Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) And Ground-Based Structure From Motion Photogrammetry For Stratigraphic and Structural Analysis

Structure from Motion (SfM) is a recently developed tool for advanced topographic surveys. This technique may be applied either from airborne or ground-based platforms. This new innovative approach has become a more accessible, cost-effective, and practical means of produce high quality 3D outcrop and geological models, which were traditional produced using expensive and highly technical laser scanning technology. This work illustrates four case studies in which aerial-based SfM photogrammetry has been used as a complementary data acquisition tool, in order to enhance and calibrate other data sets, and in an effort to build a more complete interpretation of stratigraphic and structural outcrop features. The results of these studies apply directly to the fields of sedimentology/stratigraphy, field mapping, basin analysis, and reservoir characterization. Furthermore, these studies apply this technique to geological aspects ranging in scale from millimeter variations of fracture surface topography, to centimeter-scale sedimentary structures, to decameter scale outcrop geometries.