Magnetotelluric survey from Thwaites Glacier, December 2023 to January 2024
GB/NERC/BAS/PDC/02063
Abstract:
In this magnetotelluric (MT) survey five stations were acquired on Thwaites Glacier, Antarctica in December 2023 - January 2024. The MT data were acquired with the Phoenix Geophysics Ultra-Wideband Magentotelluric (UMT) system consisting of a 5 channel UMT receiver (MTU-5C), three MTC-150/155 induction sensors and titanium plate electrodes and preamplifiers. The MT stations were acquired to image the resistivity structure of the upper crust beneath Thwaites Glacier as part of the NERC-funded GHOST (Geophysical Habitat of Subglacial Thwaites) project.
This work was funded by NERC standard grant NE/S006672/1.
Citation:
Brisbourne, A., Borthwick, L., Napoleoni, F., Anandakrishnan, S., Kulessa, B., & Killingbeck, S. (2026). Magnetotelluric survey from Thwaites Glacier, December 2023 to January 2024 (Version 1.0) [Data set]. NERC EDS UK Polar Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/88187258-c49f-4897-b158-5a13258566af
Access Data
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License
| Access: | No restrictions apply. |
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| Use: | Data supplied under Open Government Licence v3.0 http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/. |
Basic Information
| Creation Date: | 2025-05-21 |
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| Dataset Progress: | Complete |
| Dataset Language: | English |
| ISO Topic Categories: |
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| Parameters: |
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Additional Information
| Quality: | Station TG90 highly noisy (very windy during recording). Frequencies > 5 Hz are unusable. | |
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| Lineage/Methodology: | All stations were collected with a crosshair setup. Perpendicular X/Y dipoles were installed with ~100 m separation between electrodes (see individual station meta data for specific lengths). X and Y-component induction coils were installed in the NE quadrant and the Z-component induction coil in the SW quadrant. At all stations except TG7, X and Y components were oriented to True North by sighting to flags that were located with a handheld GPS at 200 m N and E offset from the centre point. At station TG7, X and Y components were oriented to Magnetic North, with a declination of 53 degrees E. Titanium electrodes were buried to ~25 cm depth. The X- and Y-component induction coils were buried to ~20 cm depth. The Z-component induction coil was buried with ~30 cm exposed at the surface. A titanium plate, identical to the dipole electrodes, was used as the ground electrode of the station. Preamplifiers were installed at each dipole electrode. A low-pass filter of 10 kHz was used. The sampling rate was set to sparse - 150 Hz continuous, 24,000 Hz sparse. | |
PROJECT HOME PAGE:
Extent
| Temporal Coverage: | |
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| Start Date | 2023-12-01 |
| End Date | 2024-01-31 |
| Spatial Coverage: | |
| Latitude | |
| Southernmost | -76.72462 |
| Northernmost | -75.97352 |
| Longitude | |
| Westernmost | -107.9261 |
| Easternmost | -107.4793 |
| Altitude | |
| Min Altitude | N/A |
| Max Altitude | N/A |
| Depth | |
| Min Depth | N/A |
| Max Depth | N/A |
| Location: | |
| Location | Antarctica |
| Detailed Location | Thwaites Glacier |
Instrumentation
| Data Collection: | The equipment used for this project was loaned from the NERC GEF (loan number 1125) and consisted of the Phoenix Geophysics Ultra-Wideband Magentotelluric (UMT) system consisting of a 5 channel UMT receiver (MTU-5C), three MTC-150/155 induction sensors and titanium plate electrodes and preamplifiers. A 100 Ah battery used with 50 W solar panel on Morningstar 10 A regulator was used to power the station. The electrode cables were ~50 m long (see data files for exact length). |
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Storage
| Distribution: | |
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| Distribution Media | Online Internet (HTTP) |
| Distribution Size | 211 kB |
| Distribution Format | ASCII |
| Fees | N/A |
| Data Storage: | The dataset consists of 5 Electrical Data Interchange (EDI) files (structured ASCII text), one per station. |