The seismic noise environment of Antarctica

• Autores: Robert E. Anthony, Richard C. Aster, Douglas A. Wiens, Andrew A. Nyblade
• Localización: Seismological Research Letters, ISSN 0895-0695, ISSN-e 1938-2057, Vol. 86, Nº. 1, 2015, págs. 89-100
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Seismographic coverage of Antarctica prior to 2007 consisted overwhelmingly of a handful of long running and sporadically deployed transient stations, many of which were principally collocated with scientific research stations. Despite very cold temperatures, sunless winters, challenging logistics, and extreme storms, recent developments in polar instrumentation driven by new scientific objectives have opened up the entirety of Antarctica to year-round and continuous seismological observation (e.g., Nyblade et al., 2012).

    Motivations for these recent studies include improved understanding of seismogenic, volcanic, tectonic and glaciological processes, heat flow, dynamic glaciological/ocean interactions, and mantle viscosity. Such studies contribute generally to improvements in understanding the geophysical, geological, and glaciological history of the continent and how these processes interact with the past and present state of the glaciological and climate system (e.g., Winberry et al., 2009; Hansen et al., 2010; West et al., 2010; Winberry et al., 2011; Heeszel et al., 2013; Lough et al., 2013; Chaput et al., 2014; Accardo et al., 2014), including processes relevant to glacial isostatic adjustment and sea level rise (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [IPCC] Report, 2007). In addition, microseisms arising from ocean wave activity contain useful climate proxy information on the state and variability of the relatively poorly sensed southern oceans (Aster et al., 2008; Stutzmann et al., 2009; Aster et al., 2010), and such observations are sensitive to sea ice concentration and areal coverage in the polar regions (Grob et al., 2011; Tsai and McNamara, 2011; Koch et al., 2013).

    This characterization of the seismic noise environment of Antarctica, documentation of instrument performance, and comparisons of installation conditions (e.g., ice vaults vs. rock sites) is intended to facilitate optimization...