Dense Seismic Array Monitoring of the Glacier Tongue of Isunnguata Sermia, West Greenland
Abstract
Accelerating mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet is affected by meltwater-driven changes in ice dynamics, which remain poorly understood due to limited observations. Here, we present a 2.5 km 2 wide dense passive seismic array experiment conducted in the ablation zone of Isunnguata Sermia, West Greenland. We target varying surface melt conditions through one-month long monitoring periods in spring, summer, and fall using 82-117 nodes deployed in 2023 and 2024 complemented by multi-week surface Distributed Acoustic Sensing acquisitions in 2024. We assess data quality using power spectral densities and noise correlation functions. We find that low-frequency seismic power is highly correlated to ice surface velocity, suggesting a strong control of subglacial hydrology on ice dynamics. We retrieve stable and high signal-to-noise ratio noise correlations containing Rayleigh, Love, and P wave arrivals, suggesting these may successfully be used for glacier structure imaging and monitoring. We finally demonstrate we can locate numerous seismic events with resolution down to a few meters using Matched Field Processing and which exhibit characteristic spatial patterns evolving across seasons. These findings establish the potential of such experiment to infer glacier hydrology, dynamics, and structure at high spatial and temporal resolution.
Related
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BibTeX
@article{paris2026dense,
title = {{Dense Seismic Array Monitoring of the Glacier Tongue of Isunnguata Sermia, West Greenland}},
author = {Nicolas Paris and Florent Gimbert and Tifenn Le Bris and Stephen J Livingstone and Samuel H Doyle and Alexandre Michel and Andrew J Sole and Albanne Lecointre and Laura Pinzon-Rincon and Gregor Hillers and Roméo Courbis and Philippe Roux and Guilhem Barruol and Elizabeth A Bagshaw and Thomas R Chudley and Lisa Craw and Laura A Edwards and Adrien Gilbert and Jonathan D Hawkins and Ryan N Ing and Andrew H Jones and Angus Moffat and Matthew W Peacey and Michael R Prior-Jones and Neil Ross and Arnaud Reboud and Robert D Storrar and Sian C Thorpe and Remy Veness and Tun J Young},
journal = {Seismica},
year = {2026},
month = jul,
doi = {10.26443/seismica.v5i2.2557},
url = {https://hal.science/hal-05760064v1},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Dense Seismic Array Monitoring of the Glacier Tongue of Isunnguata Sermia, West Greenland
AU - Nicolas Paris
AU - Florent Gimbert
AU - Tifenn Le Bris
AU - Stephen J Livingstone
AU - Samuel H Doyle
AU - Alexandre Michel
AU - Andrew J Sole
AU - Albanne Lecointre
AU - Laura Pinzon-Rincon
AU - Gregor Hillers
AU - Roméo Courbis
AU - Philippe Roux
AU - Guilhem Barruol
AU - Elizabeth A Bagshaw
AU - Thomas R Chudley
AU - Lisa Craw
AU - Laura A Edwards
AU - Adrien Gilbert
AU - Jonathan D Hawkins
AU - Ryan N Ing
AU - Andrew H Jones
AU - Angus Moffat
AU - Matthew W Peacey
AU - Michael R Prior-Jones
AU - Neil Ross
AU - Arnaud Reboud
AU - Robert D Storrar
AU - Sian C Thorpe
AU - Remy Veness
AU - Tun J Young
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/07/17
JO - Seismica
DO - 10.26443/seismica.v5i2.2557
UR - https://hal.science/hal-05760064v1
AB - Accelerating mass loss from the Greenland Ice Sheet is affected by meltwater-driven changes in ice dynamics, which remain poorly understood due to limited observations. Here, we present a 2.5 km 2 wide dense passive seismic array experiment conducted in the ablation zone of Isunnguata Sermia, West Greenland. We target varying surface melt conditions through one-month long monitoring periods in spring, summer, and fall using 82-117 nodes deployed in 2023 and 2024 complemented by multi-week surface Distributed Acoustic Sensing acquisitions in 2024. We assess data quality using power spectral densities and noise correlation functions. We find that low-frequency seismic power is highly correlated to ice surface velocity, suggesting a strong control of subglacial hydrology on ice dynamics. We retrieve stable and high signal-to-noise ratio noise correlations containing Rayleigh, Love, and P wave arrivals, suggesting these may successfully be used for glacier structure imaging and monitoring. We finally demonstrate we can locate numerous seismic events with resolution down to a few meters using Matched Field Processing and which exhibit characteristic spatial patterns evolving across seasons. These findings establish the potential of such experiment to infer glacier hydrology, dynamics, and structure at high spatial and temporal resolution.
SN - 2816-9387
ER -