The pathways of fluids and mantle-originated carbon dioxide in the seismically active Ohre (Eger) Rift system appearing as mofettes at the surface are currently subject to investigation, especially by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program ‘‘Drilling the Eger Rift’’. If the aquifers show significant contrast in electrical resistivity to the host rocks, they can be investigated with geo-electromagnetic methods. However, imaging complex fluid and CO2 pathways in detail in near-surface structures is challenging, because, in contrast to the background stratigraphy, they are often oriented in near-vertical directions. Therefore, we aim to investigate how the shallow aquifer structures can be examined best with an inductive electromagnetic method. For this purpose, we collected radio-magnetotelluric data in the Hartousˇov mofette field and evaluated them by two- and threedimensional inversions. Data from a nearby magnetotelluric station, drill hole data, gas flux measurements and electrical resistivity tomography models were used to assess the reliability and robustness of our inversion results. We concluded that the nearsurface fluid reservoirs are adequately depictable, while the migration paths of gaseous CO2 cannot be traced properly due to a lack of resistivity contrast. Our model analyses suggest that imaging the given geological setting with fluids and gases ascending in anastomosing pathways benefits from a fine-scale three-dimensional inversion approach because the fluids mostly appear as local conductive reservoir-like anomalies, which can be falsely projected onto the profiles during inversion in two dimensions. The resistivity models contribute with detailed images of the near-surface aquifers to the geodynamic model of the Ohre Rift.@en

The Bohemian Massif represents the easternmost part of the geodynamically active European Cenozoic Rift System. This region hosts the contact between three tectonic units of the Variscan Belt, the NE-SW trending Eger Rift and the NNW-SSE striking Marianské Lázne fault. It is characterised by ongoing magmatic processes in the intra-continental lithospheric mantle, repeated earthquake swarms, extensive CO2 degassing in mineral springs and mofettes and the presence of Quaternary volcanoes. While the ICDP drilling programme utilizes information gathered within shallow boreholes in the region, we applied the Magnetotelluric (MT) method to obtain site characterizations in the vicinity of the proposed drill sites. The electrical conductivity has proven to be an important parameter to image the above-mentioned tectonic from the lower crust to the shallow subsurface as well as on a regional and a local scale. Here, we present 2D and 3D inversion models of different MT and Radio-MT (RMT) experiments to study e.g. the Hartouŝov mofette fields, the Quaternary scoria cones, the regional faults and their interplay. Thereby the experiments were designed that we can use lower frequency data from MT to support shallow 3D inversions of e.g. the scoria cones in the regions. The most prominent large-scale conductivity features map channels from the lower crust to the surface possibly forming pathways for fluids into the region of earthquake swarms, mofette fields and know spas. However, the locations of the scoria cones seem to be bound to regional fault zones.@en