UAV- and SfM-related techniques applied to volcano-tectonics for virtual outcrops construction and geoscience communication. Examples from the North Volcanic Zone, Iceland

Author(s):  
Federico Pasquaré Mariotto ◽  
Alessandro Tibaldi

<p><strong>UAV- and SfM-related techniques applied to volcano-tectonics for virtual outcrops construction and geoscience communication. Examples from the North Volcanic Zone, Iceland</strong></p><p><strong> </strong><strong>Authors:</strong> Federico Pasquaré Mariotto<sup>1</sup>, Alessandro Tibaldi<sup>2,3</sup></p><p><sup> </sup></p><p><sup>1</sup>Insubria University, Department of Human and Innovation Sciences                     <sup>2</sup>University of Milan-Bicocca, Department of Earth and Environmental Science, Milan, Italy <sup>3</sup>CRUST- Interuniversity Center for 3D Seismotectonics with Territorial Applications, Italy</p><p> </p><p>Iceland offers an unparalleled chance to observe the most powerful natural phenomena related to the combination of tectonic and magmatic forces, such as active rifting, volcanic eruptions, sub-volcanic intrusions. We have focused on a number of geosites which are found in the Northern Volcanic Zone (NVZ) of Iceland; here, the following volcano-tectonic features can be observed: i) the Theystareykir  Fissure Swarm (ThFS), an active rift system with a central volcano, several major faults and numerous eruptive fissures; ii) the Krafla Fissure Swarm (KFS), another major rift system marked by the presence of monogenetic cones, dip-slip faults, eruptive fissures, extension fractures and the active Krafla volcano.</p><p>In order to showcase a few, outstanding examples of the above, we have made use of UAVs integrated by the Structure-from-Motion (SfM) Photogrammetry. As is well known, the combination of UAV-digital image collection and SfM techniques has been increasingly applied to geological and environmental research. We have applied this approach to the collection of high-definition images and with the purpose of constructing 3-D models, which may be considered “Virtual Outcrops (VO)”.</p><p>We highlight that such 3-D models can be navigated in immersive Virtual Reality mode, and hence can be a key tool not only for research purposes: in fact, this is a novel, cutting-edge approach which is suitable for improving geosite popularization and geoscience communication, allowing for the engagement of a wider audience, including potential end-users from the younger generation.</p><p> </p><p><strong> </strong></p>

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Huebscher ◽  
Jonas Preine

<p>Located on the Hellenic Volcanic Arc, the Christiana-Santorini-Kolumbo (CSK) marine volcanic zone is notorious for its catastrophic volcanic eruptions, earthquakes and tsunamis. Here, not only the largest volcanic eruption in human history, the so-called “Minoan” eruption took place in the Late Bronze age 3600 years ago, but also the largest 20th-century shallow earthquake in Europe of magnitude 7.4 in 1956. Although the region is heavily populated and a fully developed touristic region, the acting tectonic forces are not fully understood to this day aggravating the necessary assessment of geohazards.</p><p>Recent bathymetric and seismic studies revealed that the CSK zone comprises a system of neotectonic horst and graben structures with extended internal faulting that is thought to be the result of the ongoing extension in the southern Aegean. The NE-SW alignment of volcanic edifices within the CSK underlines the tectonic control of volcanism in this area. In this study, we show how advanced reprocessing of selected seismic lines leads to significantly improved seismic images revealing new details of the complex rift system. Moreover, using a unique diffraction-based approach for velocity model building, we perform pre-stack depth migration (PSDM) and present for the first time depth-converted seismic sections from the CSK zone. This allows for the proper estimation of fault angles, sedimentary thicknesses and performing structural restoration in order to reconstruct and measure the amount of extension in the individual rift basins. We revise the previous seismostratigraphic scheme and propose a new correlation between the horst and graben units.</p><p>Structural restoration indicates an extension of approx. 3 km along the Santorini-Anafi basin while PSDM indicates the sedimentary strata to be of maximum 1500 m thickness. According to the new stratigraphic model, we infer a four-stage evolution of this basin in which early marine deposition, syn-rift deposition, complex infill deposition and neotectonic syn-rift deposition are distinguished. Moreover, we identify negative flower structures within the basin centre indicating the presence of a strike-slip component, which superimposes the dominant NW-SE directed extension. Based on these findings, we are confident that by applying the proposed workflow to the complete regional dataset, the understanding of the relationship between tectonics and volcanism in the CSK zone will be significantly improved, and, consequently, will lead to an improved risk assessment of the central Aegean Sea.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sofia Bressan ◽  
Noemi Corti ◽  
Valentina Rigoni ◽  
Elena Russo

