Acoustic activity indicates submarine melt at tidewater glaciers
Submarine melting is one of the major mechanisms of ice loss from marine-terminating glaciers and ice shelves, but its contribution is yet to be fully understood. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of monitoring melting using passive underwater acoustics, by sensing the loud crackling sound produc...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Cambridge University Press
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Journal of Glaciology |
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| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143025100610/type/journal_article |
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| author | Hari Vishnu Mandar Chitre Oskar Glowacki Dale Stokes Hayden Johnson Mateusz Moskalik Grant B Deane |
| author_facet | Hari Vishnu Mandar Chitre Oskar Glowacki Dale Stokes Hayden Johnson Mateusz Moskalik Grant B Deane |
| author_sort | Hari Vishnu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Submarine melting is one of the major mechanisms of ice loss from marine-terminating glaciers and ice shelves, but its contribution is yet to be fully understood. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of monitoring melting using passive underwater acoustics, by sensing the loud crackling sound produced during melting due to the release of pressurised ice-trapped bubbles. We profile the acoustic field in glacial bays in Svalbard using a hydrophone array and show that the sound level in the bay contains clues on the melt activity. The sound level’s interpretation is hindered by its spatial variability, which we suppress using a model of melt-induced acoustic activity. Thereby, we show that the sound generated at the glacier terminus is correlated with the ablation rate at the calving glacier front and the water temperature and thus linked to the melt rate. This marks a step forward in using passive acoustics to monitor submarine melt, paving the way for an autonomous, long-term, large-scale monitoring tool providing data that can inform assessments and simulations of ice sheet loss and sea level rise. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-9eb5b64fea554af881d5a075e346a215 |
| institution | OA Journals |
| issn | 0022-1430 1727-5652 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Journal of Glaciology |
| spelling | doaj-art-9eb5b64fea554af881d5a075e346a2152025-08-20T02:36:03ZengCambridge University PressJournal of Glaciology0022-14301727-56522025-01-017110.1017/jog.2025.10061Acoustic activity indicates submarine melt at tidewater glaciersHari Vishnu0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1617-959XMandar Chitre1Oskar Glowacki2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5164-0206Dale Stokes3Hayden Johnson4Mateusz Moskalik5Grant B Deane6Acoustic Research Laboratory, Tropical Marine Science Institute, 18 Kent Ridge Road, National University of Singapore, SingaporeAcoustic Research Laboratory, Tropical Marine Science Institute, 18 Kent Ridge Road, National University of Singapore, Singapore Department of Electrical and Communication Engineering, National University of Singapore, SingaporeInstitute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, PolandMarine Physical Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, USAMarine Physical Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, USAInstitute of Geophysics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, PolandMarine Physical Laboratory, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, California, USASubmarine melting is one of the major mechanisms of ice loss from marine-terminating glaciers and ice shelves, but its contribution is yet to be fully understood. Here, we demonstrate the feasibility of monitoring melting using passive underwater acoustics, by sensing the loud crackling sound produced during melting due to the release of pressurised ice-trapped bubbles. We profile the acoustic field in glacial bays in Svalbard using a hydrophone array and show that the sound level in the bay contains clues on the melt activity. The sound level’s interpretation is hindered by its spatial variability, which we suppress using a model of melt-induced acoustic activity. Thereby, we show that the sound generated at the glacier terminus is correlated with the ablation rate at the calving glacier front and the water temperature and thus linked to the melt rate. This marks a step forward in using passive acoustics to monitor submarine melt, paving the way for an autonomous, long-term, large-scale monitoring tool providing data that can inform assessments and simulations of ice sheet loss and sea level rise.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143025100610/type/journal_articlecryoacousticspassive acousticssubmarine meltTidewater glacier |
| spellingShingle | Hari Vishnu Mandar Chitre Oskar Glowacki Dale Stokes Hayden Johnson Mateusz Moskalik Grant B Deane Acoustic activity indicates submarine melt at tidewater glaciers Journal of Glaciology cryoacoustics passive acoustics submarine melt Tidewater glacier |
| title | Acoustic activity indicates submarine melt at tidewater glaciers |
| title_full | Acoustic activity indicates submarine melt at tidewater glaciers |
| title_fullStr | Acoustic activity indicates submarine melt at tidewater glaciers |
| title_full_unstemmed | Acoustic activity indicates submarine melt at tidewater glaciers |
| title_short | Acoustic activity indicates submarine melt at tidewater glaciers |
| title_sort | acoustic activity indicates submarine melt at tidewater glaciers |
| topic | cryoacoustics passive acoustics submarine melt Tidewater glacier |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022143025100610/type/journal_article |
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