Abstract

The frozen regions of Earth, such as the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, are displaying rapid and significant responses to climate change. As temperatures rise, ice melts and sea level rises, with consequences that already impact people’s lives. Although Earth’s polar regions may seem remote, changes there inevitably go on to influence populations and natural systems the world over.

Geophysics is a fundamental tool used to provide information about the state of the frozen regions: how and why they are changing and what they might look like in the future. Cryoseismology is rapidly becoming part of this toolbox. Observations of seismic signals from glaciers and ice sheets are providing information about ice rheology and dynamics, ice fracture, and subglacial systems. All these factors control ice flow and therefore the contribution of the polar regions to sea level rise. In this talk I will give an overview of how these measurements are made, what they are telling us, and how new technologies such as seismic nodes will likely shape this exciting and challenging area of geophysics.