FIELD APPLICATION OF MULTISTRIPE LASER TRIANGULATION (MLT) SCANNING TO ENHANCE AND QUANTIFY DESCRIPTIONS OF SOIL AND EXOGENIC TRACE MORPHOLOGY

Recent development of multistripe laser triangulation (MLT) scanners have made digitizing three-dimensional, irregular pedogenic and ichnologic bodies such as ped structures and casts of endogenic and exogenic traces possible at a fraction of the cost of conventional LiDAR systems. These new applications have opened the door to such novel and non-destructive measures of these bodies as volume, surface area, Feret diameter, surface roughness, volume exploited, and tortuosity indices. The usefulness of this technology is due to the small size of the scanner, which allows it to be maneuvered around objects easily, and the level of detail resulting from the digital scan (120 μm resolution). While the value of this technology has been demonstrated in laboratory settings, little is known about its utility in the field. The overall goal of this study is to explore the possibilities and limitations of applying MLT technology in the field to enhance descriptions of pedogenic and ichnologic structures. Virtual models of carefully exposed and prepared soil excavation walls and land-surface exogenic traces were created and their descriptions quantified. Since MLT scanners automatically take and overlay photos on the point clouds they produce, all objects appear in full color and can be rotated in any direction, panned, or zoomed. This ability of MLT scanning makes the technology especially suited for online geoscience courses. Protocols, workflows, cautions, and examples using this technology in the field are outlined and presented.