Spring fever in Nantesbuch | Southern Bavaria: Geo-MRI surface profiling on a bog meadow in the Pre-Alps

"Jo mei – so schee!" (Bavarian for: "This is soooo nice!")

You can't normally come up by yourself with such a beautiful jump-start into spring: with a panoramic view of the Bavarian Alps, while carrying out surface Geo-MRI measurements on a beautifully moist, renaturalized bog meadow in the foothills of the Alps. Simply marvelous!

The area of operation on this beautiful spring day is part of the "Stiftung Kultur und Natur" (Culture and Nature Foundation) | Nantesbuch, near Penzberg (about 35 miles south of Munich).

Fig.1: Nantesbuch near Penzberg in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps, home to one of the "Culture and Nature" foundation's sites - in the midst of truly brilliantly beautiful surroundings. This is how "work" indeed becomes a Bavarian all-sensual delight.

Dr. Benjamin Fersch | KIT-GAP had invited a group of students from the University of Freiburg to try out all kinds of geophysical methods in a intensive block course (including the Vista-Clara surface measuring device GMR-FLEX). In addition, I was there to help a bit with the measurements and simultaneously to try out the ArcGIS-Pro Field-Map App on my cell phone.

Fig.2: A renaturalized bog meadow area on the grounds of the Foundation for Culture and Nature at the Nantesbuch site near Penzberg, where Dr. Benjamin Fersch | KIT-GAP spent a very pleasant day of measurements together with students from the University of Freiburg and postdoc colleagues from his institute. The exercise was to use the Vista-Clara Inc. surface Geo-MRI device (the so-called GMR-FLEX) to perform a repeat measurement of the past year and to collect co-relevant data for a KIT-GAP science project on the gas exchange of the peatland with the atmosphere.

The Geo-MRT profile recordings were intended as a repeat of a measurement from May 2023. They contribute to a sophisticated climate change-focused KIT-GAP science project, where degassing exchange values between peatland and atmosphere (especially of methane) play a central role.

Fig.3: A renaturalized moor meadow on the several hectare site of the "Stiftung Kultur und Natur" in Nantesbuch near Penzberg serves as a measuring site for the KIT-GAP science project. Thanks to the support of students from the University of Freiburg and the great commitment of Dr. Benajmin Fersch | KIT-GAP, we were able to try out different display configurations of the cable loops used for the surface geo-MRI measurements on this day.

For me, this day in the Bavarian Pre-Alps was also a first step towards applying for funding with Bayern-Innovativ, with the aim of making Vista-Clara Geo-MRI technology available for regular use in the free commercial economy in a cost-effective manner. We are pursuing a funding strategy consisting of cooperations with academic / scientific institutions (e.g. KIT-GAP, FH-Hof, etc.) and commercial service providers in the realm of "groundwater well construction", "soil remediation" and "infrastructure | geotechnical engineering".

Fig.4: With the help of students from the University of Freiburg, various configurations of the coil design were tested. The results of the measurements can be requested from @Dr. Benjamin Fersch | KIT-GAP.

Unlike the borehole measurements, the surface measurements are quite labor-intensive: you have to decide on a configuration ("circle" | "square" | "8", or similar) and then lay out this profile on the ground (in this case with 25 m / 75 ft rod spacing). In addition, a loop of at least the same size must be rolled out on the side facing away / opposite from the actual measurement area for interference signal attenuation. The latter helps to reduce negative influences from other electromagnetic waves in the same frequency range on the Geo-MRI measurements.

At the end of a measurement cycle, everything must be rolled up/in-and rewound, which can certainly be described as a reasonable "workout", especially if the cable lengths and measurement repetitions are quite long. And depending on how the signal profiling goes, you can be happy about it at the end - or not (in our case, someone was probably quite satisfied ... :)

Fig. 5: At the end of the last measurement, we were happy to report the day to be a "success": Thanks to Dr. Fersch we could claim "Mission Accomplished" for the day, as everything went well with the measurements, the logistics involved, that everyone stayed healthy and got home safely. A super spring day in the foothills of the Bavarian Alps, where even equipment and field crew are placed on the authentic beer garden bench or at the corresponding table.

Carpe Diem | NMR-profiling in the Southern Bavarian boglands | Spring Fever!