Concordia, Antarctica, seismic experiment for the International Polar Year (CASE-IPY)

• Published in: Annals of Geophysics
• Main Authors: Alessia Maggi, Maxime Bes de Berc, Jean-Yves Thoré, Jean-Jacques Lévêque
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV) 2014
• Subjects: Antarctica; Seismology; Concordia; IPY; POLENET; Meteorology. Climatology; QC851-999; Geophysics. Cosmic physics; QC801-809; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Concordia Station; Dumont d’Urville; Antarc*; Ice cap; International Polar Year
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.4401/ag-6381; https://doaj.org/article/41525f6ff64a44618937091a8bd0a642

The CASE-IPY project, part of the larger POLENET initiative of geophysical observations for the International Polar Year, was built on our extensive experience of running seismological stations in Antarctica, both on rock sites (Dumont d’Urville station), and directly on the ice plateau (Concordia station). For CASE-IPY, we deployed 8 temporary seismic stations on the Antarctic plateau: 3 situated near Concordia itself (starting 2008), and the other 5 regularly spaced between Concordia and Vostok (2010-2012), following the maximum in ice topography. The technical problems we have encountered in our field deployments were essentially due to a combination of extreme environmental conditions and isolation of deployment sites. The 3 stations near Concordia were used as test sites to experiment different solutions, and to converge on a design for the 5 main stations. Results from the nearest stations, which transmit data regularly to Concordia, are very promising. The data recorded by our stations will be distributed widely in the scientific community. We expect them to be exploited essentially for structural studies involving Antarctica itself (its ice-cap, crust and lithosphere) via receiver functions, noise correlation, and surface-wave tomography, but also for studies of the Earth’s core.