%0 Journal Article %J Journal of Glaciology %D 2020 %T The influence of environmental microseismicity on detection and interpretation of small-magnitude events in a polar glacier setting %A Carr, Chris G. %A Carmichael, J. D. %A Pettit, Erin C. %A Truffer, Martin %X

Glacial environments exhibit temporally variable microseismicity. To investigate how microseismicity influences event detection, we implement two noise-adaptive digital power detectors to process seismic data from Taylor Glacier, Antarctica. We add scaled icequake waveforms to the original data stream, run detectors on the hybrid data stream to estimate reliable detection magnitudes and compare analytical magnitudes predicted from an ice crack source model. We find that detection capability is influenced by environmental microseismicity for seismic events with source size comparable to thermal penetration depths. When event counts and minimum detectable event sizes change in the same direction (i.e. increase in event counts and minimum detectable event size), we interpret measured seismicity changes as ‘true’ seismicity changes rather than as changes in detection. Generally, one detector (two degree of freedom (2dof)) outperforms the other: it identifies more events, a more prominent summertime diurnal signal and maintains a higher detection capability. We conclude that real physical processes are responsible for the summertime diurnal inter-detector difference. One detector (3dof) identifies this process as environmental microseismicity; the other detector (2dof) identifies it as elevated waveform activity. Our analysis provides an example for minimizing detection biases and estimating source sizes when interpreting temporal seismicity patterns to better infer glacial seismogenic processes.

%B Journal of Glaciology %8 07/2020 %G eng %U https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-glaciology/article/influence-of-environmental-microseismicity-on-detection-and-interpretation-of-smallmagnitude-events-in-a-polar-glacier-setting/E1A441425341F677117509351F3C6763 %R 10.1017/jog.2020.48 %0 Journal Article %J Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface %D 2012 %T Seismic multiplet response triggered by melt at Blood Falls, Taylor Glacier, Antarctica %A Carmichael, J. D. %A Pettit, E. %A Hoffman, M %A Andrew G Fountain %A Hallet, B. %X

Meltwater input often triggers a seismic response from glaciers and ice sheets. It is difficult, however, to measure melt production on glaciers directly, while subglacial water storage is not directly observable. Therefore, we document temporal changes in seismicity from a dry-based polar glacier (Taylor Glacier, Antarctica) during a melt season using a synthesis of seismic observation and melt modeling. We record icequakes using a dense six-receiver network of three-component geophones and compare this with melt input generated from a calibrated surface energy balance model. In the absence of modeled surface melt, we find that seismicity is well-described by a diurnal signal composed of microseismic events in lake and glacial ice. During melt events, the diurnal signal is suppressed and seismicity is instead characterized by large glacial icequakes. We perform network-based correlation and clustering analyses of seismic record sections and determine that 18% of melt-season icequakes are repetitive (multiplets). The epicentral locations for these multiplets suggest that they are triggered by meltwater produced near a brine seep known as Blood Falls. Our observations of the correspondingp-wave first motions are consistent with volumetric source mechanisms. We suggest that surface melt enables a persistent pathway through this cold ice to an englacial fracture system that is responsible for brine release episodes from the Blood Falls seep. The scalar moments for these events suggest that the volumetric increase at the source region can be explained by melt input.

%B Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface %V 117 %8 07/2012 %G eng %U http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2011JF002221/full %N F3 %! J. Geophys. Res. %R 10.1029/2011JF002221