The Antarctic deployment is the first in what is hoped to be a series of extreme environment tests for the short-period (SP) sensor – a seismometer that records the high-frequency (high pitched) seismic waves generated by movement in the ice sheets.
The Antarctic deployment is the first in what is hoped to be a series of extreme environment tests for the short-period (SP) sensor – a seismometer that records the high-frequency (high pitched) seismic waves generated by movement in the ice sheets.
Originally developed for the NASA Insight mission to Mars, the short-period seismic sensor built by Imperial College London is being tested to see how it might perform in the hostile conditions of the Solar System’s icy moons.
Dr Ben Fernando, Department of Physics at the University of Oxford (and co-lead on the project), said:
‘This is an incredibly exciting opportunity to test the seismometers in one of the most extreme environments on Earth, and a valuable opportunity to explore how they might perform on one of the icy moons of Saturn or Jupiter one day.’
The short-period seismic sensor is being calibrated using a network of tiny sensors installed into the ice shelf around the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) Halley VI Research Station.
The research team have already begun to collect data on seismic vibrations recorded below the Brunt Ice Shelf as part of the field test – providing valuable insights into the evolution of cracks in the shelf and the ocean conditions beneath.
Read more at: University of Oxford
Setting the sensor on the Brunt Ice Shelf (Photo Credit: Thomas Barningham, British Antarctic Survey)
