformation before, during, and after a supraglacial lake drainage event. During rapid lake drainage, ice flow speeds increased to ~400% of winter values, and icequake activity peaked. At times >7 days after drainage, this seismicity developed variability over both diurnal and longer periods (~10 days), while coincident ice speeds fell to ~150% of winter values and showed nightly peaks in spatial variability. Approximately 95% of all detected seismicity in the lake basin and its immediate vicinity was triggered by fracture propagation within near-surface ice (<330 m deep) that generated Rayleigh waves. Icequakes occurring before and during drainage frequently were collocated with the down flow (west) end of the primary hydrofracture through which the lake drained but shifted farther west and outside the lake basin after the drainage. We interpret these results to reveal vertical hydrofracture opening and local uplift during the drainage, followed by enhanced seismicity and ice flow on the downstream side of the lake basin. This region collocates with interferometric synthetic aperture radar-measured speedup in previous years and could reflect the migration path of the meltwater supplied to the bed by the lake. The diurnal seismic signal can be associated with nightly reductions in surface melt input that increase effective basal pressure and traction, thereby promoting elevated strain in the surficial ice.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

Grant/Contract Number:: NNX08AU82H; ANT-0424589; ARC-1023382; ARC-1023364; FT110100207; AC52-06NA25396

OSTI ID:: 1215646

Report Number(s):: LA-UR-14-29056

Journal Information:: Journal of Geophysical Research. Earth Surface, Vol. 120, Issue 6; ISSN 2169-9003

Publisher:: American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 28 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (60)

