Analysis of seismic records at Jang Bogo Station, Antarctica

Abstract

Seismic research in Antarctica, where most of the area is covered by an thick ice layers, has been extremely limited until recently (Bannister & Kennett, 2002; Rowe et al., 2000). Geophysical studies in the Antarctica, where grand scale investigations were difficult due to harsh environments, were conducted near the East Antarctic coasts, and a part of West Antarctica and the TransAntarctic Mountains (Barklage et al., 2009; Heeszel et al., 2016; Lawrence et al., 2006). In Antarctica, seismic research is a key for solving an enigmatic tectonical history this region and for explaining physical movement mechanism of the cryosphere. Due to the harsh working conditions in Antarctica, however, it is harder to access and install seismic stations in Antarctica than other regions. Korea Antarctic geophysical team has been conducted various geophysical researches in the vicinity of King Sejong Station (Lee et al., 2000; Lee et al., 2011; Lee et al., 2012), but a large scale survey, i.e. a survey for the Antarctic continent, could not been conducted due to its geographical limitation of about 1000km away from the Antarctic Continent. After, March 2013, construction of new year-round Korean Antarctic research stations, Jang Bogo Station, at Cape Möbius of the Terra Nova Bay in Northern Victoria Land, East Antarctica, full-scale geophysical survey can be feasible including the monitoring of Mt. Melbourne volcano, the study on dynamic movement of Campbell, Nansen, and David glaciers and the investigation for solving the geotectonical history of the Northern Victoria Land. Geophysical studies of seismic activities that have occurred around the Terra Nova Bay have not been studied sufficiently. Until now, geophysical research near the Terra Nova Bay has been conducted by the Italian research group based on the Mario Zucchelli Station (MZS), an Italian Summer Station located 10 km southwest of Jang Bogo Station. It has been difficult to conduct research that requires obtaining continuous seismic data in the extreme Antarctic environment because Italian researchers at the Mario Zucchelli Station only work during the Antarctic summer period. I had installed and operated two seismometers near Jang Bogo Station to obtain the continuous seismic data which include various seismic signals originated naturally or artificially during the overwintering research period of 2015 at the Jang Bogo Station. The main purposes of establishing the seismic station are to acquire continuous seismic data and to study on the local seismic activities and on the characteristics of seismic waves in Antarctica, which is, so-called, the region of the world's most harsh environments. I also analyze the quality of seismic data that were detected near the Jang Bogo seismic stations in 2015 to determine the performance of the seismic observation devices. In the discussion, the origins of unknown, characteristic phases are discussed, in order to find out the relationship with recent dynamics observed near Jang Bogo Station, and the catalog of these events was created. This study could be a good start point for future seismic research of this region.