Seismology at South Pole, Antarctica: History and Future Opportunities
Description:
The U.S. government has operated a seismometer at South Pole, Antarctica (SPA) since the construction of Amundsen-Scott station in 1957. The current station (QSPA) has been highly utilized for the detection and location of global earthquakes and nuclear explosions, studies of swell activity and sea ice around Antarctica, and cryoseismology. However, long-period (> 40 s) noise levels compromise ambient ground motion observations on all three of the station’s borehole broadband seismometers. These high noise levels arise from both instrument self-noise and susceptibility to magnetic field variations, ultimately compromising the ability to make unique normal mode and tidal loading observations at the rotation axis of Earth. To improve long-period seismic observations at the South Pole, the U.S. Geological Survey is collaborating with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory to install a Nanometrics Trillium 360 GSN seismometer at 2.4 km depth within the Antarctic icecap. This presentation will discuss progress toward developing the technology to emplace a sensor at such depths, including an overview of drilling technology used within IceCube. Additionally, opportunities to further advance the field of cryoseismology by leveraging the extensive infrastructure and physics experiments conducted out of Amundsen-Scott will be highlighted. Future opportunities include re-instrumenting QSPA, installing quasi-permanent broadband seismic arrays, and interrogating dark fiber (e.g., DAS) associated with this infrastructure.
Session: Applications and Discoveries in Cryoseismology Across Spatial and Temporal Scales - I
Type: Oral
Date: 5/2/2024
Presentation Time: 05:30 PM (local time)
Presenting Author: Robert
Student Presenter: No
Invited Presentation:
Authors
Robert Anthony Presenting Author Corresponding Author reanthony@usgs.gov U.S. Geological Survey |
Michael DuVernois michael.duvernois@icecube.wisc.edu University of Wisconsin–Madison |
Richard Aster Rick.Aster@colostate.edu Colorado State University |
Geoffrey Bainbridge geoffreybainbridge@nanometrics.ca Nanometrics |
Jim Braun jim.braun@icecube.wisc.edu University of Wisconsin-Madison |
Jeff Cherwinka jcherwinka@psl.wisc.edu University of Wisconsin-Madison |
Jeremey De Armond jdearmond@usgs.gov U.S. Geological Survey |
Skyler Grulke sgrulke@wisc.edu University of Wisconsin-Madison |
Edward Kromer ekromer@contractor.usgs.gov KBR |
Perry Sandstrom sandstrom@icecube.wisc.edu University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States |
Weisen Shen weisen.shen@stonybrook.edu Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York, United States |
Vernon Stoup vstoup@contractor.usgs.gov KBR, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States |
Greg Tanner gtanner@usgs.gov U.S. Geological Survey, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States |
Jeff Weber jeff.weber@icecube.wisc.edu University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin, United States |
Zhongwen Zhan zwzhan@caltech.edu California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, United States |
Seismology at South Pole, Antarctica: History and Future Opportunities
Category
Applications and Discoveries in Cryoseismology Across Spatial and Temporal Scales