Fast draining lakes on the Greenland Ice Sheet: GREENLAND ICE SHEET FAST DRAINING LAKES Selmes, N.; Murray, T.; James, T. D. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 38, Issue 15 https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL047872	journal	August 2011
A decadal investigation of supraglacial lakes in West Greenland using a fully automatic detection and tracking algorithm Liang, Yu-Li; Colgan, William; Lv, Qin Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 123 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2012.03.020	journal	August 2012
Source Parameters and Scaling Relations for Mining-Related Seismicity within the Pyhasalmi Ore Mine, Finland Oye, V. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 95, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1785/0120040170	journal	June 2005
Improvements in magnitude precision, using the statistics of relative amplitudes measured by cross correlation Schaff, David P.; Richards, Paul G. Geophysical Journal International, Vol. 197, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1093/gji/ggt433	journal	January 2014
Evolution of supra-glacial lakes across the Greenland Ice Sheet Sundal, A. V.; Shepherd, A.; Nienow, P. Remote Sensing of Environment, Vol. 113, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2009.05.018	journal	October 2009
Seismic activity and surface motion of a steep temperate glacier: a study on Triftgletscher, Switzerland Dalban Canassy, Pierre; Faillettaz, Jérôme; Walter, Fabian Journal of Glaciology, Vol. 58, Issue 209 https://doi.org/10.3189/2012JoG11J104	journal	January 2012
Subdaily signals in GPS observations and their effect at semiannual and annual periods King, Matt A.; Watson, Christopher S.; Penna, Nigel T. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 35, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL032252	journal	January 2008
Tidal observations on floating ice using a single GPS receiver King, Matt Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 30, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1029/2002GL016182	journal	January 2003
The search for seismic signatures of movement at the glacier bed in a polythermal valley glacier Pomeroy, Joseph; Brisbourne, Alex; Evans, Jeffrey Annals of Glaciology, Vol. 54, Issue 64 https://doi.org/10.3189/2013AoG64A203	journal	January 2013
Supraglacial lakes on the Greenland ice sheet advance inland under warming climate Leeson, A. A.; Shepherd, A.; Briggs, K. Nature Climate Change, Vol. 5, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2463	journal	December 2014
Dispersive body waves Futterman, Walter I. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 67, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1029/JZ067i013p05279	journal	December 1962
Seismic emissions from a surging glacier: Bakaninbreen, Svalbard Stuart, Graham; Murray, Tavi; Brisbourne, Alex Annals of Glaciology, Vol. 42 https://doi.org/10.3189/172756405781812538	journal	January 2005
Moment Tensor Inversions of Icequakes on Gornergletscher, Switzerland Walter, F.; Clinton, J. F.; Deichmann, N. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 99, Issue 2A https://doi.org/10.1785/0120080110	journal	April 2009
Bedrock Fracture by Ice Segregation in Cold Regions Murton, J. B.; Peterson, R.; Ozouf, J. -C. Science, Vol. 314, Issue 5802 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1132127	journal	November 2006
Single receiver phase ambiguity resolution with GPS data Bertiger, Willy; Desai, Shailen D.; Haines, Bruce Journal of Geodesy, Vol. 84, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00190-010-0371-9	journal	March 2010
Characterizing source regions with signal subspace methods: Theory and computational methods Harris, David B. https://doi.org/10.2172/5041042	report	December 1989
Monitoring glacier surface seismicity in time and space using Rayleigh waves: GLACIER MONITORING Mikesell, T. D.; van Wijk, K.; Haney, M. M. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, Vol. 117, Issue F2 https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JF002259	journal	May 2012
Precise point positioning for the efficient and robust analysis of GPS data from large networks Zumberge, J. F.; Heflin, M. B.; Jefferson, D. C. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, Vol. 102, Issue B3 https://doi.org/10.1029/96JB03860	journal	March 1997
An automated approach to the location of icequakes using seismic waveform amplitudes Jones, G. A.; Kulessa, B.; Doyle, S. H. Annals of Glaciology, Vol. 54, Issue 64 https://doi.org/10.3189/2013AoG64A074	journal	January 2013
Shallow repeating seismic events under an alpine glacier at Mount Rainier, Washington, USA Thelen, Weston A.; Allstadt, Kate; Angelis, Silvio De Journal of Glaciology, Vol. 59, Issue 214 https://doi.org/10.3189/2013JoG12J111	journal	January 2013
Fracture Propagation to the Base of the Greenland Ice Sheet During Supraglacial Lake Drainage Das, S. B.; Joughin, I.; Behn, M. D. Science, Vol. 320, Issue 5877 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1153360	journal	April 2008
Elastic Wave Propagation and Generation in Seismology Pujol, Jose https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511610127	book	November 2009
The detection of low magnitude seismic events using array-based waveform correlation Gibbons, Steven J.; Ringdal, Frode Geophysical Journal International, Vol. 165, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.2006.02865.x	journal	April 2006
Constraints on the lake volume required for hydro-fracture through ice sheets Krawczynski, M. J.; Behn, M. D.; Das, S. B. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 36, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL036765	journal	January 2009
Seasonal speedup of the Greenland Ice Sheet linked to routing of surface water Palmer, Steven; Shepherd, Andrew; Nienow, Peter Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 302, Issue 3-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2010.12.037	journal	February 2011
Seismic multiplet response triggered by melt at Blood Falls, Taylor Glacier, Antarctica: MULTIPLET RESPONSE FROM BLOOD FALLS Carmichael, Joshua D.; Pettit, Erin C.; Hoffman, Matt Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, Vol. 117, Issue F3 https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JF002221	journal	July 2012
NLOADF: A program for computing ocean-tide loading Agnew, Duncan Carr Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, Vol. 102, Issue B3 https://doi.org/10.1029/96JB03458	journal	March 1997
Multiplet-Clustering Analysis Reveals Structural Details within the Seismic Cloud at the Soultz Geothermal Field, France Moriya, H. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 93, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1785/0120020072	journal	August 2003
Persistent flow acceleration within the interior of the Greenland ice sheet Doyle, Samuel H.; Hubbard, Alun; Fitzpatrick, Andrew A. W. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 41, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1002/2013GL058933	journal	February 2014
Sensitive response of the Greenland Ice Sheet to surface melt drainage over a soft bed Bougamont, M.; Christoffersen, P.; Hubbard, A. L, Nature Communications, Vol. 5, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms6052	journal	September 2014
