Climatic change is of incredible importance in the polar regions as ice-sheets and glaciers respond strongly to change in average temperature. The analysis of seismic signals (icequakes) emitted by glaciers (i.e., cryo-seismology) is thus gaining importance as a tool for monitoring glacier activity. To understand the scaling relation between regional glacier-related seismicity and actual small-scale local glacier dynamics and to calibrate the identified classes of icequakes to locally observed waveforms, a temporary passive seismic monitoring experiment was conducted in the vicinity of the calving front of Kronebreen, one of the fastest tidewater glaciers on Svalbard (Fig. 1). By combining the local observations with recordings of the nearby GEOFON station GE.KBS, the local experiment provides an ideal link between local observations at the glacier to regional scale monitoring of NW Spitsbergen. During the 4-month operation period from May to September 2013, eight broadband seismometers and three 4-point short-period arrays were operating around the glacier front of Kronebreen.
Glacial contribution to eustatic sea level rise is currently dominated by loss of the smaller glaciers
and ice caps, about 40% of which are tidewater glaciers that lose mass through calving ice bergs.
The most recent predictions of glacier contribution to sea level rise over the next century are
strongly dependent upon models that are able to project individual glacier mass changes globally
and through time. A relatively new promising technique for monitoring glacier calving is through the
use of passive seismology. CalvingSEIS aims to produce high temporal resolution, continuous
calving records for the glaciers in Kongsfjord, Svalbard, and in particular for the Kronebreen glacier
laboratory through innovative, multi-disciplinary monitoring techniques combining fields of
seismology and bioacoustics to detect and locate individual calving events autonomously and
further to develop methods for the quantification of calving ice volumes directly from the seismic
and acoustic signals.