Echoes from the Edge of Thwaites Glacier, Antarctica

The Thwaites Interdisciplinary Margin Evolution (TIME) project investigates the processes influencing the dynamics and future evolution of the Eastern Shear Margin of Thwaites Glacier, West Antarctica. This presentation will summarize results from TIME’s seismic team. TIME deployed 14 broadband seismometers from 2019 to 2021. We investigate passive seismic signals to better understand englacial temperatures, basal conditions, and subglacial geology. We follow an event detection, location, template-matching, and relocation routine and focus in detail on several clusters of seismic events. In 2023-24, TIME collected 2-D and 3-D controlled-source seismic data to image the shear margin and characterize englacial and basal conditions. With these data, we seek to better constrain models of the future evolution of Thwaites Eastern Shear Margin, to improve future sea-level rise projections.

Speaker: Marianne Karplus, University of Texas, El Paso

Attend online or in person.

Room 350/372