Imaging the Ross Ice Streams of West Antarctica using active source seismology

Abstract. Beneath Earth’s ice sheets the underlying geology both regulates the flow of the overriding ice and archives its history. Investigating this hidden environment from the ice sheet surface requires remote geophysical methods. Active source seismology has proven an effective method capable of investigating ice sheet internal structure, the ice–bed interface, subglacial water bodies, and the underlying geology. Here we present a compilation of published and unpublished active source seismic data from the Ross Ice Streams of West Antarctica (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19068423, Horgan et al., 2026). The data sample a range of glaciological environments from subglacial lakes to pinning points. Despite the lack of geographic overlap, and sparse spatial coverage, the following conclusions can be drawn. (1) Subglacial geology, specifically the presence of a substrate smoothed and mantled by sediment, correlates with regions of present or past rapid ice flow. (2) Subglacial water is observed in a range of glaciological settings including the onset region, beneath streaming ice, and close to the grounding zone. (3) Pinning points and sticky spots manifest in a range of substrate types, from relatively smooth and sediment covered to relatively rough acoustic basement. (4) The Siple and Gould Coast grounding zone exhibits a shallow sub-ice-shelf ocean cavity, with some evidence of active sedimentation, but none of the asymmetric grounding zone wedge deposits thought to stabilise grounding zone retreat. Recent geological coring on Crary Ice Rise highlights both the utility of existing seismic data, and the need for more extensive surveying. Such surveying would aid the interpretation of the geological record, help locate additional palaeoclimate drilling targets and allow for improved calibration of geophysical methods used to constrain glaciological properties and processes.