Microearthquake Monitoring of Ice Stream C, West Antarctica: A Sensor for Sticky Spots

9318121 Anandakrishnan This award is for support for a three year project to test the hypothesis that a controlling parameter of fast ice-stream flow is the hydrologic state of discrete zones of high friction ('sticky spots') at the bed of the ice streams. Previous work has discovered an enormous difference in basal microearthquake activity between fast-flowing ice stream B and ice stream C, which stopped flowing within the last 200 years. It is hypothesized that the basal water system is lubricating the sticky spots under the fast ice stream and thus inhibiting microearthquake activity, and at the same time permitting fast ice flow. This experiment is intended to collect a continuous record of wide-bandwidth microearthquake data from a variety of sites, on the ice streams, in the transition zone, and on the inland ice. ***