The decline of Arctic sea ice extent is one of the most spectacular signatures of global warming, and studies converge to show that this decline has been accelerating over the last four decades, with a rate that is not reproduced by climate models. To improve these models, relying on comprehensive and accurate field data is essential. While sea ice extent and concentration are accurately monitored from microwave imagery, an accurate measure of its thickness is still lacking. Moreover, measuring observables related to the mechanical behavior of the ice (such as Young's modulus, Poisson's ratio, etc.) could provide better insights in the understanding of sea ice decline, by completing current knowledge so far acquired mostly from radar and sonar data. This paper aims at demonstrating on the laboratory scale that these can all be estimated simultaneously by measuring seismic waves guided in the ice layer. The experiment consisted of leaving a water tank in a cold room in order to grow an ice layer at its surface. While its thickness was increasing, ultrasonic guided waves were generated with a piezoelectric source, and measurements were subsequently inverted to infer the thickness and mechanical properties of the ice with very good accuracy.

Abstract. This paper presents, for the first time, the evolution of the local heterogeneous strain field around intra-granular cracking in polycrystalline ice, at the onset of tertiary creep. Owing to the high homologous temperature conditions and relatively low compressive stress applied, stress concentration at the crack tips is relaxed by plastic mechanisms associated with dynamic recrystallization. Strain field evolution followed by digital image correlation (DIC) directly shows the redistribution of strain during crack opening, but also the redistribution driven by crack tip plasticity mechanisms and recrystallization. Associated local changes in microstructure induce modifications of the local stress field evidenced by crack closure during deformation. At the ductile-to-brittle transition in ice, micro-cracking and dynamic recrystallization mechanisms can co-exist and interact, the later being efficient to relax stress concentration at the crack tips.

The deformation of a circular fault in a thin floating ice plate imposed by a slow rotational displacement is investigated. Temporal changes in shear strength, as a proxy for the resistance of the fault as a whole, are monitored by the torque required to impose a constant displacement rate. Micro-seismic monitoring is used to study the relationship between fault average resistance (torque) and micro-ruptures. The size distribution of ruptures follows a power-law scaling characterized by an unusually high exponent (b ≃ 3), characteristic of a deformation driven by small ruptures. In strong contrast to the typical brittle dynamics of crustal faults, an 'apparently aseismic' deformation regime is observed in which small undetected seismic ruptures, below the detection level of the monitoring system, control the slip budget. Most (≃ 71%) of the detected ruptures are organized in bursts with highly similar waveforms, suggesting that these ruptures are only a passive by-product of apparently aseismic slip events. The seismic signature of this deformation regime has strong similarities with crustal faulting in settings characterized by high temperature and with non-volcanic tremors.

Abstract. This paper presents, for the first time, the evolution of local strain fields around intragranular cracking in polycrystalline ice, at the onset of tertiary creep. Owing to the high homologous temperature conditions and relatively low compressive stress applied, stress concentration at crack tips is relaxed by plastic mechanisms associated with dynamic recrystallization. Strain field evolution followed by Digital Image Correlation indirectly shows the redistribution of stresses during crack opening, but also driven by crack tip plasticity mechanisms and recrystallization. Such redistribution induces modifications in the local strain deformation bands, and crack closure during deformation. A strong interaction between cracking and dynamic recrystallization is therefore evidenced at the ductile to brittle transition in ice deformed at high homologous temperature.