CONTEMPORARY TECHNIQUES IN GEOLOGIC MAPPING

A technological revolution has taken full flight, new unmanned aerial imaging and mapping techniques have made it easier on geoscientists to reach areas that would otherwise be relatively difficult to traverse on foot, at the expense of no harm. For this project, we utilized aerial photogrammetry with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) equipped with a GPS receiver and a high-resolution camera (720p at 30fps) to re-map a section within Big Bend Ranch State Park located in Texas, USA. An aerial video was captured using the UAV that would be later exported into Adobe Premiere Pro, to cut into still frames of 1 frame per second. The still frames were input alongside with collected GPS coordinates to create a geographically accurate sparse cloud model using AgiSoft Photoscan. Settings within AgiSoft Photoscan allowed us to increase the model’s texture, and to improve geometric mesh density for the model’s quality and accuracy. The final product was used to map and collect data of the geomorphic and geologic surface features of the surrounding area to update previous understandings of Big Bend Ranch State Park.