<p>Due to its strategic position at the boundary between European and American plates, Iceland is extraordinarily well suited for the investigation of various geological processes, like the interaction between active rifting processes and magmatic stresses. In this study, we focused on surveying with very high detail different key areas located within the Krafla Fissure Swarm (KFS), an active volcanic system located in the Northern Volcanic Zone, NE Iceland.</p><p>The Krafla volcanic rift is characterized by the presence of a central volcano and by a 100 km-long swarm of extension fractures, normal faults and eruptive fissures mainly affecting post-LGM (Late Glacial Maximum) Holocene lavas. Our work focuses on three different areas, located in the northernmost sector of the rift, about 5 km north of the central caldera, and south of the central volcano. All these areas have been investigated through field surveys performed both with classical methods and through two Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), the DJI Phantom 4 PRO and DJI Spark: thanks to Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry techniques, we obtained Orthomosaics, Digital Surface Models (DSMs) and 3D models of the study area, with centimetric resolution.</p><p> The integration of the above cited methodologies allowed us to collect a huge amount of data, also overcoming difficulties due to logistics, which can sometimes impede classical field survey. More in detail, we collected 2476 structural measurements at 918 sites along extension fractures, and at 185 sites along normal faults. At extension fractures, we measured local fracture strike, dilation and, whenever possible, opening direction. On the other hand, along normal faults we measured local fault strike and the vertical offset. From our data, we obtained an average opening direction of N101°E, thus observing the presence of lateral components of motion along extension fractures. Finally, considering both extension fractures and normal faults, we quantified the cumulative dilation along these sectors, in order to assess the stretch value along the rift.</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniele Trippanera ◽  
Margherita Fittipaldi ◽  
Nico Augustin ◽  
Froukje M. van der Zwan ◽  
Sigurjón Jónsson

<p>The Red Sea is a unique place to study the birth of an oceanic rift basin and the interplay between magma and tectonics at a young divergent plate boundary. The Red Sea is a NNW-SSE oriented and 2000 km long rift system with a spreading rate decreasing from ~16 mm/yr in the south to ~7 mm/yr in the north. The morphology also changes along the rift axis: the south portion is a continuous and well-developed rift, clearly exposing oceanic crust, the central portion is characterized by deeps made by oceanic crust separated by shallower inter-trough zones, and the northern part contains more widely spaced and less obvious deeps with the transition to the continental crust not well defined. While the central Red Sea morphology has been extensively studied, the structure of the northern Red Sea and its link to the central Red Sea are still unclear. Indeed, the northern Red Sea rift is offset by 100 km to the central Red Sea axis by the still poorly understood Zabargad fracture zone.</p><p>Here we aim at improving the understanding of the volcano-tectonic structure of the axial part of the southern tip of the northern Red Sea that corresponds to the Mabahiss Deep. To this aim, we carried out multiple multibeam surveys with R/V Thuwal and R/V Kobi Ruegg to map the sea bottom to add to what had been done in earlier surveys. In addition, we obtained several sub-bottom profiling lines across and along the deep to better constrain the shallow sedimentary structure.</p><p>Our results show that the 15 km long, 9 km wide and 2250 m deep Mabahiss Deep along with the 800 m high and 5 km wide central volcano are the key prominent structures of the area. The deep is bordered by a series of Red Sea parallel normal faults on two sides forming a graben-like structure and thus suggesting a rift-like morphology. The central volcano is well preserved and has a 2 km wide summit caldera containing several volcanic cones and thus suggesting a permanent magmatic source underneath of a relatively young age. The ocean floor outside the deep and the volcanic edifice is mostly covered by salt flows, limiting structural analysis of the surrounding areas.</p><p>A comparison between the northern and central Red Sea suggests, although in both areas thick salt covers most of the ocean floor, that the axes have similar rift-like structures with stable axial volcanism. However, in the central Red Sea larger portions of the oceanic crust are free of salt and the deformation seems larger with more prominent faults that also affect the floor of the deeps and split apart volcanic edifices, enhancing the occurrence of diffused monogenic volcanic cones. Therefore, this might suggest, despite the central and northern Red Sea sharing the same structure and evolution, that the less volcanic and tectonic activity in the north probably reflects the decreasing spreading rate from south to north along the Red Sea.</p>


2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (16) ◽  
pp. 11831-11845 ◽  
Author(s):  
Albert Ansmann ◽  
Holger Baars ◽  
Alexandra Chudnovsky ◽  
Ina Mattis ◽  
Igor Veselovskii ◽  
...  

