Description: Seismic data acquisition and interpretation belongs to the oldest geophysical methods used in glaciological research. Its has been in use since the beginning of the 20th century. However, since the advent of airborne radio-echo sounding (or radar), the amount of seismic work carried out on polar ice masses and glaciers has been decreasing. The reasons is that airborne radars can acquire much more data in a very short time, especially when it comes to sounding ice thicknesses, than ever possible with seismics. Seismic data can only be acquired with the seismic source and recorders, i.e. geophones, on the ground. Moreover, as the top tens of meters of polar ice masses consist of porous firn, the traditional application of explosive seismic sources require drilling of shot holes about 10 to 50 m deep into the firn to overcome strong wave attenuation. Such constraints make seismic works comparably slower than radar data acquisition. Despite such disadvantages, the mutual application of seismic and radar methods provide a strong synergy for enlighting the internal structure and property of ice masses, important for determining ice-dynamic flow parameters, as well as the properties of the sub-ice geology. A considerable improvement in seismic data acqiusition has been achieved over the last two years with the successful application of standard vibroseismic methods on cold firn, both, in the polar regions as well as on high-altitude Alpine glaciers. In this contribution we provide an overview over the achievments, both, technically and scientifically, obtained in the last two years.

Description: The first Vibroseis reflection survey at Antarctica was successfully carried out by the Alfred Wegener Institute in 2010. Based on the results of the vibrator in combination with a snow streamer, a grid survey was carried out at Halvfarryggen Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, in 2011. Halvfarryggen is a 900m thick local ice dome close to the grounding line constraining the east side of the Eksrömisen ice shelf. Here we present the first results of the Vibroseis reflection survey where we focus on the stratigraphy of the ice column and the underlying strata of the dome. From the main grid line seismic reflection data were also collected using explosives. Resolution and penetration of the Vibroseis and explosive data sets are compared and discussed as well as the logistics of each method.

Description: We carried out a combined Vibroseis-Explosive survey in combination with a snowstreamer at Halvfarryggen, a local ice dome at a triple point in the vicinity of the German Antarctic research station NeumayerIII. The Vibroseis survey was grid shaped to give spatial information about the glaciological and geological substructure. The center survey line was also surveyed with explosives and compared with the Vibroseis data. Internal ice reflections, clearly visible with explosives are not well visible in the Vibroseis data except for the strongest and deepest internal reflection. We interpret this deepest internal ice reflector as ice crystals orientated in to a single maximum. The ice bed contact we interpret as a frozen till layer overlaying bedrock. From velocity analysis derived from refractions seen in far offset data, we interpret the bedrock as igneous.