A tsunami wave recorded near a glacier front

Abstract

We observed a tsunami wave near the glacier front in the Temple Fjord (Spitsbergen). Two temperature and pressure recorders were deployed on a wire from the ice approximately 300 m from the glacier front. A pressure recorder was located under them on the bottom. The vertical displacement of the ice was approximately 30 cm and the period of the tsunami wave was 90 s. We attribute the generation of this wave to the displacement of the glacier similarly to the landslide tsunami generated by the motion of a block of rocks down the sloping bottom. The glacier motion also generated a short-period (12 s) deformation wave in the ice cover. The measurements allowed us to estimate the wave number of these waves and the Young's modulus of the ice.