On Tuesday 14 May 2024, at 16:00, the seminar The importance of geophysics in understanding the dynamics of the terrestrial arctic due to warmer climate will take place in the Aula Magna MIGE in Via Weiss 1 (Pal.C).

The host of the event, organised by the Department of Mathematics, will be Prof. Tor Arne Johansen of the University of Bergen.

The seminar will be in English.

The meeting will be available in videoconference
 

Abstract

The surface temperatures in Svalbard in the Norwegian Arctic have shown to dramatically increase along with global warming over the last decades. The average temperature in Longyearbyen in Svalbard has increased by approximately 4 degrees Celsius since the opening of the University Courses at Svalbard about 30 years ago. Increased temperatures cause thawing of sediments, retreating glaciers and general destabilization of the ground. Furthermore, extensive thawing of the Cryosphere may cause severe outlet of climate gases. Heat flux into the frozen tundra causes frozen and stiff sediments to soften, which have significant effects on their elastic and seismic properties. Geophysical methods will be important for revealing such ongoing near-surface dynamic processes caused by a warmer climate. In this presentation I will show examples on the use of active and passive seismic methods, and assisted by GPR data, for studying such phenomena, and, furthermore, emphasize the generics of methods already established and used by the oil and gas industry.