scholarly journals Tremor during ice-stream stick slip

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 385-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. P. Lipovsky ◽  
E. M. Dunham

Abstract. During the 200 km-scale stick slip of the Whillans Ice Plain (WIP), West Antarctica, seismic tremor episodes occur at the ice–bed interface. We interpret these tremor episodes as swarms of small repeating earthquakes. The earthquakes are evenly spaced in time, and this even spacing gives rise to spectral peaks at integer multiples of the recurrence frequency ∼ 10–20 Hz. We conduct numerical simulations of the tremor episodes that include the balance of forces acting on the fault, the evolution of rate- and state-dependent fault friction, and wave propagation from the fault patch to a seismometer located on the ice. The ice slides as an elastic block loaded by the push of the upstream ice, and so the simulated basal fault patch experiences a loading velocity equal to the velocity observed by GPS receivers on the surface of the WIP. By matching synthetic seismograms to observed seismograms, we infer fault patch area ∼ 10 m2, bed shear modulus ∼ 20 MPa, effective pressure ∼ 10 kPa, and frictional state evolution distance ∼ 1 μm. Large-scale slip events often occur twice daily, although skipped events have been increasing in frequency over the last decade. The amplitude of tremor (recorded by seismometers on the ice surface) is greater during the double wait time events that follow skipped events. The physical mechanism responsible for these elevated amplitudes may provide a window into near-future subglacial conditions and the processes that occur during ice-stream stagnation.

2015 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 5253-5289 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. P. Lipovsky ◽  
E. M. Dunham

Abstract. During the 200 km-scale stick slip of the Whillans Ice Plain (WIP), West Antarctica, seismic tremor episodes occur at the ice–bed interface. We interpret these tremor episodes as swarms of small repeating earthquakes. The earthquakes are evenly spaced in time and this even spacing gives rise to spectral peaks at integer multiples of the recurrence frequency ~ 10–20 Hz. We conduct numerical simulations of the tremor episodes that include the balance of forces acting on the fault, the evolution of rate- and state-dependent fault friction, and wave propagation from the fault patch to a seismometer located on the ice. The ice slides as an elastic block loaded by the push of the upstream ice, and so the simulated basal fault patch experiences a loading velocity equal to the velocity observed by GPS receivers on the surface of the WIP. By matching synthetic seismograms to observed seismograms, we infer fault area ~ 10 m2, bed shear modulus ~ 10 MPa, effective pressure ~ 10 kPa, and state evolution distance ~ 1 μm. Large-scale slip events often occur twice daily, although skipped events have been increasing in frequency over the last decade. We observe that tremor seismic particle velocity amplitudes are greater during the double wait time events that follow skipped events. The physical mechanism responsible for these anomalously high seismic amplitudes may provide a window into near-future subglacial conditions and the processes that occur during ice stream stagnation.


1993 ◽  
Vol 39 (133) ◽  
pp. 447-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard B. Alley

AbstractThe basal shear stress of an ice stream may be supported disproportionately on localized regions or “sticky spots”. The drag induced by large bedrock bumps sticking into the base of an ice stream is the most likely cause of sticky spots. Discontinuity of lubricating till can cause sticky spots, but they will collect lubricating water and therefore are unlikely to support a shear stress of more than a few tenths of a bar unless they contain abundant large bumps. Raised regions on the ice-air surface can also cause moderate increases in the shear stress supported on the bed beneath. Surveys of large-scale bed roughness would identify sticky spots caused by bedrock bumps, water-pressure measurements in regions of thin or zero till might reveal whether they were sticky spots, and strain grids across the margins of ice-surface highs would show whether the highs were causing sticky spots. Sticky spots probably are not dominant in controlling Ice Stream Β near the Upstream Β camp, West Antarctica.


2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. F. Glasser ◽  
S. J. A. Jennings ◽  
M. J. Hambrey ◽  
B. Hubbard

Abstract. Longitudinal ice-surface structures in the Antarctic Ice Sheet can be traced continuously down-ice for distances of up to 1200 km. A map of the distribution of ~ 3600 of these features, compiled from satellite images, shows that they mirror the location of fast-flowing glaciers and ice streams that are dominated by basal sliding rates above tens of metres per annum and are strongly guided by subglacial topography. Longitudinal ice-surface structures dominate regions of converging flow, where ice flow is subject to non-coaxial strain and simple shear. They can be traced continuously through crevasse fields and through blue-ice areas, indicating that they represent the surface manifestation of a three-dimensional structure, interpreted as foliation. Flow lines are linear and undeformed for all major flow units described here in the Antarctic Ice Sheet except for the Kamb Ice Stream and the Institute and Möller Ice Stream areas, where areas of flow perturbation are evident. Parcels of ice along individual flow paths on the Lambert Glacier, Recovery Glacier, Byrd Glacier and Pine Island Glacier may reside in the glacier system for ~ 2500 to 18 500 years. Although it is unclear how long it takes for these features to form and decay, we infer that the major ice-flow configuration of the ice sheet may have remained largely unchanged for the last few hundred years, and possibly even longer. This conclusion has implications for our understanding of the long-term landscape evolution of Antarctica, including large-scale patterns of glacial erosion and deposition.


