14 DAY TRIAL // A team of scientists at the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State), led by geosciences professor Sridhar Anandakrishnan, is currently working on developing a seismometer that is capable of measuring how seismic waves move through thick ice sheets, such as the one in Antarctica.
Such an instrument could soon be used to gain more insight into the history of the world's largest and most important ice sheets, those in Antarctica and Greenland. These ice fields have the potential to raise global sea levels considerably if they melt, so experts have to constantly keep an eye on them.
By using a seismometer to study ices, researchers can form a picture of the layers inside the sheet, which enables them to retrace the evolution of that particular region over time. Understanding how the Antarctic reacted to climate change in the past may be key to predicting how it will behave in the future.
The ice covering the Southern Continent, for example, is around 3.2 kilometers (2 miles) thick, and is made up of thousands upon thousands of distinct layers. Until just recently, it was completely impossible for scientists to see and study these layers without drilling boreholes at the South Pole.
“Over time, layers are formed when snow accumulates and compresses or when ice melts and runs into the ocean. By studying these layers, we can see how the ice sheets have evolved and pick up on trends that correlate with climate change,” Anandakrishnan explains.
The prototype wireless seismometer he and his team are currently working on is called geoPebble. The researcher plans to deploy multiple of these small, compact and completely self-contained devices across Antarctica, so climate experts can have access to an uninterrupted flow of data around the year.
“I had the vision for geoPebbles several years ago, but the technology wasn’t quite there yet. It’s only recently that it has caught up to what we wanted to accomplish. There’s a huge opportunity in the field of geosciences for IT specialists to come in and help us develop these new technologies,” he explains.
Each of the geoPebbles is around 22.8 centimeters (9 inches) tall, and shaped like a hexagon. The largest amount of space inside is taken up by the battery. The actual sensors are located on either side of the enclosure, alongside a circuit board.
“Because of the harsh environment, we need to have technology that is very resilient. Eliminating cables and wires helps because those are typically the components that fail first,” Anandakrishnan concludes.