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The recent calving of the Astrolabe glacier (Terre Adélie, East Antarctica) in November 2021 presents an opportunity to better understand the processes leading to ice fracturing. Optical satellite imagery is used to retrieve the calving cycle of the glacier since 2000 by mapping the ice front location. A recent archive of high resolution optical images from Sentinel-2 is used to measure the ice motion and the ice strain rates for the period 2017–2021 in order to document fractures and rift evolution. These observations are compared with sea ice extent and concentration measurements. We found that a significant change in the sea ice melting periodicity at the vicinity of the Astrolabe glacier occurred in the last decade (2011–2021) with respect to previous observations (1979–2011). After 2011, the occurrence of consecutive years of high sea-ice concentration at the vicinity of the glacier seems to have favored the ice tongue spatial extension. This lead to an unprecedentedly observed extension of the ice tongue until November 2021. The analysis of strain rate time series revealed that the glacier dislocated suddenly in June 2021 in the middle of the winter before releasing an iceberg of around 20 km2 in November 2021 at the onset of sea ice melting season. These observations suggest that although the presence of sea ice favors glacier extension, its buttressing effect may not be sufficient to prevent fracture opening.

International audience; Better understanding the global (e.g. ice mass balance, ice motion) and local (e.g. fissures and calving processes, basal melting, sea-ice interactions) dynamics of tidewater Antarctic outlet glaciers is of paramount importance to simulate the ice-sheet response to global warming. The Astrolable glacier is located in Terre Adélie (140°E, 67°S) near the Dumont d'Urville French research station. Recently, a large fissure of around 3km has been observed in the western shore of the glacier which could lead to a calving of ca. 28km2. We used two monitoring techniques: optical remote sensing and seismology to analyze changes in the activity of the glacier. We computed the surface velocity and strain rates from time series of multispectral Sentinel-2 imagery. The joint analysis of the seismological data and the velocity and strain maps are discussed with the recent evolution of the ice-shelf. The strain maps show complex patterns of extension and compression areas with a seasonal increase during the summer months. The number of calving events significantly increased during 2016-2021 in comparison with the period 2012-2016.

This research project aims at increasing knowledge on the mechanisms controlling the deformation of clayey landslides through the combination of passive seismic and geodetic monitoring. Recent studies have demonstrated that seismic monitoring is able to give interesting information on landslide mechanics and in some case to provide precursory patterns useful for failure forecasting. The recent installation of seismometers on landslides revealed a variety of seismic signals of law magnitude suspected to be generated by slope deformation (falling, toppling, sliding, flowing), weathering of the slope material or fluid circulation. This endogenous seismicity needs to be categorized. We thus proposed a standard classification of the endogenous seismic sources; the objective of this standard is to be able to compare the seismic activity of several landslides and identify the mechanisms generating these seismic signals as well as their correlation with external forcing. Several signal properties (i.e. duration, spectral content and spectrogram shape) are taken into account to describe the different class of signals and allow generic comparison. We observe that similar signals recorded at different sites present the same properties and discussed the possible seismic sources considering the type of deformation observed on the studied slopes...; Ce projet de recherche vise à accroître les connaissances sur les mécanismes contrôlant la déformation des glissements de terrain argileux grâce à la combinaison de la surveillance sismique passive et de la surveillance géodésique. Des études récentes ont démontré que la surveillance sismique peut fournir des informations intéressantes sur la mécanique des glissements de terrain et, dans certains cas, fournir des précurseurs utiles pour la prévision des défaillances. L’installation récente de sismomètres sur les glissements de terrain a révélé une variété de signaux sismiques de magnitude soupçonnaient être générés par la déformation de la pente (chute, basculement, glissement, écoulement), Cette sismicité endogène doit être catégorisée. Une classification standard des sources sismiques endogènes est ainsi proposée; l'objectif de cette norme est de pouvoir comparer l'activité sismique de plusieurs glissements de terrain et d'identifier les mécanismes générant ces signaux sismiques ainsi que leur corrélation avec les forçages externes. Plusieurs propriétés de signal (durée, contenu spectral et forme de spectrogramme) sont prises en compte pour décrire les différentes classes de signaux et permettre une comparaison générique. Les observations montrent que des signaux similaires enregistrés sur différents sites présentent les mêmes propriétés et les sources sismiques possibles sont discutées compte tenu du type de déformation observé sur les pentes étudiées...

