Surface nuclear magnetic resonance for studying an englacial channel on Rhonegletscher (Switzerland): possibilities and limitations in a high-noise environment

Gabriel, Laura; Hertrich, Marian; Ogier, Christophe; Müller-Petke, Mike; Moser, Raphael; Maurer, Hansruedi; Farinotti, Daniel

doi:10.5194/tc-19-6261-2025

Articles | Volume 19, issue 11

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-6261-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-19-6261-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 11

Research article

|

27 Nov 2025

Research article |

| 27 Nov 2025

Surface nuclear magnetic resonance for studying an englacial channel on Rhonegletscher (Switzerland): possibilities and limitations in a high-noise environment

Laura Gabriel, Marian Hertrich, Christophe Ogier, Mike Müller-Petke, Raphael Moser, Hansruedi Maurer, and Daniel Farinotti

Data sets

SNMR and GPR data of an englacial channel in Rhone glacier 2023, Switzerland Laura Gabriel, Christophe Ogier, and Raphael Moser https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-c-000784320

Model code and software

MRSmatlab M. Müller-Petke et al. https://doi.org/10.1190/geo2015-0461.1

Short summary

Surface nuclear magnetic resonance (SNMR) is a geophysical technique directly sensitive to liquid water. We expand the limited applications of SNMR on glaciers by detecting water within Rhonegletscher, Switzerland. By carefully processing the data to reduce noise, we identified signals indicating a water layer near the base of the glacier, surrounded by ice with low water content. Our findings, validated by radar measurements, show SNMR's potential and limitations in studying water in glaciers.