Dilatant till layer near the onset of streaming flow of Ice Stream C, West Antarctica, determined by AVO (amplitude vs offset) analysis

A powerful seismic technique that exploits the phase of the ice-bottom reflections shows that soft till is widespread beneath a West Antarctic ice stream very close to the onset of streaming flow. The amplitude vs offset (AVO) method measures the change in amplitude of the reflection as a function of increasing angle of incidence. For a decrease in acoustic impedance with depth, the reflection phase is negative at low angles of impedance but positive at intermediate angles. The change in phase by 180° is an obvious and robust measure of the relative acoustic impedance contrasts. This technique is only usable when there is a change in phase vs offset, conditions which obtain for “UpB-type” tills (high water pressures and porosity, low compressional- and shear-wave velocities, similar to those observed at Upstream B camp). I have applied this technique to the far upstream regions of Ice Stream C and find that a dilatant ( and presumably deforming), relatively thick (meters) till layer has formed beneath the ice stream within tens of km of the region identified as the transition from inland flow to ice-stream flow. These results suggest that the onset of rapid basal motion is linked to the formation of this deforming subglacial layer.