In the event of a maritime oil spill in winter conditions, the fate of oil released under ice presents considerable difficulties with respect to detection, containment and recovery compared to spills that form slicks in open water. This study presents the first quantification of roughness and associated storage capacity of the ice-water interface for freshwater ice in the Laurentian Great Lakes in North America. Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) observations are used to retrieve ice thicknesses every 2.5 cm on a grid over ice ranging between 0.26 and 0.48 m in the Straits of Mackinac to derive a digital elevation model of the ice bottom. The root mean square of height deviations of the ice underside is observed to be 0.03 m (over a correlation length of approximately 20 m) with a storage capacity of 0.03 m³/m². The observed physical characteristics relevant to oil entrainment at the ice underside are similar to those reported for first year sea ice and may store similar quantities of oil during the initial spill. However, the difference in the physical structure between first year ice (with brine channels) and freshwater ice (consolidated ice cap) may result in a disparity in the timing of oil appearance, and require considerably different remediation treatment.

如果冬季发生海上溢油事故，与在露天水中形成浮油的溢油事故相比，在冰下释放的石油的命运在检测，遏制和回收方面将面临相当大的困难。这项研究提出了北美劳伦斯大湖中淡水冰的冰水界面粗糙度和相关存储容量的首次量化。探地雷达（GPR）观测用于在Mackinac海峡中介于0.26至0.48 m之间的冰上的网格上，每2.5 cm取冰厚度，以得出冰底的数字高程模型。观察到冰底面高度偏差的均方根为0.03 m（相关长度约为20 m），存储容量为0.03 m ³ / m²。所观察到的与冰层底部夹带油有关的物理特征与第一年海冰报道的那些相似，并且在最初的溢漏过程中可能储存了相似数量的油。但是，第一年的冰（具有盐水通道）和淡水的冰（固结冰盖）之间的物理结构差异可能会导致出现油的时间不一致，并需要进行大量不同的修复处理。