How can earthquakes form in glaciers?
One might begin to wonder just how glacial earthquakes occur given the fact that glaciers are “massive ice cubes that float.” However, a team of scientists from both the U.S and U.K have found new behaviors during what are called calving events that have been causing these glacial earthquakes. Very little is known about the process.
Where is this research on glacial earthquakes published?
The results of this find about the glacial earthquakes was published in Science Express on the 25th of June, two days ago. The findings go into further detail about how the calving events induce the glacial earthquakes, which are detectable as seismic activity across the globe.
Calving activity causes a disturbance in water as the ice breaks off from the sheet. The disturbance is a combination of back and down movements that then cause the glacial earthquake instruments to pick it up.
Where was the finding?
The research was conducted in the Greenland Ice Sheet, where massive loss of ice is caused due to the calving events. But, also at a specific location on Greenland’s Helheim Glacier, calving events are causing these earthquakes according to their observations.
some footage on a calving event in 2010 at Helheim Glacier can be found here.
What does this mean?
Scientifically, this research tells scientists and researchers more about the process of ice calving and how the subsequent ice loss figures into the global sea level. It is also worth noting that in the past twenty years, the amount of glacial earthquakes has risen, and the quakes are thought to be moving north. This would mean even more ice loss from the ice sheet by calving.
By understanding more about calving and glacial earthquakes, teams of scientists and researchers can then better understand the motion the earthquakes cause. They can better measure these ice calving events and see how much these ice losses from the sheet influence global sea levels, but also someday may acquire the ability to get real-time happenings of when those losses are occurring from calving.
The key to predicting future sea levels’ rising may be in monitoring the big glaciers for calving and glacial earthquakes.
