Articles | Volume 20, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-1163-2026
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-20-1163-2026
Research article
 | 
13 Feb 2026
Research article |  | 13 Feb 2026

Multichannel Analysis of Surface Waves (MASW) for the internal characterisation of the Flüela rock glacier: overcoming the limitations of seismic refraction tomography

Ilaria Barone, Alexander Bast, Mirko Pavoni, Steven Javier Gaona Torres, Luca Peruzzo, and Jacopo Boaga

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Cited articles

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Arenson, L. U. and Jakob, M.: Permafrost-related geohazards and infrastructure construction in mountainous environments, Oxf. Res. Encycl. Nat. Hazard Sci., 30, https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780199389407.013.292, 2017. 
Arenson, L. U. and Sego, D. C.: The effect of salinity on the freezing of coarse-grained sands, Can. Geotech. J., 43, 325–337, https://doi.org/10.1139/t06-006, 2006. 
Arenson, L. U., Harrington, J. S., Koenig, C. E. M., and Wainstein, P. A.: Mountain Permafrost Hydrology – A Practical Review Following Studies from the Andes, Geosciences, 12, 48, https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences12020048, 2022. 
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Short summary
Different geophysical methods such as electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), seismic refraction tomography (SRT) and multichannel analysis of surface waves (MASW) were jointly used to characterize the internal structure of the Flüela rock glacier, Switzerland. We show that the MASW method can efficiently resolve an ice-rich layer even in presence of a supra-permafrost water flow and noisy data, a situation when SRT may fail. Our results are corroborated by seismic synthetic modelling.
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