The RESOLVE project: a multi-physics experiment with a temporary dense seismic array on the Argentière Glacier, French Alps

Recent work in the field of cryo-seismology demonstrates that high frequency (>1 Hz) seismic waves provide key constraints on a wide range of glacier processes such as basal friction, surface crevassing or subglacial water flow. Establishing quantitative links between the seismic signal and the processes of interest however requires detailed characterization of the wavefield, which at high frequencies necessitates the deployment of large and particularly dense seismic arrays. Although dense seismic array monitoring has recently become increasingly common in geophysics, its application to glaciated environments remains limited. Here we present a dense seismic array experiment made of 98 3-component seismic stations continuously recording during 35 days in early spring 2018 on the Argentiere Glacier, French Alps. The seismic dataset is supplemented with a wide range of complementary observations obtained from ground penetrating radar, drone imagery, GNSS positioning and in-situ measurements of basal glacier sliding velocities and subglacial water discharge. We present first results through conducting spectral analysis, template matching, matched-field processing and eikonal wave tomography. We report enhanced spatial resolution on basal stick slip and englacial fracturing sources as well as novel constraints on the heterogeneous nature of the noise field generated by subglacial water flow and on the link between crevasse properties and englacial seismic velocities. We outline in which ways further work using this dataset could help tackle key remaining questions in the field.