Mike Barber, of the
Geoscience Department, was recently selected to receive a Northeastern Section Stephen G. Pollock Undergraduate Student Research Grant from the Geological Society of America. This award will fund Barber’s research, which involves mapping an ancient lava flow in the central Oregon High Cascades using
traditional field methods and LiDAR in ArcGIS.
Barber and
Nick Deardorff are conducting field studies to map the lava flows and scoria deposits from Mokst Butte volcano, near Bend, Ore. They will use a terrestrial laser scanner along with previously acquired airborne LiDAR data to analyze how surface reflectance and LiDAR intensity data vary
over a range of lava morphologies and vegetation cover. Mike will use the LiDAR intensity variations, along with field observations and variability in lava composition and crystallinity, to map the Mokst Butte lava flow field.