Observing glacier bed topography: the H/V spectral method applied on a dense seismic array as a simple alternative to radar

Accurate knowledge of glacier bed topography is critical for quantifying ice volumes and modelling ice and subglacial hydrology dynamics. Bed topography observations are traditionally obtained from airborne and ice penetrating radar, which offers the crucial advantage of recovering the detailed glacier structure over a range of scales. A main difficulty with radar, however, is that waves can be strongly scattered and attenuated by englacial heterogeneities, in particular by water inclusions, which can potentially limit the applicability of the technique under certain conditions.

Here we present a case study on Isunguata Sermia, West Greenland, where we conducted an ice penetrating radar survey together with dense seismic array acquisitions from 87 nodes spread over a 1 km² area. We show that, in the area of investigation, radar observations were only partially successful in identifying the ice-bed interface, likely due to the thick warm ice, presence of some surface water and near-surfacing crevassing and other englacial structures. The H/V analysis performed over the seismic array yielded surprisingly coherent estimates of ice thickness, along with its spatial variation along and across the glacier. These findings raise questions about the interpretation of traditional radar measurements under certain glacier conditions, and how dense seismic arrays could retrieve bed topography more systematically.