Hundreds of earthquakes shake one of the most dangerous glaciers on Earth

The Thwaites Glacier in Antarctica, nicknamed the Doomsday Glacier, is a ticking time bomb. Rapid ice melt could cause global sea levels to rise by up to 10 feet (3 meters) if it collapses completely. New evidence suggests the glacier is less stable than previously thought, with hundreds of earthquakes in the icebergs shaking the massive structure for more than a decade.

Thanh Son Pham, a researcher at the Australian National University, has uncovered evidence of hundreds of ice quakes that occurred in Antarctica from 2010 to 2023. Most of these quakes had not previously been detected due to their low-frequency seismic waves, and their discovery raises new questions about the dangerous instability of Antarctica's melting glaciers.

The new study, published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, indicates that 362 ice quakes occurred in Antarctica. Among the newly documented seismic events, 245 earthquakes occurred on the Doomsday Glacier in Antarctica, likely caused by capsizing icebergs.

Thin ice

Icequakes are a recently discovered type of seismic event that produces low-frequency waves with a magnitude of about 5 magnitude. They were first discovered in 2003 and were mainly caused by the collapse of large icebergs.

Most recorded ice quakes have been detected along the coast of Greenland, the largest ice sheet in the Northern Hemisphere. Although scientists hypothesized that ice quakes occur in Antarctica as well, they have been difficult to detect because they are much less powerful than those occurring in Greenland.

Instead of relying on the global network of earthquake detectors, Pham used seismic stations in Antarctica itself to find evidence of ice quakes. The search turned up hundreds of events that were never indexed.

The majority of the ice quakes occurred near Antarctica's largest glacier, Thwaites. Recent evidence has shown that the amount of ice flowing from Thwaites has doubled within three decades, contributing to the global rise in sea levels.

The new study found that oscillatory seismic events do not necessarily coincide with the seasonal movement of warm air temperatures in Antarctica. Instead, the ice quakes near Thwaites appear to occur in parallel with a period of accelerated flow of the glacier's ice tongue towards the sea.

The recently discovered remaining ice quakes occurred near Pine Island Glacier, one of the largest ice streams in Antarctica. However, these events occurred about 30 to 50 miles (60 to 70 km) from the waterfront and are therefore unlikely to have been caused by capsizing icebergs. “The nature of earthquakes in Pine Island glaciers remains puzzling and requires further investigation,” the study notes.

Pham recommends follow-up investigations of the newly cataloged ice quakes in Antarctica to better understand the main driving cause, as well as their impact on glacier instability.

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