Full text loading...
We conducted two passive seismic experiments in front of a glacier on Svalbard during the autumns of 2020 and 2021. We placed seismic receivers on land and at the seabed and recorded seismic signals from calving, fracturing, and tectonic earthquakes. A novel observation from our datasets is that seabed hydrophones record mini-tsunamis (gravity waves) generated by calving glaciers. Here, we describe challenges and lessons learned from these experiments. Our planted geophones were strongly affected by weather conditions, which led to degrading data quality with time. Logistical challenges, safety concerns, and restrictions due to the environmentally vulnerable study site (including roaming polar bears) put limits on the number of receivers that could be used, and where they could be placed. The size of the obtained dataset and the complexity of the recorded seismic signals also introduce challenges during data analysis, including source localization. Despite the challenges, we see that such seismic monitoring experiments may be important to track glacier behaviour caused by a warmer climate.