Lidar reveals the true faces of California's volcanoes
Volcanoes in California (and everywhere!) are often covered with vegetation, including thick forests. Fortunately, the USGS can use laser technology to cut through the canopy and reveal the geology beneath.
Volcanoes in California (and everywhere!) are often covered with vegetation, including thick forests. Fortunately, the USGS can use laser technology to cut through the canopy and reveal the geology beneath.
Light Detection and Ranging (or lidar) is a technology used to create high-resolution models of ground elevation with a vertical accuracy of 10 centimeters (4 inches). Lidar equipment, which includes a laser scanner, a Global Positioning System (GPS), and an Inertial Navigation System (INS), is usually mounted on a small aircraft, crewed or uncrewed. The laser scanner sends brief pulses of light to the ground surface, and when those pulses are reflected or scattered back, their travel time is used to calculate the distance between the laser scanner and the ground.
Initially, these 'point clouds' of laser returns show everything they bounce off of, including vegetation. To make a 'bare earth' digital elevation model, like the one of Mount Shasta's west flank shown here, additional processing strips out the trees and plants and leaves behind only the ground below. The intricate outlines and features of Shasta's lava flows, and even boulders and stream channels are then revealed! (USGS figure by A. Mosbrucker.)
To find more lidar from California's volcanoes (and the rest of the United States), visit https://apps.nationalmap.gov/lidar-explorer/#/
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