Abstract. Light extinction coefficients of 500 Mm−1, about 20 times higher than after the Pinatubo volcanic eruptions in 1991, were observed by European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET) lidars in the stratosphere over central Europe on 21–22 August 2017. Pronounced smoke layers with a 1–2 km vertical extent were found 2–5 km above the local tropopause. Optically dense layers of Canadian wildfire smoke reached central Europe 10 days after their injection into the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere which was caused by rather strong pyrocumulonimbus activity over western Canada. The smoke-related aerosol optical thickness (AOT) identified by lidar was close to 1.0 at 532 nm over Leipzig during the noon hours on 22 August 2017. Smoke particles were found throughout the free troposphere (AOT of 0.3) and in the pronounced 2 km thick stratospheric smoke layer at an altitude of 14–16 km (AOT of 0.6). The lidar observations indicated peak mass concentrations of 70–100 µg m−3 in the stratosphere. In addition to the lidar profiles, we analyzed Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) fire radiative power (FRP) over Canada, and the distribution of MODIS AOT and Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI) aerosol index across the North Atlantic. These instruments showed a similar pattern and a clear link between the western Canadian fires and the aerosol load over Europe. In this paper, we also present Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) sun photometer observations, compare photometer and lidar-derived AOT, and discuss an obvious bias (the smoke AOT is too low) in the photometer observations. Finally, we compare the strength of this record-breaking smoke event (in terms of the particle extinction coefficient and AOT) with major and moderate volcanic events observed over the northern midlatitudes.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuichi S. Hayakawa ◽  
Hidetsugu Yoshida ◽  
Hiroyuki Obanawa ◽  
Ryutaro Naruhashi ◽  
Koji Okumura ◽  
...  

Abstract. Debris avalanche caused by the sector collapse of a volcanic mountain often forms characteristic depositional landforms including hummocks. Not only sedimentological but also geomorphological analyses of debris avalanche deposits (DAD) are crucial to clarify the size, mechanisms, and processes of the debris avalanche. We investigate the morphology of hummocks newly identified in the DAD at the north-eastern flank of Mt. Erciyes in Kayseri, central Turkey, likely formed in the late Pleistocene. Using a remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) and the structure-from-motion multi-view stereo photogrammetry (SfM), we obtained high-definition digital elevation model (DEM) and orthorectified image of the DAD surface with hummocks. Detailed geometric features of the hummocks are investigated using the RPAS-derived high-definition DEM. The source volume of the DAD was also estimated by reconstructing the original shape of the mountain body using a lower-resolution satellite-based DEM. For this, topographic cross sections are examined based on the slopes around the scar that are regarded as the remnant topography preserved since the sector collapse. The spatial distribution of hummocks shows an unusual pattern regarding the distance-size relationships, i.e., anomalously concentrated in a certain distance from the source. The hummocks are found to be aligned toward the flow direction of the debris avalanche, suggesting the extensional regime of the debris avalanche. These facts indicate that this debris avalanche did not follow the typical flow type of debris avalanches observed in the other cases. Instead, the topographic constraints by former caldera wall and fault-induced lineaments could have strongly affected the flow course and pattern in this particular case: The pre-existing caldera wall topography could have acted as the topographic barriers for the debris avalanche to force the initial flow to turn northward, and the flow regime to be once compressional followed by extensional at the narrow and steepened outlet valley. Also, the estimated volume of the DAD 12–15 × 108 m3 gives its mean thickness of 60–75 m, which is much deeper than the reported cases of other DADs. This suggests that the debris avalanche could have flown down to the far downstream areas from the presently-observed limit of the DAD extent. Assessments of the DAD including the results of this study can provide further insights into the risk and mitigation of potential disasters in the study area.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Adrià Ramos ◽  
Berta Lopez-Mir ◽  
Elisabeth P. Wilson ◽  
Pablo Granado ◽  
Josep Anton Muñoz

