TY - JOUR
T1 - Technical note
T2 - Efficient imaging of hydrological units below lakes and fjords with a floating, transient electromagnetic (FloaTEM) system
AU - Maurya, Pradip Kumar
AU - Christensen, Frederik Ersted
AU - Kass, Masson Andy
AU - Pedersen, Jesper B.
AU - Frederiksen, Rasmus R.
AU - Foged, Nikolaj
AU - Christiansen, Anders Vest
AU - Auken, Esben
PY - 2022/6/2
Y1 - 2022/6/2
N2 - Imaging geological layers beneath lakes, rivers, and shallow seawater provides detailed information critical for hydrological modeling, geologic studies, contaminant mapping, and more. However, significant engineering and interpretation challenges have limited the applications, preventing widespread adoption in aquatic environments. We have developed a towed transient electromagnetic (tTEM) system for a new, easily configurable floating, transient electromagnetic instrument (FloaTEM) capable of imaging the subsurface beneath both freshwater and saltwater. Based on the terrestrial tTEM instrument, the FloaTEM system utilizes a similar philosophy of a lightweight towed transmitter with a trailing offset receiver pulled by a small boat. The FloaTEM system is tailored to the specific freshwater or saltwater application as necessary, allowing investigations down to 100ĝ€¯m in freshwater environments and up to 20ĝ€¯m on saline waters. Through synthetic analysis, we show how the depth of investigation of the FloaTEM system greatly depends on the resistivity and thickness of the water column. The system has been successfully deployed in Denmark for a variety of hydrologic investigations, improving the ability to understand and model processes beneath water bodies. We present two freshwater applications and a saltwater application. Imaging results reveal significant heterogeneities in the sediment types below the freshwater lakes. The saline water example demonstrates that the system is capable of identifying and distinguishing clay and sand layers below the saline water column.
AB - Imaging geological layers beneath lakes, rivers, and shallow seawater provides detailed information critical for hydrological modeling, geologic studies, contaminant mapping, and more. However, significant engineering and interpretation challenges have limited the applications, preventing widespread adoption in aquatic environments. We have developed a towed transient electromagnetic (tTEM) system for a new, easily configurable floating, transient electromagnetic instrument (FloaTEM) capable of imaging the subsurface beneath both freshwater and saltwater. Based on the terrestrial tTEM instrument, the FloaTEM system utilizes a similar philosophy of a lightweight towed transmitter with a trailing offset receiver pulled by a small boat. The FloaTEM system is tailored to the specific freshwater or saltwater application as necessary, allowing investigations down to 100ĝ€¯m in freshwater environments and up to 20ĝ€¯m on saline waters. Through synthetic analysis, we show how the depth of investigation of the FloaTEM system greatly depends on the resistivity and thickness of the water column. The system has been successfully deployed in Denmark for a variety of hydrologic investigations, improving the ability to understand and model processes beneath water bodies. We present two freshwater applications and a saltwater application. Imaging results reveal significant heterogeneities in the sediment types below the freshwater lakes. The saline water example demonstrates that the system is capable of identifying and distinguishing clay and sand layers below the saline water column.
KW - GROUNDWATER
KW - WATER
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85132305330&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.5194/hess-26-2813-2022
DO - 10.5194/hess-26-2813-2022
M3 - Journal article
SN - 1027-5606
VL - 26
SP - 2813
EP - 2827
JO - Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
JF - Hydrology and Earth System Sciences
IS - 11
ER -