Recording Wire Strainmeters on the Barnes Ice Cap, Baffin Island, Canada

Abstract

AbstractThe report describes an experiment to evaluate the use of geophysical (Cambridge-type) wire strainmeters for the rapid acquisition of strain-rate data and to compare strains on a large ice mass over gauge distances of 5 m, 50 m, and 1 km.Three continuously recording wire strainmeters were installed at the centre of two separate arrays of strain poles 10.6 km and 19.5 km from the ice divide on the Barnes Ice Cap. Data was collected between 24 April and 15 May 1976. The 1 km strain arrays had previously been measured in 1974 and 1975. The results show good agreement between the strainmeter data and the larger strain arrays at the 10.6 km site but differ at the 19.5 km site. When the daily means are calculated for the strainmeters at the 19.5 km site, the strain-rates show a possible periodic variation with an apparent period ofabout 11 d. Since there appears to be no direct correlation between the strainmeter signal and either temperature or pressure, the result is assumed to represent real varying strain within the ice.