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Distributed Acoustic Sensing (DAS) of Seismic Properties in a Borehole drilled on a Fast-Flowing Greenlandic Outlet Glacier
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  • Adam D Booth,
  • Poul Christoffersen,
  • Charlotte Schoonman,
  • Andy Clarke,
  • Bryn Hubbard,
  • Robert Law,
  • Samuel Huckerby Doyle,
  • Thomas Russell Chudley,
  • Athena Chalari
Adam D Booth
University of Leeds

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Poul Christoffersen
University of Cambridge
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Charlotte Schoonman
University of Cambridge
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Andy Clarke
Silixa Ltd.
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Bryn Hubbard
Aberystwyth University
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Robert Law
University of Cambridge
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Samuel Huckerby Doyle
Aberystwyth University
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Thomas Russell Chudley
Scott Polar Research Institute
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Athena Chalari
Silixa Ltd.
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Abstract

Distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) is a new technology in which seismic energy is recorded at high spatial and temporal resolution along a fibre-optic cable. We show analyses from the first glaciological borehole deployment of DAS to measure the englacial and subglacial seismic properties of Store Glacier, a fast-flowing outlet of the Greenland Ice Sheet. By characterizing compressional and shear wave propagation in 1030 m-deep vertical seismic profiles, sampled at 10 m vertical resolution, we detected a transition from isotropic to anisotropic ice consistent with a Holocene-Wisconsin transition at 83% of the ice thickness. We also infer temperate ice in the lowermost 100 m of the glacier, and identified subglacial reflections originating from the base of a 20 m-thick layer of consolidated sediment. Our findings highlight the transformative potential of DAS to inform the physical properties of glaciers and ice sheets.
16 Jul 2020Published in Geophysical Research Letters volume 47 issue 13. 10.1029/2020GL088148