Image

Digging Out

March 24, 2017

WHOI seismologist Ralph Stephen and collaborators at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Washington University in St. Louis, and Colorado State University are leading an effort to better understand the disintegration of the ice shelves. A science team including MIT-WHOI Joint Program student Laura Stevens went to Antarctica in November, and—with some effort—retrieved instruments that had been installed on the Ross Ice Shelf in 2014. The instruments were seismic sensors that measured vibrations in the ice caused by waves hitting the seaward edge of the ice shelf. Scientists will analyze the speed and amplitude of those vibrations to identify areas of weakness and fracturing in the ice shelf.(Photo by Laura Stevens, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)