This research project aims at increasing knowledge on the mechanisms controlling the deformation of clayey landslides through the combination of passive seismic and geodetic monitoring. Recent studies have demonstrated that seismic monitoring is able to give interesting information on landslide mechanics and in some case to provide precursory patterns useful for failure forecasting. The recent installation of seismometers on landslides revealed a variety of seismic signals of law magnitude suspected to be generated by slope deformation (falling, toppling, sliding, flowing), weathering of the slope material or fluid circulation. This endogenous seismicity needs to be categorized. We thus proposed a standard classification of the endogenous seismic sources; the objective of this standard is to be able to compare the seismic activity of several landslides and identify the mechanisms generating these seismic signals as well as their correlation with external forcing. Several signal properties (i.e. duration, spectral content and spectrogram shape) are taken into account to describe the different class of signals and allow generic comparison. We observe that similar signals recorded at different sites present the same properties and discussed the possible seismic sources considering the type of deformation observed on the studied slopes..., Ce projet de recherche vise à accroître les connaissances sur les mécanismes contrôlant la déformation des glissements de terrain argileux grâce à la combinaison de la surveillance sismique passive et de la surveillance géodésique. Des études récentes ont démontré que la surveillance sismique peut fournir des informations intéressantes sur la mécanique des glissements de terrain et, dans certains cas, fournir des précurseurs utiles pour la prévision des défaillances. L’installation récente de sismomètres sur les glissements de terrain a révélé une variété de signaux sismiques de magnitude soupçonnaient être générés par la déformation de la pente (chute, basculement, glissement, écoulement), Cette sismicité endogène doit être catégorisée. Une classification standard des sources sismiques endogènes est ainsi proposée; l'objectif de cette norme est de pouvoir comparer l'activité sismique de plusieurs glissements de terrain et d'identifier les mécanismes générant ces signaux sismiques ainsi que leur corrélation avec les forçages externes. Plusieurs propriétés de signal (durée, contenu spectral et forme de spectrogramme) sont prises en compte pour décrire les différentes classes de signaux et permettre une comparaison générique. Les observations montrent que des signaux similaires enregistrés sur différents sites présentent les mêmes propriétés et les sources sismiques possibles sont discutées compte tenu du type de déformation observé sur les pentes étudiées...

The Séchilienne landslide is located on the right bank of the Romanche River, South East of Grenoble (Isère, France). The active zone of the gravitational instability involves several millions of cubic meters. The geology consists in fractured hard rocks (micaschists) with double permeability and strong spatial heterogeneities. The deformation of the unstable slope is monitored by on-site extensometric gauges, inclinometers, GNSS and remotely by a terrestrial radar and a total station.Hydro-chemio-mechanical processes controlling the reactivation of the landslide are influenced by the evolution of the landslide deformation in space and time, and the water circulation in the highly heterogeneous fractured media.A hydrogeochemical monitoring of the unsaturated zone in the fractured hard rock has been carried out since 2010. This monitoring is supported by the French Landslide observatory (OMIV) and consists in continuous measurements of physico-chemical parameters on two groundwater outlets (T◦C, EC, flow rate) and weekly samplings of the waters for quality monitoring. Water chemistry is a good proxy to locate in time and spacethe origin of the infiltrated water. This tool is used to understand the complex relationships between chemical weathering, hydromechanical changes and weakening/deformation of the unstable material. This monitoring indicates a correlation between water chemistry, rainwater infiltration and rock mass deformation highlighting the impacts of rock-water interactions on the landslide dynamics. But a distributed information over area is still needed because the heterogeneities of the slope and the few sampling points currently prevent a detailed understanding of the global mechanisms involved.To better understand and constrain the hydrogeological and hydro-chemio-mechanical behavior of the slope, a multi-method monitoring of a flood wave infiltration has been carried out in early 2016 in order to distinguish possible signals related to significant displacements. Displacements were monitored by a GB-InSAR and a terrestrial laser scanner in order to obtain a global image of the deformation at high frequency (less than 1 hour). Repeated time-lapse geoelectrical profiles along four sections have been acquired each two hours on relevant plots which are suspected to be the main water flow paths from the surface to the depth. Water quality changes were monitored at high frequency in order to provide information on the water residence time. This first dataset gives insight into the moving volumes of rock and fluids. Imagery geophysics identifies a signal of fluid circulation in a fracture with a fast transit. The chemical signal identifies the heterogeneous functioning of the drainage system (drain/low permeable structure) with a fast transit.