Fast hazard evaluation employing digital photogrammetry: Popocatépetl glaciers, Mexico

Lahar floods are among the main hazards originated by ice and snow melting during eruptions of glacier-clad volcanoes.Hazard evaluation can be fast and safe by using remote methods such as digital photogrammetry, using software for imageprocessing of scanned aerial photographs. Digital photogrammetr...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Patricia Julio Miranda, Hugo Delgado Granados
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2003
País:México
Institución:Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
Repositorio:Redalyc-UNAM
OAI Identifier:oai:redalyc.org:56842211
Acceso en línea:https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=56842211
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Ciencias de la Tierra
glaciers
hazard evaluation
glacier monitoring
Popocatépetl volcano
digital photogrammetry
Descripción
Sumario:Lahar floods are among the main hazards originated by ice and snow melting during eruptions of glacier-clad volcanoes.Hazard evaluation can be fast and safe by using remote methods such as digital photogrammetry, using software for imageprocessing of scanned aerial photographs. Digital photogrammetry also allows monitoring of the evolution of geological processes.Before the onset of the current eruptive activity, Popocatépetl glaciers were studied by direct methods. After December1994, it became necessary, for safety reasons, to find a remote method to continue with the study of glacier changes. In this paper,a hazard evaluation methodology is discussed and applied to measurement of glacier areas at Popocatépetl on December 2000with the aim to determine equivalent water volume and to estimate maximum and minimum laharic volumes for different icemeltingscenarios. Our results show that even a 100% ice melting would not produce a laharic event of the size of the catastrophiclahars at Nevado del Ruíz or San Nicolás.