Limits to future expansion of surface-melt-enhanced ice flow into the interior of western Greenland: Limits to surface-melt-enhanced ice flow Poinar, Kristin; Joughin, Ian; Das, Sarah B. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 42, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1002/2015GL063192	journal	March 2015
The physics of premelted ice and its geophysical consequences Dash, J. G.; Rempel, A. W.; Wettlaufer, J. S. Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 78, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.78.695	journal	July 2006
Estimation of noncentrality parameters Kubokawa, T.; Robert, C. P.; Saleh, A. K. Md. E. Canadian Journal of Statistics, Vol. 21, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.2307/3315657	journal	March 1993
Influence of ice-sheet geometry and supraglacial lakes on seasonal ice-flow variability Joughin, I.; Das, S. B.; Flowers, G. E. The Cryosphere, Vol. 7, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-1185-2013	journal	January 2013
Greenland ice sheet motion coupled with daily melting in late summer Shepherd, Andrew; Hubbard, Alun; Nienow, Peter Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 36, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1029/2008GL035758	journal	January 2009
Seasonal Speedup Along the Western Flank of the Greenland Ice Sheet Joughin, I.; Das, S. B.; King, M. A. Science, Vol. 320, Issue 5877 https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1153288	journal	April 2008
Links between acceleration, melting, and supraglacial lake drainage of the western Greenland Ice Sheet Hoffman, M. J.; Catania, G. A.; Neumann, T. A. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 116, Issue F4 https://doi.org/10.1029/2010JF001934	journal	January 2011
Ice tectonic deformation during the rapid in situ drainage of a supraglacial lake on the Greenland Ice Sheet Doyle, S. H.; Hubbard, A. L.; Dow, C. F. The Cryosphere, Vol. 7, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-7-129-2013	journal	January 2013
Continuous seismic threshold monitoring Ringdal, Frode; Kvaerna, Tormod Geophysical Journal International, Vol. 111, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-246X.1992.tb02108.x	journal	December 1992
Ice-sheet acceleration driven by melt supply variability Schoof, Christian Nature, Vol. 468, Issue 7325 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature09618	journal	December 2010
Sustained seismic tremors and icequakes detected in the ablation zone of the Greenland ice sheet Röösli, Claudia; Walter, Fabian; Husen, Stephan Journal of Glaciology, Vol. 60, Issue 221 https://doi.org/10.3189/2014JoG13J210	journal	January 2014
An Automatic Event Detector at the Tonto Forest Seismic Observatory Blandford, R. R. GEOPHYSICS, Vol. 39, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1190/1.1440453	journal	October 1974
Direct observations of evolving subglacial drainage beneath the Greenland Ice Sheet Andrews, Lauren C.; Catania, Ginny A.; Hoffman, Matthew J. Nature, Vol. 514, Issue 7520 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature13796	journal	October 2014
Swarms of repeating stick-slip icequakes triggered by snow loading at Mount Rainier volcano Allstadt, Kate; Malone, Stephen D. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, Vol. 119, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JF003086	journal	May 2014
Seismic wave attenuation in the uppermost glacier ice of Storglaciären, Sweden Gusmeroli, Alessio; Clark, Roger A.; Murray, Tavi Journal of Glaciology, Vol. 56, Issue 196 https://doi.org/10.3189/002214310791968485	journal	January 2010
Basal icequakes recorded beneath an Alpine glacier (Glacier d'Argentière, Mont Blanc, France): Evidence for stick-slip motion? Helmstetter, Agnès; Nicolas, Barbara; Comon, Pierre Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, Vol. 120, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JF003288	journal	March 2015
A decade (2002–2012) of supraglacial lake volume estimates across Russell Glacier, West Greenland Fitzpatrick, A. A. W.; Hubbard, A. L.; Box, J. E. The Cryosphere, Vol. 8, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-8-107-2014	journal	January 2014
Assimilation of GRACE tide solutions into a numerical hydrodynamic inverse model Egbert, G. D.; Erofeeva, S. Y.; Han, S. -C. Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 36, Issue 20 https://doi.org/10.1029/2009GL040376	journal	January 2009
A Short Note on Cryoseisms Lacroix, A. V. Seismological Research Letters, Vol. 51, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1785/gssrl.51.1.15	journal	January 1980
Volume Change of Seismic Sources from Moment Tensors Muller, G. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 91, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1785/0120000261	journal	August 2001
Caterpillar-like ice motion in the ablation zone of the Greenland ice sheet Ryser, C.; Lüthi, M. P.; Andrews, L. C. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, Vol. 119, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1002/2013JF003067	journal	October 2014
Supraglacial forcing of subglacial drainage in the ablation zone of the Greenland ice sheet: GREENLAND SUBGLACIAL HYDROLOGY Bartholomew, Ian; Nienow, Peter; Sole, Andrew Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 38, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL047063	journal	April 2011
Seasonal variations in Greenland Ice Sheet motion: Inland extent and behaviour at higher elevations Bartholomew, I. D.; Nienow, P.; Sole, A. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Vol. 307, Issue 3-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2011.04.014	journal	July 2011
Observation of surface seismic activity changes of an Alpine glacier during a glacier-dammed lake outburst Roux, P. -F.; Walter, F.; Riesen, P. Journal of Geophysical Research, Vol. 115, Issue F3 https://doi.org/10.1029/2009JF001535	journal	January 2010
Seismic attenuation in glacial ice: A proxy for englacial temperature: ENGLACIAL TEMPERATURE FROM SEISMIC Peters, L. E.; Anandakrishnan, S.; Alley, R. B. Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, Vol. 117, Issue F2 https://doi.org/10.1029/2011JF002201	journal	April 2012
Basal icequakes during changing subglacial water pressures beneath Gornergletscher, Switzerland Walter, Fabian; Deichmann, Nicholas; Funk, Martin Journal of Glaciology, Vol. 54, Issue 186 https://doi.org/10.3189/002214308785837110	journal	January 2008
Ice dynamic response to two modes of surface lake drainage on the Greenland ice sheet Tedesco, Marco; Willis, Ian C.; Hoffman, Matthew J. Environmental Research Letters, Vol. 8, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/8/3/034007	journal	July 2013
Defining the scalar moment of a seismic source with a general moment tensor Bowers, David; Hudson, John A. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 89, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1785/BSSA0890051390	journal	October 1999
An automated Rayleigh-wave detection algorithm Chael, Eric P. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 87, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1785/BSSA0870010157	journal	February 1997
A waveform correlation method for identifying quarry explosions Harris, D. B. Bulletin of the Seismological Society of America, Vol. 81, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1785/BSSA0810062395	journal	December 1991