1993 ◽  
Vol 39 (133) ◽  
pp. 447-454 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard B. Alley

Abstract The basal shear stress of an ice stream may be supported disproportionately on localized regions or “sticky spots”. The drag induced by large bedrock bumps sticking into the base of an ice stream is the most likely cause of sticky spots. Discontinuity of lubricating till can cause sticky spots, but they will collect lubricating water and therefore are unlikely to support a shear stress of more than a few tenths of a bar unless they contain abundant large bumps. Raised regions on the ice-air surface can also cause moderate increases in the shear stress supported on the bed beneath. Surveys of large-scale bed roughness would identify sticky spots caused by bedrock bumps, water-pressure measurements in regions of thin or zero till might reveal whether they were sticky spots, and strain grids across the margins of ice-surface highs would show whether the highs were causing sticky spots. Sticky spots probably are not dominant in controlling Ice Stream Β near the Upstream Β camp, West Antarctica.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (6) ◽  
pp. eabd0105 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Barcheck ◽  
E. E. Brodsky ◽  
P. M. Fulton ◽  
M. A. King ◽  
M. R. Siegfried ◽  
...  

Simple fault models predict earthquake nucleation near the eventual hypocenter (self-nucleation). However, some earthquakes have migratory foreshocks and possibly slow slip that travel large distances toward the eventual mainshock hypocenter (migratory nucleation). Scarce observations of migratory nucleation may result from real differences between faults or merely observational limitations. We use Global Positioning System and passive seismic records of the easily observed daily ice stream earthquake cycle of the Whillans Ice Plain, West Antarctica, to quantify the prevalence of migratory versus self-nucleation in a large-scale, natural stick-slip system. We find abundant and predominantly migratory precursory slip, whereas self-nucleation is nearly absent. This demonstration that migratory nucleation exists on a natural fault implies that more-observable migratory precursors may also occur before some earthquakes.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurélien Mordret ◽  
Gauthier Guerin ◽  
Diane Rivet ◽  
Brad Lipovsky ◽  
Brent Minchew

<p>Part of the movement that occurs on all glaciers in Antarctica is a continuous and stable movement that unloads the ice into the sea. The Whillans Ice Plain (WIP) is a portion of the Whillans ice stream that measures 8000 km² for an ice thickness of 800 meters. This glacier has a unique characteristic of moving thanks to tidally modulated stick-slip events twice a day. The slip speed varies laterally across the glacier.  We measured surface wave velocity variations computed from ambient seismic noise cross-correlation. The cross-correlations make it possible to monitor temporally and spatially the seismic velocities at the bed of the glacier, associated with changes in poro-elastic parameters and frictional properties of the glacial till. We averaged our observations for the 78 stick-slip events of our dataset and managed to achieve a 5 min temporal resolution along the 45 min long slip events. The results show a decrease in velocity of about 9% of the S-wave velocity in the subglacial sediment layer about 30 minutes after the initiation of the slip. This velocity drop mainly affects the central part of the glacier. A 10% increase in porosity could induce this velocity decrease due to dilatancy. Dilatant strengthening results from this porosity increase, which in turn keeps the glacier in a slow-sliding regime. The high rate of seismic cycles on such a large scale makes the Whillans ice stream a unique laboratory to study transient aseismic slips in glacial context but also in active tectonic faults one. </p>


2021 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Alessio Anzuini

Abstract The Federal Reserve responded to the great financial crisis deploying new monetary policy tools, the most notable of which being the expansion of its balance sheet. In a recent paper, Weale, M., and T. Wieladek. 2016. “What Are the Macroeconomic Effects of Asset Purchases?” Journal of Monetary Economics 79 (C): 81–93 show that the asset purchases were effective in stimulating economic activity as well as inflation and asset prices. Here I show that their results are state dependent: large scale asset purchase are effective only when financial markets are impaired. Financial markets are under stress when the effective risk-bearing capacity of the financial sector is drastically reduced, i.e. when the excess bond premium (EBP) of Gilchrist, S., and E. Zakrajšek. 2012. “Credit Spreads and Business Cycle Fluctuations.” The American Economic Review 102 (4): 1692–72 exceed a certain threshold. Using an estimated threshold vector autoregressive model conditional on the EBP regime, I show that an increase in the balance sheet has expansionary effects on GDP and inflation when EBP is high, but not when it is low (as its effects become mostly insignificant). I argue that the high EBP can be interpreted as a proxy of market dis-functioning so that only when this channel of transmission is on, the unconventional policy is particularly effective. This suggests that models of transmission of unconventional policies, based on asset purchases, should focus also on the market functioning channel and not only on the portfolio balance one.


2011 ◽  
Vol 305 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 283-289 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Paul Winberry ◽  
Sridhar Anandakrishnan ◽  
Douglas A. Wiens ◽  
Richard B. Alley ◽  
Knut Christianson

Author(s):  
Nurali Virani ◽  
Devesh K. Jha ◽  
Zhenyuan Yuan ◽  
Ishana Shekhawat ◽  
Asok Ray

This paper addresses the problem of learning dynamic models of hybrid systems from demonstrations and then the problem of imitation of those demonstrations by using Bayesian filtering. A linear programming-based approach is used to develop nonparametric kernel-based conditional density estimation technique to infer accurate and concise dynamic models of system evolution from data. The training data for these models have been acquired from demonstrations by teleoperation. The trained data-driven models for mode-dependent state evolution and state-dependent mode evolution are then used online for imitation of demonstrated tasks via particle filtering. The results of simulation and experimental validation with a hexapod robot are reported to establish generalization of the proposed learning and control algorithms.


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