Controlled Source Boat-towed Radio-magnetotellurics for Site Investigation at Äspö Hard Rock Laboratory, Southeastern Sweden

Abstract

Summary The radio-magnetotelluric (RMT) method has traditionally been used for land investigations. However, with the development of the boat-towed RMT system, this method is used on shallow water. The lowest frequency of the RMT method is about 14 kHz and in addition water resistivity is quite low in some cases, therefore controlled source measurements is naturally considered for data acquisition. In order to resolve a fracture zone under a brackish water body, the controlled source boat-towed RMT (CSRMT) approach was tested. CSRMT and RMT one-dimensional inversions were carried out separately to analyze galvanic distortions and source effects in our dataset. Serious distortions observed in both inversions as well as the two-dimensional (2D) structure observed in our previous study made us consider 2D inversion for modeling the data. Due to the sufficiently large distance between transmitter and receivers, the CSRMT data were inverted using a 2D inversion code originally designed for plane-wave RMT data. Occam and damped Occam schemes were used in our 2D inversions for CSRMT and RMT data. The results show that CSRMT can better resolve the fracture zone than RMT. This study further illustrates the use of the boat-towed RMT system and particularly when combined with controlled source.