Under the Ice: Imaging Glacier Bases with Sound

In this activity, students become familiar with radio waves that are used to remotely sense topography beneath an ice sheet. They experiment with travel time of waves and convert these to distance. The students, in groups, examine time data acquired along profiles of the Antarctic ice sheet and convert these data to depth, resulting in a profile of the topography beneath the ice sheet. The groups then put their profiles together to get a better view of the topography beneath the ice sheet. They compare their findings with radio-echo soundings of the ice sheet and with the map of sub-ice topography and contrast this method of data acquisition with that of coring, which they explore in another activity. Educational levels: High school, Middle school