Individual lava flow thicknesses in Oceanus Procellarum and Mare Serenitatis determined from Clementine multispectral data

Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) imaging system onboard NASA’s (National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s) Terra satellite is capable of measuring multispectral reflectance of the earth’s surface targets in visible and infrared (VNIR) to shortwave infrared (SWIR) (until 2006) as well as multispectral thermal infrared (TIR) regions. ASTER VNIR stereo imaging technique can provide high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) data. The DEMs data, three-dimensional (3D) perspective, and ratio images produced from the ASTER multispectral data are employed to analyze the geomorphologic and lithologic features of Wudalianchi volcanoes in the northeastern China. Our results indicate that the 14 major conical volcanic craters of Wudalianchi volcanoes are arranged as three sub-parallel zones, extending in a NE (Northeast) direction, which is similar to the direction of regional fault system based on the ASTER DEMs data. Among the 14 volcanic craters in Wudalianchi, the Laoheishan, and Huoshaoshan lavas flows, after the historic eruptions, pouring down from the crater, partially blocked the Baihe River, which forms the Five Large Connected Pools, known as the Wudalianchi Lake. Lithologic mapping shows that ASTER multispectral ratio imagery, particularly, the Lava Flow Index (LFI) (LFI = B10/B12) imagery, can clearly distinguish different lava flow units, and at least four stages of volcanic eruptions are revealed in the Wudalianchi Quaternary volcano cluster. Thus, ASTER multispectral TIR data can be used to determine relative dating of Quaternary volcanoes in the semi-arid region. Moreover, ASTER 3D perspective image can present an excellent view for tracking the flow directions of different lavas of Wudalianchi Holocene volcanoes.

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ELEMENTAL AND TOPOGRAPHIC MAPPING OF LAVA FLOWSTRUCTURES IN MARE SERENITATIS ON THE MOON

ISPRS - International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences ◽

10.5194/isprs-archives-xlii-3-w1-163-2017 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol XLII-3/W1 ◽

pp. 163-170 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

C. Wöhler ◽

A. Grumpe ◽

D. Rommel ◽

M. Bhatt ◽

U. Mall

Keyword(s):

Lava Flow ◽

Flow Structure ◽

Hyperspectral Image ◽

Image Data ◽

Elemental Abundance ◽

Lava Flows ◽

Stereo Image ◽

The Moon ◽

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter ◽

Mare Serenitatis

The detection of lunar lava flows based on local morphology highly depends on the available images. The thickness of lava flows, however, has been studied by many researchers and lunar lava flows are shown to be as thick as 200&thinsp;m. Lunar lava flows are supposed to be concentrated on the northwestern lunar nearside. In this study we present elemental abundance maps, a petrological map and a digital terrain model (DTM) of a lava flow structure in northern Mare Serenitatis at (18.0&deg;&thinsp;E, 32.4&deg;&thinsp;N) and two possible volcanic vents at (11.2&deg;&thinsp;E, 24.6&deg;&thinsp;N) and (13.5&deg;&thinsp;E, 37.5&deg;&thinsp;N), respectively. Our abundance maps of the refractory elements Ca, Mg and our petrological map were obtained based on hyperspectral image data of the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) instrument. Our DTM was constructed using GLD100 data in combination with a shape from shading based method to M3 and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Narrow Angle Camera (NAC) image data. The obtained NAC-based DEM has a very high effective resolution of about 1&ndash;2&thinsp;m which comes close to the resolution of the utilized NAC images without requiring intricate processing of NAC stereo image pairs. As revealed by our elemental maps and DEM, the examined lava flow structure occurs on a boundary between basalts consisting of low-Ca/high-Mg pyroxene and high-Ca/low-Mg pyroxene, respectively. The total thickness of the lava flow is about 100&thinsp;m, which is a relatively large value, but according to our DEM the lava flow may also be composed of two or more layers.

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