Detection of differences in sea ice crystal structure using
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TitleDetection of differences in sea ice crystal structure using cross-borehole DC resistivity tomographyAbstractCross-borehole DC resistivity tomography measurements on first-year Antarctic sea ice show a decrease in the horizontal component of resistivity below 0.8. m in depth which is not related to changes in either temperature or brine volume fraction. Microstructural models derived from the resistivity data suggest that this change is related to an increased degree of horizontal connectivity in the brine microstructure of the ice. Comparison of the resistivity data with crystallographic measurements shows that this correlates with a change in ice structure from columnar ice to ice which contains an increasing fraction of platelet ice. It is thus demonstrated that not only can resistivity measurements track the temporal evolution of sea ice microstructure due to changes in temperature, but are also able to distinguish different ice types. This suggests that the dependence of sea ice properties on the distribution of brine inclusions can be studied in-situ through the use of resistivity measurements, providing a non-destructive technique for examining permeability-porosity relations in sea ice. Copyright 2012 Elsevier B.V.AcknowledgementsThis research, which forms part of New Zealand's contribution to the IPY, was funded by the Foundation for Research, Science and Technology and Postgraduate Scholarships from the University of Otago (AJG) and Victoria University of Wellington (KAJ). We are grateful to Brian Staite and the 2009 Scott Base wintering team for support in the field. Peter Stroud and Richard Sparrow helped to construct instruments.
TypeArticleCitationJones, K., Gough, A., Ingham, M., Mahoney, A., Langhorne, P. and Haskell, T. (2012). Detection of differences in sea ice crystal structure using cross-borehole DC resistivity tomography. Cold Regions Science and Technology, 78: 40-45 IdentifierJones2012aRelevancerank5
