When waves break on the high seas or on the beach, they create the characteristic noise of the sea. However, waves not only generate noise in the air, but also in the water, known as "oceanic microseisms". Miscellaneous mechanisms such as standing waves or reflections at the coast generate different frequencies. In the water and especially in the upper layers of the ground, oceanic microseisms can spread over many hundreds of kilometres.

It is now well researched how strong storms not only generate large waves, but also increased oceanic microseisms activity. But what happens when the sea is covered by ice? Can waves even develop there? How strongly are the waves that arrive from ice-free areas damped under the ice? Or to put it the other way round: what does oceanic microseisms tell us about the nature of the ice over the course of the seasons?

To answer these questions, we use data from our ice-going ocean-bottom seismometers (OBS). These were deployed in ice-covered areas to investigate, for example, submarine volcanism and the formation of new seafloor. In addition to many earthquakes, marine microseismics were also recorded, which we are currently analysing.