ABSTRACT

Sedimentary field surveying uses 2D outcrop images to rapidly and easily obtain quantitative information. Although photogrammetry is capable of a complete and accurate 3D analysis, this technique requires great technical expertise, as well as intricate and expensive software and hardware. Rectified digital images, instead, represent a cost-effective and easier method to obtain accurate 2D images for outcrop modeling and mapping. The present methodology describes a simple technique to improve quantitative image analysis for outcrop analysis, based on widespread conventional PC software and inexpensive hardware.

The proposed methodology treats outcrop digital images with a software developed by us in order to solve for colinearity equations, which calculate coordinates of terrain points. Thus, the geometric correction on the terrain-point coordinates to obtain the rectified images can be done with some commercial and widely distributed G.I.S., remote sensing, or photogrammetric programs. The final rectified image represents a metrically consistent perpendicular view of the outcrop that favors the quantitative image analysis. This technique can also be used to improve the photo-mosaicking of different perspective-corrected images of the same outcrop, avoiding the usual misfit of the image frames.