Fresh New Insights from the LiDAR

Hey y'all. I spent three days at the AASG Annual meeting in Park City, UT this week. Gave a presentation in front of approx 30 versions of my boss about 'Simple Digital Geology for Typical Analog Geologists'...went very well and was a lot of fun. Had a chance to talk with Ian Madin of DOGAMI about LiDAR visualization. In 2 seconds he convinced me that using a combination of slope shading and elevation color ramping produces the best results in almost every setting. I do recall that, on our last trip, Natalia asked me why I didn't use this method on the maps I handed out. Good question. Now I do.

Here are some images of a familiar area:


The slope-shading method looks a bit less 'real' but provides an amazing enhancement of slope contrasts that reflect important contact relations. Try it out on the data yourself and you will be amazed at the new array of relations that will jump out at you. For example, look at the young landslide nested in a larger slide along the Saddle Butte lava flow in the lower left corner. Pretty obvious now, no? Probably blocked the channel. During field camp, I found one of these in the Artillery Rim complex that is nested in the older slide complex. It too flanks a notably narrow reach of the river and may be associated with a young blockage.

Yes. Some additional map details will be added soon.

Also, while at the meeting I spoke with Vicki McConnell (State Geologist of Oregon) about publishing the map. She is all for it as long as I (we) can help defray the cost of production. I suspect the NSF grant can help cover this. I will do the lion's share of the work, so shouldn't be too much.