HR: 0800h
AN: V31A-0605    [Abstracts]
TI: Mapping Elevated Temperatures on a Thirty-Year-Old Basalt Flow of New Tolbachik Volcano Using Satellite and Ground-based Thermal Infrared
AU: * Wessels, R
EM: rwessels@usgs.gov
AF: Alaska Volcano Observatory, U.S. Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center, 4200 University Dr, Anchorage, AK 99508 United States
AU: Ramsey, M
EM: ramsey@ivis.eps.pitt.edu
AF: University of Pittsburgh, Department of Geology and Planetary Science, Pittsburgh, PA 15260 United States
AU: Dehn, J
EM: jdehn@gi.alaska.edu
AF: Alaska Volcano Observatory, Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska - Fairbanks, 903 Koyukyuk Drive, Fairbanks, AK 99775 United States
AU: Senyukov, S
EM: ssl@emsd.iks.ru
AF: Kamchatkan Experimental-Methodical Seismological Department, Geophysical Service, Russian Academy of Science, Petropavlovsk-Kamcha, 683006 Russian Federation
AB: Most thermal infrared (TIR) studies of lava flows focus on cooling rates and processes that occur during the first few minutes to weeks of flow emplacement. This work considers a rare case where anomalously high temperatures (> 100°C) persist many years to decades after flow emplacement. The 65-meter-thick toe of the 1975 North Cone 2 alkaline basalt flow at New Tolbachik volcanoes in Kamchatka, Russia contains a 2 km² region of elevated temperatures. This area of the flow is frequently observed in clear nighttime Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), Advanced Very High-Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR), and Moderate-resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) TIR data.

August 2004 and 2005 Forward-Looking Infrared (FLIR) camera surveys and field measurements reveal that the flow surface contains 1-3 meter wide zones with surface temperatures ranging from 60° - 150°C. Airborne FLIR shows that many of the thermal areas on the flow form polygonal patterns that are apparently flow fractures. The field and ASTER data are being processed to determine the thermal properties and cooling pattern of the flow.

With sustained elevated temperatures occurring over a large area, the New Tolbachik lava flow provides a stable and consistent thermal target for calibration of dozens of high resolution ASTER nighttime TIR datasets. Because this calibration site lies in the same ASTER data swath as the highly active Sheveluch, Kliuchevskoi, and Bezymianny volcanoes to the north, these results can be used to fine tune temperature and emissivity measurements of recent volcanic deposits from these volcanoes.
DE: 8411 Thermodynamics (0766, 1011, 3611)
DE: 8419 Volcano monitoring (7280)
DE: 8485 Remote sensing of volcanoes
DE: 8494 Instruments and techniques
SC: Volcanology, Geochemistry, Petrology [V]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005