Cited By (8)

Seismic observations of crevasse growth following rain-induced glacier acceleration, Haupapa/Tasman Glacier, New Zealand Taylor-Offord, Samuel; Horgan, Huw; Townend, John Annals of Glaciology, Vol. 60, Issue 79 https://doi.org/10.26686/wgtn.14175368.v1	posted_content	January 2019
Supraglacial lake drainage at a fast-flowing Greenlandic outlet glacier. Chudley, Thomas; Christoffersen, Poul; Doyle, Samuel H. Apollo - University of Cambridge Repository https://doi.org/10.17863/cam.46643	text	January 2019
The Influence of Hydrology on the Dynamics of Land-Terminating Sectors of the Greenland Ice Sheet Davison, Benjamin Joseph; Sole, Andrew John; Livingstone, Stephen John Frontiers in Earth Science, Vol. 7 https://doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00010	journal	February 2019
Glacial seismology Aster, R. C.; Winberry, J. P. Reports on Progress in Physics, Vol. 80, Issue 12 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6633/aa8473	journal	November 2017
Supraglacial lake drainage at a fast-flowing Greenlandic outlet glacier Chudley, Thomas R.; Christoffersen, Poul; Doyle, Samuel H. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 116, Issue 51 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1913685116	journal	December 2019
Seismic observations of crevasse growth following rain-induced glacier acceleration, Haupapa/Tasman Glacier, New Zealand Taylor-Offord, Samuel; Horgan, Huw; Townend, John Annals of Glaciology, Vol. 60, Issue 79 https://doi.org/10.1017/aog.2019.20	journal	May 2019
Widespread moulin formation during supraglacial lake drainages in Greenland Hoffman, Matthew J.; Perego, Mauro; Andrews, Lauren C. American Geophysical Union https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-162834	text	January 2018
Seismic observations of crevasse growth following rain-induced glacier acceleration, Haupapa/Tasman Glacier, New Zealand Taylor-Offord, Samuel; Horgan, Huw; Townend, John Annals of Glaciology, Vol. 60, Issue 79 https://doi.org/10.26686/wgtn.14175368	posted_content	January 2019

Similar Records

Seasonal Evolution of the Subglacial Hydrologic System Modified by Supraglacial Lake Drainage in Western Greenland

Journal Article · Thu May 24 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Journal of Geophysical Research. Earth Surface · OSTI ID:1215646

Andrews, Lauren C.; Hoffman, Matthew J.; Neumann, Thomas A.; +6 more

Sturgis and Tekonsha ice advances: Evidence for thin ice sheets in southern Michigan

Conference · Mon Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1993 · Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States) · OSTI ID:1215646

Straw, W T; Kehew, A E; Passero, R N

Greenland subglacial drainage evolution regulated by weakly connected regions of the bed

Journal Article · Mon Dec 19 00:00:00 EST 2016 · Nature Communications · OSTI ID:1215646

Hoffman, Matthew J.; Andrews, Lauren C.; Price, Stephen A.; +7 more

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
58 GEOSCIENCES
97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING
seismology
cross-correlation
seismic source physics
glaciology
polar science
cold regions
glaciers
statistical signal processing
seismic threshold monitoring
detection theory
supraglacial lakes

Title: Seismicity on the western Greenland Ice Sheet: Surface fracture in the vicinity of active moulins

Citation Formats

References (60)

Cited By (8)

Similar Records

Related Subjects