![]() ![]() (You may remember reports of ice or frost quakes around Chicago and the Midwest during the cold snap caused by the polar vortex weeks ago, when residents reported booms or cracking sounds at night this is the same mechanism.) But they wondered how often the phenomenon was occurring in ice in the Antarctic, and what role it might play in the melting and breakup of ice. MacAyeal and the team were interested in the role of "quakes" on the floating ice shelves. There is much we still don't understand about the process - as evidenced by the massive Larsen B ice shelf collapse in 2002, which took glaciologists by surprise - and understanding these mechanisms is key to predicting the future for the ice. "It's possible that seismometers may be a practical way for us to remotely monitor glacier melting."Ĭlimate change is causing the Antarctic to melt, but glaciologists are still mapping how, where and why. ![]() "In these areas we would record tens, hundreds, up to thousands of these per night," said study co-author Douglas MacAyeal, a professor of geophysical sciences and renowned glaciologist who has been traveling to the Antarctic to study the behavior of ice and snow for decades. The phenomenon may be able to help scientists track glacier melting - and to help explain the breakup of large ice shelves. In a recent study, UChicago scientists placed seismometers on the McMurdo Ice Shelf and recorded hundreds of thousands of tiny "ice quakes" that appear to be caused by pools of partially melted ice expanding and freezing at night. ![]()
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