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13 - Arctic glaciers and ground-penetrating radar. Case study: Stagnation Glacier, Bylot Island, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 August 2009

By
T. Irvine-Fynn  and
B. Moorman
Edited by
C. Hauck  and
C. Kneisel
C. Hauck
Affiliation:
Université de Fribourg, Switzerland
C. Kneisel
Affiliation:
University of Würzburg, Germany
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Summary

Introduction

This case study presents results from multiple ground-penetrating radar (GPR) surveys conducted over a single ablation season at a polythermal glacier in the Canadian Arctic. Recent advances in both equipment functionality and data analysis have allowed researchers to examine notions of spatial variation in subsurface conditions, yet to date the full potential of the geophysical tool has not been exploited. A total of 30 km of radar profile data were collected illustrating how seasonal hydrothermal development can be observed in glaciers, including the appearance and disappearance of hydrological features. However, this research exemplified issues that should be borne in mind when undertaking glacier-based GPR, particularly focusing on resolution, interpolation, increasing noise and short-term temporal variability in glacier ice conditions.

Over the past 50 years, radio-echo sounding (RES) and GPR have been increasingly employed on glaciers to determine a number of geometric and structural conditions. Reflection of a proportion of the impulse wave occurs where there is an abrupt, subsurface transition in dielectric constant (κ). The stark contrast between air (κ = 1), water (κ = 80), sediment (κ ≈ 25) and ice (κ ≈ 3.5) enables the reconstruction of subsurface structures from geophysical surveys. RES was initially focused upon the determination of ice thickness and thus bed topography for ice sheets (e.g. Evans 1963, Robin et al. 1969, Davis et al. 1973, Bentley et al. 1979, Hodge et al. 1990).

Type
Chapter
Information
Applied Geophysics in Periglacial Environments , pp. 178 - 190
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2008

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References

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