On Ellesmere Island in the Arctic, a seismic monitoring station has been offering new insights into climate change. Part of the Global Seismographic Network, this station has traditionally been used for earthquake detection. However, research from the University of Chicago reveals it can also monitor sea ice cover by picking up vibrations from ocean waves hitting the shore.
Jui-Chun Freya Chen, a scientist at UChicago and lead author of the study, explains: “This method means you can monitor continuously, 24/7... and it should be able to provide insights about the ice that are hard to get in other ways.” Doug MacAyeal, co-author and professor at UChicago, likens this process to listening to dishes rattle as trucks pass by on a highway.
The Arctic is crucial for understanding climate change. “Arctic sea ice loss is the most important factor in climate change,” says MacAyeal. The region is warming rapidly; since satellite monitoring began in the late 1970s, approximately 30,000 square miles of sea ice have been lost annually.
While satellites offer valuable data, they have limitations like low resolution and infrequent updates. Sea ice dynamics are complex and three-dimensional; thus on-the-ground data from seismic stations could fill gaps left by satellite imagery.
Located on northern Ellesmere Island since 1990 in an area known as Tuvaijuittuq or "last ice area," this station records wave vibrations usually filtered out as noise. Chen notes: “In wintertime...the expanded sea ice dampens the waves...in summer...the ocean waves get louder.” This background noise indicates changes in sea ice levels over time.
Assistant Professor Sunyoung Park emphasizes that this research is just beginning: “Next we can start to look at the data at a finer scale...we can also try to map sea-ice thickness or strength.” The team plans further installations both in Antarctica and elsewhere within the Arctic.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg," says MacAyeal. "These signals are telling us rich things about ice and climate interactions."
Funding for this study came from several sources including National Science Foundation and University of Chicago with findings published under "Tracking Multiyear Sea-Ice Variation in Arctic Ocean Over Decades With Microseism" dated January 11th via Geophysical Research Letters journal.