Geology of Kilauea caldera and Ka'u desert/Hawai'i (thesis mapping)
Creators: name: Holland, Marc
Publisher: name: RWTH Aachen University
Year: 2003
Subjects: subject: 550
subject: Geologische Kartierung
subject: Vulkan
subject: Hawaii
subject: Geowissenschaften
subject: fault
subject: volcano
subject: Hawai'i
subject: faultzone

description: Aachen : Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University (2003).
description: This mapping project is to fulfil part of the requirements to obtain the German diploma in geology. The final diploma work is subdivided in two parts – a thesis mapping and a thesis research project – which are often independent of each other. This mapping of the Kilauea caldera and Ka´u desert however is related to the final thesis project on brittle faulting. Hawai'i provided excellent conditions to collect data about various faulting issues. Hawai'i is almost entirely made of basalt. This very rigid material is the main material of the upper oceanic crust. It is a brittle rock of which the deformation can be studies on Hawai'i. Hawai'i is located within a tectonic plate and is therefore free of tectonic stresses. It deforms only under its own body forces. The surface is free of extensive alteration and weathering and shows a recent development of a fault- and crack system. All these advantages are paired with virtually 100% exposed outcrops in the area of the Ka´u desert. As a student at SOEST at the University of Hawaii at Manoa in 1999/2000 I already was familiar with the Hawaiian geology. Steven Martel (GG) and Scott Rowland (HIGP) advised and supported the mapping. SOEST provided me computer, printer, software access and a large number of data sets. The data includes aerial and satellite imagery of various kinds. This enabled mapping the proximity of the fault zones in a general geological sense based on the data sets. Within the four weeks field work two tasks were done simultaneously. Fault characteristics were observed, measured and documented to be used in the thesis project and field observations were done to ground check and enhance the mapping contents. This enables putting the special faulting aspect in a large general geological frame by obtaining a general geological surface map. This report presents the results of the remote sensing based mapping. The Kilauea caldera and Ka´u desert were mapped based on the data sets LANDSAT, SPOT, AIRSAR, TIMS and a DEM. The map is done in the scale 1:25.000 covering a maximum area of 255 km² (17×15 km) to deliver a geological surface map. In contrast to existing maps, this work handles sediment cover and surface roughness differently by defining them as individual units. Please note, that detailed faulting aspects are not covered in this report. Apart from this report and the map, a CD-ROM is included. The photographs taken during fieldwork are stored on the CD-ROM and provide additional information about the geology in the field. Please see the appendix for details in using the CD-ROM. The work period started at September 16th 2002 by flying to Honolulu. During an approximately three week lasting period computer, printer and data access was established as well as the permission to use the software package ENVI 3.4 to process the data at the geology department (GG) as well as at the planetary department (HIGP). Within this period the data sets were processed to a number of printouts that were used for fieldwork purposes. Details on this processing are given in chapter 3. From October 9h to November 6th the fieldwork was carried out in the Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park on the southernmost island Hawai'i. During this period the content and quality of the printouts/preliminary maps was checked and enhanced. The information on the remote sensing imagery was compared to the field observations to see how the image information relates to the geology. Additional data on surface units was gathered as well as numerous measurements were taken. Small-scaled features were added to the database among with a large amount of photographs. As part of the fieldwork a small amount of samples were retrieved to document the most important surface units in more detail. The remaining time on Hawai'i until the 16th of November 2002 was spent in Honolulu to post process the datasets with ENVI. Further work on the samples and the data was carried out at the geology department of the RWTH Aachen.
description: Published by Publikationsserver der RWTH Aachen University, Aachen