Combining Ground Penetrating Radar and Frequency Domain Electromagnetic Surveys to Characterize the Structure of the Calderone Glacieret (Gran Sasso d’Italia, Italy)

Ice is a rich reservoir of past climate information, and the well-documented increasing rate
of glacier retreat represents a great loss for paleoclimate studies. In this framework, the Ice Memory
project aims to extract and analyze ice cores from glacier regions worldwide and store them in
Antarctica as a heritage record for future generations of scientists. Ice coring projects usually require
a focused geophysical investigation, often based on Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) prospecting
to assess the most suitable drilling positions. As a novel approach in the Calderone Glacieret, we
integrated the GPR method with Frequency Domain Electromagnetic (FDEM) surveys, a technique
not commonly applied in the glacial environment. We used a separated-coils FDEM instrument
to characterize the glacieret structure. The acquired FDEM datasets were inverted and compared
to the GPR data and borehole information. The results demonstrated the capability of the FDEM
technique to define the structure of the glacieret correctly; therefore, the potential to be applied in
frozen subsoil environments. This opens new perspectives for the use of the FDEM technique to
characterize periglacial environments, such as rock glaciers, where the coarse-blocky surface hinders
data acquisition and enhances the problem of signal scattering.