SSA 2026 Session: Cryoseismology: Advances in Technology and Scientific Discovery

[Weisen Shen]

Dear Colleagues,

We invite you to submit abstracts to our session "Cryoseismology: Advances in Technology and Scientific Discovery" at the SSA 2026 Annual Meeting in Pasadena, California (April 14–18). The abstract submission deadline is January 13, 2026, 11:59 PM Pacific Time (US). More information about the meeting may be found at the SSA 2026 Annual Meeting website.

Cryoseismology: Advances in Technology and Scientific Discovery

Session details:

Polar and glaciated regions have long posed formidable science challenges due to extreme cold, prolonged darkness, difficulty generating and storing power, limited communications infrastructure, and logistical remoteness: these conditions, historically, dramatically limited data acquisition. The lack of both long- and short-term geophysical observations strongly contrasts with the critical need for enhanced understanding of ice structure, glacial processes, and other cryospheric phenomena that are increasingly relevant for forecasting and mitigating geological hazards in a changing world.  Over the past two decades, technological advances in polar power systems, cold-rated broadband seismometers, distributed acoustic sensing (DAS), novel vehicles, satellite links, and ice drilling have transformed cryoseismology. These innovations enable unprecedented access to remote regions and subsurface ice environments, higher-resolution studies, and new multidisciplinary collaborations. For example, collaboration with the IceCube Neutrino Observatory has extended Antarctic ice sheet broadband deployment capabilities to 2.4 km depth, while large-N nodes and DAS open new studies in source processes, ice boreholes, firn–ice transition, and sub-ice conditions.

This session invites contributions that highlight new or emerging cryoseismological research, including conceptual or pilot studies exploring the scientific potential of a deep, three-dimensional seismic and/or DAS observatory at the South Pole, or elsewhere.   We additionally welcome submissions focused on advances in polar instrumentation as well as in ocean, ice traverse, or airborne logistics, ice drilling, remote sensing, and other methodologies.


Conveners:

* Robert E Anthony, U.S. Geological Survey (rean...@usgs.gov)
* Richard C Aster, Colorado State University (Rick....@colostate.edu)
* Michael DuVernois, University of Wisconsin, Madison - IceCube Neutrino Observatory (duve...@icecube.wisc.edu)
* Katrin Hafner, United States Antarctic Program Antarctic Support Contract (Leidos) (Katrin.Hafne...@usap.gov)
* Weisen Shen, Stony Brook University (weise...@stonybrook.edu)