Ambient Seismicity on Europan Analogs using the Seismometer to Investigate Ice and Ocean Structure (SIIOS)

The Seismometer to Investigate Ice and Ocean Structure (SIIOS) project is exploring the science capabilities of seismometers in ocean world analog environments. Ocean worlds, such as Europa, Enceladus and Titan, have thick global icy shells overlying liquid oceans. The icy shells may be seismically active due to tidal stresses. SIIOS tests several seismometers in a small-aperture array in a mock-lander configuration to quantify the ability to detect, locate, and identify seismic sources, as well as constrain local ice structure. The SIIOS experiment was deployed on two terrestrial analogs for ocean worlds. We first deployed on Gulkana Glacier in Alaska in September 2017, and then deployed in Northwestern Greenland, over a subglacial lake from May 2018-August 2018. Both areas serve as analog locations for Europa due to the layering of ice, water and rock. Gulkana was a relatively noisy site due to surface runoff and drainage, higher topographic variation (inducing rockfalls), and proximity to active plate ...