Lanteri et al. (2025) Seismic constraints on glacier density

⚠️ Warning: This summary was generated from the abstract only, as the full text was not available.

Identification

• Journal: Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich)
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-11-26
• Authors: Ariane Lanteri, Scott Keating, Lars Gebraad, Sara Klaasen, Marta Pienkowska-Côte, Olaf Eisen, Andrea Zunino, Kristín Jónsdóttir, Coen Hofstede, Dimitri Zigone, Andreas Fichtner
• DOI: 10.3929/ethz-c-000789076

Research Groups

Not explicitly mentioned in the provided text.

Short Summary

This study combines densely sampled fiber-optic sensing data with Hamiltonian Monte Carlo sampling to directly constrain firn density to approximately 100 meters depth, revealing that commonly used seismic wave speed-to-density scaling relations introduce biases of about ±10 % and fail to capture detailed density structures.

Objective

• To extract direct seismic constraints on firn density using fiber-optic sensing and Hamiltonian Monte Carlo sampling, thereby avoiding biases from subjective regularization choices and empirical scaling relations, and providing reliable uncertainty estimates.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Local, with density constrained to approximately 100 meters depth.
• Temporal Scale: Not explicitly mentioned; the measurements represent a snapshot of the firn density structure.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Hamiltonian Monte Carlo sampling.
• Data sources: Densely sampled fiber-optic sensing data from strong serendipitous anthropogenic sources; high-quality surface-wave overtone data.

Main Results

• High-quality surface-wave overtone data can directly constrain firn density to approximately 100 meters depth.
• The developed approach avoids biases from subjective regularization and empirical scaling relations, providing reliable uncertainty estimates for firn density.
• Commonly used scaling relations from seismic wave speeds to density fail to reproduce resolvable details of glacial density structure.
• These empirical scaling relations tend to deviate from direct density constraints by approximately ±10 %.
• Consequently, ice mass inferred from seismic wave speed using these scaling relations may be incorrect by a similar amount.

Contributions

• Introduces a novel, bias-free methodology for direct firn density estimation using combined fiber-optic sensing and Hamiltonian Monte Carlo sampling.
• Provides direct seismic constraints on firn density, eliminating the need for empirical scaling relations from seismic wave speeds to density.
• Quantifies the significant inaccuracies (approximately ±10 %) of existing seismic wave speed-to-density scaling relations in reproducing detailed firn density structures.
• Highlights the potential for substantial errors in ice mass balance estimates derived from traditional seismic methods that rely on these empirical scaling relations.

Funding

Not explicitly mentioned in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Lanteri2025Seismic,
  author = {Lanteri, Ariane and Keating, Scott and Gebraad, Lars and Klaasen, Sara and Pienkowska-Côte, Marta and Eisen, Olaf and Zunino, Andrea and Jónsdóttir, Kristín and Hofstede, Coen and Zigone, Dimitri and Fichtner, Andreas},
  title = {Seismic constraints on glacier density},
  journal = {Repository for Publications and Research Data (ETH Zurich)},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.3929/ethz-c-000789076},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-c-000789076}
}