Seismic Observations on Greenland Ice Sheet By a Joint USA and Japanese Glisn Team (2011-2014)

Abstract:

Global climate change is currently causing melting of the Greenland ice sheet. Recently, a new type of seismic event, referred to as a “glacial earthquake”, has been recognized. Such earthquakes are generated by the movements of large masses of ice within the terminal regions of glacier, and represent a new approach for monitoring ice sheet dynamics. In 2009, the GreenLand Ice Sheet monitoring Network (GLISN) was initiated as international project to monitor changes in ice sheet by constructing a large broadband seismological network in and around Greenland.

Japan is a partner country from when the GLISN project was launched, and has been sending an expedition team every year from 2011. In 2011, the Japanese GLISN team, together with the USA team, installed the dual seismic–GPS station ICESG-GLS2 in the middle of the Greenland ice cap. In 2012 and 2013, we performed maintenance at the ICESG-GLS2, DY2G-GLS1, and NUUK stations. In August 2014, we plan to participate in maintenance operations on three dual seismic–GPS stations on ice (ICESG-GLS2, DY2G-GLS1, and NEEM-GLS3), as well as two stations on bedrock at East coast (DBG and SOEG). This presentation will summarize our field activities for four years, and show results from preliminary analysis with the retrieved data.

The Japanese GLISN team has been supported by JSPS KAKENHI 24403006.