N9 - Svalbard Glaciers Surge Monitoring ...

• Main Author: University of Oslo
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: International Federation of Digital Seismograph Networks 2018
• Subjects: glacier; Ny Ålesund; Ny-Ålesund; Svalbard
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.7914/g6dz-5a09; https://www.fdsn.org/networks/detail/N9/

The Svalbard archipelago is covered by glaciers and ice caps to 57% of its 60,000 km2 land area, corresponding to approximately 6,200 km3 of ice. The initial scope of the network is to study the Kongsvegen glacier located near the Ny-Ålesund research station. This glacier rests on a sediment base of 5 to 60 m thickness, is grounded below sea level over its lowermost 6 km and has a polythermal regime with a 50-130m thick cold layer on top of temperate ice. On its lateral flanks, the glacier is frozen to the bed, which presumably exerts considerable lateral flow resistance. Following the a previous surge in 1948, the glacier has been in its quiescent stage, building up a reservoir of ice in its upper part because of the inefficient downstream transport of ice. In 2018, we operated three three-component seismometers positioned along 13 km of the central flowline between the glacier front and the long-term equilibrium line altitude. In 2021, this network has been expanded and we operated up to 20 seismometers of ...