What are the architectural/design/etc implications of earthquakes on a snowball planet?

Question

Thick, kilometer-wide ice sheets cover the vast majority of this planet. Snow is comparatively limited, because there are limited places where anything actually melts and re-enters the water cycle. The ice sheets rest on both the hidden 'continents' and a mostly-hidden ocean. The core of the planet is still active. I imagine this would lead to tectonic plates.

I was designing the places where my civilization would live, when I realized that they would have to account for infrequent events like earthquakes and volcanoes too in building design (on top of stuff like insulation, dealing with extreme weather etc). Then I realized that I don't actually know how earthquakes would propagate through a thick layer of ice/snow. I imagine that if you have a thin ice sheet on a continent, it might work the same as a normal earthquake, and with a thin ice-sheet on the ocean, it might crack like glass (though with no tsunami on the surface). I guess that in areas with snowfalls you'll also have the risk of avalanches. But apart from that I don't know how a large amount of ice/snow would act differently from, say, rock. Could you help me, please?

Flavor-wise, this civilization has access to futuristic technology, but prefers, whenever possible, to work with the nature around it rather than against it. Their ideal solution would be a low-energy one. Iron is somewhat scarce, too.

Thank you!

Answer 1

Let's take a step back before answering your question.

Ice is a poor foundation material for building permanent structures on it.

Since it tends to creep under load, anything you build on it will sooner or later be deformed and destroyed due to differential displacement. Therefore you won't build anything bigger or more durable than an igloo or a tent on it.

Your big buildings will be grounded on rock.

Answer 2

They will need a lot of solid ground to grow food, unless they live entirely off of fish. Even if they live entirely off of fish they probably still need a lot of land to grow other things such as trees for wood, and plants for fodder, wood, medicine and much more (glues, perfumes, cleaners, soaps, resins etc).

If they had some large but still limited area of land available, they might be able to manage and might even expand onto the ice in some areas on a temporary basis. It might be possible to build a “floating” platform of some sort out of wood that wouldn’t sink into the ice or would not sink that far due to buoyancy effects.

Such structures would have to be light weight (think wood not stone) but need not look even remotely like a ship. More like a raft on the surface with small light weight buildings. Thought would need to be given to buoyancy (think ships) the problems of crushing by ice (think distribution of weight) and snow fall any of which would need to be cleared off.

As far as the earthquake risk, I would imagine the ice would fracture similarly to rock in some ways with faults and crevasses, but these might be more easily eroded or filled in by wind blown ice unless the tectonic activity is very high.

Answer 3

To begin, a few assumptions. By 'mile wide', I am assuming you mean a mile deep, or thick, from top to bottom.

I am also assuming that the temperature never gets more than a few degrees above freezing, so no 'snow melt' days. The existinng snow is relatively permanent.

You do not clarify, but it is perhaps evident that there is an atmosphere around the planet, that 'buffers' meteor impacts. This is not a 'pock-marked planet like the moon.

You state an assumption about techtonic plates, but fail to mention if these plates move around and collide sufficiently to form mountain ranges. You mention volcanoes, however. So the question is open, if this planet has high mountain ranges. With no mountain ranges, there are no avelanches, and more importantly nothing to block the winds. I suspect the surface would be like the Arabian desert, only with blowing snow, not sand. Actually, probably like Antarctica. A constantly changing landscape, with huge drifts forming and decaying, ever changing.

Methinks also that these residents would have to be able to mine extensively, as it seems mining is the only way to obtain any sort of raw material. Perhaps they live in these mines?

And. lastly, about the most abundant material you have for building is snow, and perhaps fish and animal bones and animal hides, apart from anything they can mine.

Given these assumptions, it would seem to me that your biggest problem with earthquakes would be liquefaction of the snow. Shaking snow back and forth rapidly would cause melting, and this melting would turn the snow into slush, or even water. Think: massive flooding and sinking, a great leveling of the landscape. The hills and valleys of the snow drifts canceling each other out. In such a scenario, boats or completely floating structures would be the preferable habitat. Buildings that could be moved or towed elsewhere.

Then again, speaking of the Antarctic,

That sense of improvisation continued for decades. In 1956, the Royal Society founded Halley Research Station, but the facility was covered in snow by 1961 and was shut down in 1968. A replacement, Halley II, was reinforced with steel supports, but its life span was even shorter, from 1967 to 1973. Halley III lasted for 11 years, Halley IV for nine, and Halley V for nearly 15, with each rebuilding effort presenting a costly and operationally complex undertaking.

When, in 2005, Halley needed rebuilding again, the British Antarctic Survey, which operates the U.K.’s Antarctic footprint, took a novel approach. Hoping to avoid yet another quick-succession project, Survey teamed up with the Royal Institute of British Architects to sponsor a design competition. The winner, Hugh Broughton Architects, designed Halley VI to last at least 20 years.

In addition to being visually striking, Halley VI provides researchers with a more spacious and comfortable living and work environment. It is set on hydraulic stilts, allowing operators to lift it up out of accumulating snow drifts. And if the entire station needs to be moved — it sits on a drifting ice shelf — skis at the base of those stilts make that possible.

“Before, these projects were all just about keeping the weather out,” Mr. Broughton said. “Engineers would be told, ‘This is the weather, this is the wind speed, these are the restrictions.’ But now these projects are about using architecture as a means of improving both well-being and operational efficiency.”

The stilts-on-skis technique would also be the perfect solution to earthquakes, provided the skis could 'float' (pontoon skis).

However, these buildings were certainly NOT made from indigenous materials.

Answer 4

This might not even be an issue as it's entirely possible to have a continent without any major geological activity because of where plate boundries lie. Australia is the most geologically Inert continent on Earth, because it sits in the center of the Astralian plate, which has all it's bounderies well enough out to sea that seismic and vulcanic activity do not travel to any part of the teresstrial continent. New Zealand (which is technically also a continent, though most of the continental part of the Zealandia plate is submerged) is much closer to a plate boundery and thus has infrequent Earthquakes.

At this point, the only way to have geological activity is to have what are called Hot Spots, which are not prone to large mountain chains (Hawaii is the most famous and most unusual. Because of the highly active Volcanic activity, the Hawaii Islands are a series of Mountains formed by a single Volcano as the Pacific Plate moved over time. The Big Island of Hawaii is the only one with a Volcano though all the Islands in the chain were formed by that vocano, the others have moved off the hot spot and aren't capable of erupting any more. This is an exception. Yellowstone National Park is another hot spot but it's not erupting with the frequency of Hawaii, which has been erupting non-stop since the 1980s.). The famous Yellowstone Hot Springs are fueled by this Volcano and if it ever erupted with full potential it will have a cataclysmic effect on life on this planet (It would not be a major extinction effect, but given that the midwest U.S. will be devestated, there will be a major global food shortage.).