Analysis of Antarctic Broad Band PASSCAL Data for Surface Wave Dispersion

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Abstract This award supports a study of the technical feasibility of collecting and analyzing broad-band teleseismic data from the Antarctic continental interior using portable seismometers. The West Antarctic Ice Sheet overlies a region of the Antarctic continent which may be in extension. However, very little is actually known about the seismic structure of the crust and upper mantle. The deployment of portable broad-band seismometers for passive teleseismic studies may offer the most effective means of acquiring data on the deep structure of this continent. Data collected with broad-band PASSCAL seismometers deployed as an augmentation to the ICEQUAKE network in central West Antarctica represents useful records with several well defined teleseismic events (about 10-20 events) that were recorded over a period of five weeks. The data are of sufficient quality to allow the estimation of fundamental mode dispersion curves down to periods as low as 50 seconds, and the analysis of body phases for boundary interactions and travel time anomalies. This should provide first-order constraints on the shear velocity structure of the crust and upper mantle down to a depth of approximately 200 km. Additionally, the data contain sufficient information to develop ambient noise models for ice sheets. Consequently, if successful, this work will lead to important guidance for the technical design elements necessary for developing an important experimental resource for seismic studies that may lead to significant advances in understanding the Antarctic continent.