Authors:
Fabio Luca Bonali
1
;
Varvara Antoniou
2
;
Othonas Vlasopoulos
2
;
Alessandro Tibaldi
1
and
Paraskevi Nomikou
2
Affiliations:
1
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Piazza della Scienza 4 – Ed. U04, 20126, Milan, Italy, CRUST- Interuniversity Center for 3D Seismotectonics with Territorial Applications, Italy
;
2
Department of Geology and Geoenvironment, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Panepistimioupoli Zografou, 15784 Athens, Greece
Keyword(s):
Geological Mapping, Structure from Motion, Santorini Volcano, Virtual Outcrop, LBA Eruption.
Abstract:
In the present work, we tested the use of selfie drones as a tool for 3D modeling, geological mapping, and data collection. The model we used is a 0.300-kg multirotor quadcopter being equipped with a 1/2.3-inch CMOS sensor capable of capturing 12 Megapixel pictures, attached to a 2-axis mechanical gimble and with approximately 16 minutes of flight time. Test sites are located in Santorini and are characterised by different settings: i) the 1570-1573 AD volcanic crater area, in Nea Kameni island, has a mostly horizontal topography; ii) the outcrop along Vlychada beach, showing layers of the Late Bronze Age (also well-known as Minoan) eruption, has mostly vertical topography. By applying the Structure from Motion techniques to pictures collected using the selfie drone, we were capable of: i) reconstructing the two sites with centimetric to sub-centimetric resolution; ii) recognizing geological features on very high-resolution Digital Surface Models and Ortomosaics; iii) mapping vertica
l cliffs made up of volcanic deposits on 3D Digital Outcrops Models; iv) collect new quantitative data for both sites.
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