Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) observations captured the topography of Erebus volcano's Main Crater annually from 2008 to 2010. High-spatial resolution scans reveal a pattern of subsidence and an approximately 3-meter per-year drop in lava lake level, suggesting decreasing magma reservoir pressure. The data also recorded rapid cyclic fluctuations in the active lava lake, sporadically interrupted by minor gas bubble explosions.
Use Cases
- Modeling magma reservoir overpressure changes based on observed subsidence and lava lake level drop.
- Analyzing rates of volumetric change within a lava lake based on calculated rise and fall speeds.
- Investigating unsteady magma flow and gas volume fraction variability by integrating TLS data with prior surface motion and gas output rates.
- Studying annual and decadal-scale geomorphic evolution by integrating TLS scans with comparable 2001 airborne data.
Strengths
- High-spatial resolution scans provide unique insights into fine-scale topographic changes.
- Annual observations over three consecutive years (2008, 2009, 2010) allow for temporal analysis.
- Integration with comparable airborne data from 2001 enables decadal-scale change assessment.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Data may reflect temporal bias inherent to nasa_earthdata, covering only December of each year.
Provenance
- Source
- SCIOPS
- Collection Method
- Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) instrument imaging.
- Time Range
- 2008, 2009, 2010 (December each year)
- Geography
- Main Crater and Inner Crater of Erebus volcano, Antarctica