NEWS STORY: Measuring icequakes
Icequakes unlock secrets of icestreams Measuring tiny icequakes is helping British Antarctic Survey scientists investigate ice streams despite the challenging environment they have to work in. The work of Emma […]
Emma Smith
DTG Student
Education:
- 2011-Present: Ph.D. – Glaciology and Geophysics – University of Cambridge and British Antarctic Survey.
- Dissertation: Microseismicity and the Dynamics of Rutford Ice Stream, West Antarctica
- 2008-2009: M.Sc. – Exploration Geophysics – University of Leeds.
- Dissertation: Warm Ice Distribution in Polythermal Glaciers by Velocity Analysis of Ground Penetrating Radar. This work was supervised by Dr. Roger Clark and Prof. Tavi Murray.
- 2004-2008: M.Eng. – Electronic Engineering with Music Technology Syestems – University of York
Ph.D. Dissertation:
Supervisors: Prof. Bob White and Dr. Andy Smith (British Antarctic Survey)
- Investigating the conditions and dynamics at the base of Rutford Ice Stream (RIS) using passive microseismic monitoring.
- 3000 microseismic events were detected and located, in discrete spatial clusters near the ice-bed interface of RIS.
- Location of these events was constrained by synthetic modelling to investigate the source of errors in location.
- The source mechanism for the events is interpreted as sub-horizontal, low-angle faulting, slipping in the ice flow direction.
- Cluster locations are interpreted as ‘sticky spots’ of stiff basal sediment at the ice-bed interface, where ice movement is accommodated by stick-slip basal sliding.
- Shear wave splitting in the signals has been used to determine properties of the ice fabric of RIS informing both the deformation history and the future response of that ice to the stresses induced by ice flow.
Research interests
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Ice stream dynamics: in particular, the basal dynamics that accommodate ice stream flow and how these are related to sub-glacial sediment characteristics and properties. How passive seismics generated at the ice-bed interface of ice streams can be used to investigate this.
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Ice fabric properties: the formation of ice crystal fabrics under different dress regimes and how these can be investigated using passive seismics, active seismics and radar.
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Ice geophysics: particularly the use of active and passive seismics and radio echo sounding in glacial environments.
Collaborations
- Visiting student at the University of Bristol (2014), working with Alan Baird and Mike Kendall.
Smith, E.C., A.M. Smith, R.S. White, A.M. Brisbourne and H.D. Pritchard (2015), Mapping the Ice-Bed Interface Characteristics of Rutford Ice Stream, West Antarctica, Using Microseismicity, J. Geophys. Res, In Press, doi: 10.1002/2015JF003587.
Publications from NERC Open Research Archive
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Interview on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02hrsj6