The Llert syncline is located in the South-central Pyrenees, between the eastern termination of the EW-trending Cotiella Basin and the north-western limb of the NS-trending Turbón-Serrado fold system. The Cotiella Basin is an inverted upper Coniacian-lower Santonian salt-floored post-rift extensional basin developed along the northern Iberian rift system. The Turbón-Serrado fold system consists of upper Santonian – Maastrichtian contractional salt-cored anticlines developed along an inverted transfer zone of the Pyrenean rift system. Based on field research, this paper presents a 3D reconstruction of the Llert syncline in order to further constrain the transition between these oblique salt-related structures. Our results suggest that the evolution of the Llert syncline was mainly controlled by tectonic shortening related to the tectonic inversion of the Cotiella Basin synchronously to the growth of the Turbón-Serrado detachment anticline, and by the pre-compressional structural framework of the Pyrenean rift system. Our contribution provides new insight into the geometric and kinematic relationships of structures developed during the inversion of passive margins involving salt.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Finnigan Illsley-Kemp ◽  
Martha Savage ◽  
Colin Wilson ◽  
S Bannister

© 2019. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. We use crustal seismic anisotropy measurements in the North Island, New Zealand, to examine structures and stress within the Taupō Volcanic Zone, the Taranaki Volcanic Lineament, the subducting Hikurangi slab, and the Hikurangi forearc. Results in the Taranaki region are consistent with NW-SE oriented extension yet suggest that the Taranaki volcanic lineament may be controlled by a deep-rooted, inherited crustal structure. In the central Taupō Volcanic Zone anisotropy fast orientations are predominantly controlled by continental rifting. However at Taupō and Okataina volcanoes, fast orientations are highly variable and radial to the calderas suggesting the influence of magma reservoirs in the seismogenic crust (≤15 km depth). The subducting Hikurangi slab has a predominant trench-parallel fast orientation, reflecting the pervasive presence of plate-bending faults, yet changing orientations at depths ≥120 km beneath the central North Island may be relics from previous subduction configurations. Finally, results from the southern Hikurangi forearc show that the orientation of stresses there is consistent with those in the underlying subducting slab. In contrast, the northern Hikurangi forearc is pervasively fractured and is undergoing E-W compression, oblique to the stress field in the subducting slab. The north-south variation in fore-arc stress is likely related to differing subduction-interface coupling. Across the varying tectonic regimes of the North Island our study highlights that large-scale tectonic forces tend to dictate the orientation of stress and structures within the crust, although more localized features (plate coupling, magma reservoirs, and inherited crustal structures) can strongly influence surface magmatism and the crustal stress field.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amdemichael Zafu Tadesse ◽  
Karen Fontijn ◽  
Abate Assen Melaku ◽  
Ermias Filfilu Gebru ◽  
Victoria Smith ◽  
...  

<p>The Main Ethiopian Rift (MER) is the northern portion of the East African Rift System and separates the Eastern and Western plateaus of Ethiopia. The recent volcanic and tectonic activity is largely focused within the rift basin along a 20 km wide zone on the rift floor. Large silicic volcanic complexes are aligned along this central rift axis but their eruptive histories are not well constrained.</p><p>The Bora-Baricha-Tullu Moye (BBTM) volcanic field is situated in the central Main Ethiopian Rift and has a different appearance than the other MER volcanic systems. The BBTM constitutes several late Quaternary edifices, the major ones are: Tullu Moye, Bora and Baricha. In addition, there are multiple smaller eruptive vents (e.g. Oda and Dima), cones, and domes across the ca. 20 X 20 km wide area. Currently, there is very little information on the frequency and magnitude of past volcanic eruptions. We present a new dataset of field observations, componentry, petrography, geochronology (<sup>40</sup>Ar/<sup>39</sup>Ar), and glass major and trace element chemistry. The data are assessed as potential fingerprints to assign diagnostic features and correlate units across the area, and establish a tephrostratigraphic framework for the BBTM volcanic field.</p><p>Two large-volume and presumably caldera-forming eruptions are identified, the younger of which took place at 100 ka. The volcanic products exposed in the BBTM area show that the volcanic field has undergone at least 20 explosive eruptions since then. The post-caldera eruptions have comenditic (Tullu Moye) and pantelleretic (Bora and Baricha) magma compositions. Other smaller edifices such as Oda and Dima also erupted pantelleritic magmas, and only differ slightly in composition than tephra of Bora and Baricha. Tullu Moye had two distinct explosive eruptions that dispersed tephra up to 14 km away and on to the eastern plateau. Bora and Baricha together had at least 8 explosive eruptions. Their deposits can be distinguished by their light grey color and unique lithic components. Oda had 7 eruptions, the most recent of which generated a pyroclastic density current that travelled up to 10 km away from the vent. Dima experienced at least 3 eruptions, generating tephra with a bluish-grey colour.</p><p>This mapping and compositional analysis of the deposits from the BBTM in the MER indicates that the region has been more active in the last 100 ka than previously thought, which has implications for hazards assessments for the region.</p>


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