Reverse glacier motion during iceberg calving and the cause of glacial earthquakes

Movers and shakers When the edge of an ice sheet breaks off and falls into the sea (calves), the remaining section of the ice sheet moves backward and down and can suffer a glacial earthquake. Murray et al. studied calving from Greenland's Helheim Glacier. The forces that cause the change in th...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science
Main Authors: Murray, T., Nettles, M., Selmes, N., Cathles, L. M., Burton, J. C., James, T. D., Edwards, S., Martin, I., O’Farrell, T., Aspey, R., Rutt, I., Baugé, T.
Other Authors: NSF, NASA, Natural Environment Research Council UK, Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship, Climate Change Consortium of Wales
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) 2015
Subjects:
Ice Sheet
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.aab0460
https://www.science.org/doi/pdf/10.1126/science.aab0460
Description
Summary:Movers and shakers When the edge of an ice sheet breaks off and falls into the sea (calves), the remaining section of the ice sheet moves backward and down and can suffer a glacial earthquake. Murray et al. studied calving from Greenland's Helheim Glacier. The forces that cause the change in the motion of the ice sheet at its terminus also trigger the accompanying earthquakes. Because these seismic signals can be detected by instruments located all over the globe, it should be possible to use these glacial earthquakes as proxies for glacier calving. Science , this issue p. 305

Similar Items