Relating Thermal Inertia of Basaltic Lava Flows to Their Texture

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dc.contributor.advisorWhittington, Alan
dc.contributor.authorSchwartz, Lauren
dc.contributor.committeeMemberWeissling, Blake
dc.contributor.committeeMemberXie, Hongjie
dc.date.accessioned2024-02-12T20:02:14Z
dc.date.available2024-02-12T20:02:14Z
dc.date.issued2022
dc.descriptionThis item is available only to currently enrolled UTSA students, faculty or staff. To download, navigate to Log In in the top right-hand corner of this screen, then select Log in with my UTSA ID.
dc.description.abstractRemote sensing of planetary bodies provides invaluable data about their surfaces. Due to limitations in spatial resolutions, it is currently not possible to distinguish the variety of surface textures of lava flows. The surface texture of a lava flow, including roughness and porosity, can inform on the emplacement and rheology of the flow. A property that could be used to distinguish between surface textures is thermal inertia, which is a measure of a material's resistance to temperature change over time, for example over the diurnal (day-night) cycle. Thermal inertia cannot be determined remotely but an estimate can be determined from apparent thermal inertia (ATI) calculated from the albedo and diurnal temperature difference of the flow surface. This project aims to relate the surface texture of several Holocene basaltic lava flows to their thermal inertia. The flows are Carrizozo, Paxton Springs, and Aden Crater which are in central, western, and southern New Mexico respectively. Laboratory analysis of collected samples included petrography, geochemistry, density, heat capacity, thermal diffusivity, and monitored cooling experiments. These thermal inertia measurements are compared with values of ATI derived from thermal images collected in the field with a Forward Looking Infrared (FLIR) camera, and satellite remote sensing data. Laboratory data suggests that thermal inertia could be used to differentiate between pahoehoe and a'a' texture, but we found that they are not differentiable with apparent thermal inertia derived from field and satellite data. While ATI cannot distinguish between surface textures, it could provide a rough estimate of sample porosity.
dc.description.departmentGeosciences
dc.format.extent103 pages
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.isbn9798841766407
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12588/5304
dc.languageen
dc.subjectThermal inertia
dc.subjectBasaltic lava flows
dc.subject.classificationGeology
dc.subject.classificationGeophysics
dc.subject.classificationThermodynamics
dc.subject.classificationGeomorphology
dc.subject.classificationFluid mechanics
dc.titleRelating Thermal Inertia of Basaltic Lava Flows to Their Texture
dc.typeThesis
dc.type.dcmiText
dcterms.accessRightspq_closed
thesis.degree.departmentGeosciences
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Texas at San Antonio
thesis.degree.levelMasters
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Science

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