GEOMORPHOMETRICAL DATING ANALYSES OF CINDER CONES WITH SATELLITE AND DRONE IMAGES

Isotopic techniques are nowadays commonly used to date a diverse variety of geological materials, they are however still sometimes expensive. Different procedures have been developed to obtain faster and economical dating results, even if they are not as accurate as geochemical methods. Previous work has shown how current morphologic tools display a relationship between cinder cones slope degradation with its age in arid climate. Older studies carried out contrasting absolute dating techniques and geomorphometric analyses of Quaternary basaltic cinder cones in the U.S. (Hawaii, Nevada and Texas) and in Mexico, suggested that degradation of cinder cones slope angle over time is a reliable age indicator. The main objective of this study was to compare the measurement of slopes of two cinder cones within the Camargo Volcanic Field (CVF), to obtain their relative age using digital elevation models (DEMs) built from data coming from four sources (Aster, INEGI, Google Earth and drones). Estimates of cinder cones´ age were derived from an exponential trendline analysis. Age range estimates for volcano 1 using Aster is 87,000 - 120,000 years, and for volcano 2 is 114,000 - 121,000 years. Using INEGI´s data, age estimates varies from 108,000 to 115,000 years for volcano 1, and from 115,000-123,000 years for volcano 2. Google Earth data used in volcano 1 gives estimates of 133,000 – 140,000 years and 110,000-112,000 years for volcano 1 and 2, respectively. Finally using data coming from a drone, a range of 65,000 – 72,000 years for volcano 1 and from 84,000 – 86,000 years for volcano 2 was obtained. In summary, satellite images provide similar ages, but older than those calculated from drone images.