Michigan Technological University Digital Commons @ Michigan Tech Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports 2019 LINKING HISTORICAL, FIELD, AND SATELLITE DATA TO DETERMINE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GAS EMISSIONS AND VEGETATION CHANGE IN THE PUHIMAU GEOTHERMAL AREA EAST RIFT ZONE KILAUEA, HAWAII Christie Torres Rosa Michigan Technological University, [email protected] Copyright 2019 Christie Torres Rosa Recommended Citation Torres Rosa, Christie, "LINKING HISTORICAL, FIELD, AND SATELLITE DATA TO DETERMINE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GAS EMISSIONS AND VEGETATION CHANGE IN THE PUHIMAU GEOTHERMAL AREA EAST RIFT ZONE KILAUEA, HAWAII", Open Access Master's Thesis, Michigan Technological University, 2019. https://doi.org/10.37099/mtu.dc.etdr/835 Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/etdr Part of the Geology Commons, and the Volcanology Commons LINKING HISTORICAL, FIELD, AND SATELLITE DATA TO DETERMINE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN GAS EMISSIONS AND VEGETATION CHANGE IN THE PUHIMAU GEOTHERMAL AREA EAST RIFT ZONE KILAUEA, HAWAII By Christie Eileen Torres Rosa A THESIS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE In Geology MICHIGAN TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY 2019 © 2019 Christie Eileen Torres Rosa This thesis has been approved in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SCIENCE in Geology. Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences Thesis Advisor: Chad D. Deering Committee Member: Curtis Edson Committee Member: Snehamoy Chatterjee Department Chair: John S. Gierke Table of Contents List of Figures .....................................................................................................................v List of Tables .................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgments ..............................................................................................................x List of Abbreviations ....................................................................................................... xi Abstract ...............................................................................................................................1 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................2 2 Geological Setting .......................................................................................................4 3 Eruptive History of the Kilauea Volcano and the East Rift Zone .........................5 4 Description of field locality ........................................................................................7 5 Methodology ..............................................................................................................10 5.1 Field campaign (February 13 to March 6, 2017) ............................................... 10 5.2 Diffuse Soil Degassing Data Analysis ............................................................... 12 5.3 Remote Sensing Applications to Volcanic Environments ................................. 15 5.4 Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)............................................. 17 5.5 Supervised Classification and Difference .......................................................... 18 6 Results ........................................................................................................................19 6.1 Diffuse soil gas fluxes and soil temperature ...................................................... 19 6.2 Sequential gaussian simulation .......................................................................... 26 6.2.1 CO2 Flux ......................................................................................................... 26 6.2.2 H2 S Flux ......................................................................................................... 28 6.3 Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI)............................................... 32 6.4 Supervised classification and Difference ........................................................... 34 7. Discussion ..................................................................................................................42 7.1 Diffuse CO2 flux ................................................................................................. 42 7.2 Diffuse H2S flux ................................................................................................. 43 7.3 Origin of soil gas emission distribution ............................................................. 45 iii 7.4 Spatiotemporal changes in vegetation health and/or extent ............................... 50 8. Conclusion .................................................................................................................52 References .........................................................................................................................54 Appendix I ........................................................................................................................59 Appendix II .......................................................................................................................61 Appendix III .....................................................................................................................66 Appendix IV .....................................................................................................................75 iv List of Figures Figure 1. Location of the Kilauea volcano, its craters, shields, and cones that are documented thought its eruptive history. Eruptive history from the craters is: from 1924 Halema‘uma‘u crater (biggest crater on the figure), 1955 events at lower Puna, 1960 the Kapoho crater, 1969 to 1974 Mauna Ulu, and from 1983 to present Pu’u’O’o in the East Rift Zone. Represented as a green triangle is the Puhimau geothermal area, study site. ......................... 5 Figure 2. Puhimau geothermal area, at the East Rift Zone of Kilauea, Hawaii. Area of study for the field campaign and data collection. ................................................................................... 8 Figure 3. Location of the 400 sample locations at the Puhimau geothermal area during the February-March 2017 field campaign. .................................................................................. 11 Figure 4. Example of how the equipment was set up for each measurement showing the accumulation chamber and the soil thermometer. ................................................................. 12 Figure 5. Omnidirectional variogram model for the 1,000 simulations of CO2. In red the experimental variogram and in blue the fitted variogram. .................................................... 14 Figure 6. Two direction (X and Y) variogram model for the 1,000 simulations of H2S. In red the experimental variogram in the x direction and in blue the fitted variogram. In green the experimental variogram in the Y direction and in orange the fitted variogram. ................... 15 Figure 7. NDVI classification for the Puhimau geothermal area for 2017. .................................. 18 Figure 8. Data distribution for CO2 gas emissions at the Puhimau geothermal area values are in g -2 -1 m d . ................................................................................................................................... 20 Figure 9. Data distribution for H2S gas emissions at the Puhimau geothermal area values are in g -2 -1 m d . ................................................................................................................................... 21 Figure 10. Data distribution for ground temperature (~15cm) for the Puhimau geothermal area. Soil temperature values are in oC. ......................................................................................... 22 Figure 11. Scatter plot showing a lack of correlation between CO2 and soil temperature. Depth of soil temperature measurements: ~15cm. ............................................................................... 24 Figure 12. Scatter plot showing a lack of correlation between H2 S and soil temperature. Depth of soil temperature measurements: ~15cm. ............................................................................... 25 Figure 13. Scatter plot showing a lack of correlation between CO2 and H2 S. .............................. 26 Figure 14. Map of the SGS average results for CO2 flux modeled for the Puhimau geothermal -2 -1 area.CO2 flux values are in g m d . ..................................................................................... 27 Figure 15. Example of a fumarole with steam activity at the center of the Puhimau geothermal feature, an area that shows a high CO2 flux value based on the SGS model. ........................ 27 v Figure 16. Center of the Puhimau geothermal area showing lack of vegetation, bare soil, and fumaroles with steam activity. This area was identified as the highest CO2 flux emissions based on SGS model results. ................................................................................................. 28 Figure 17. Map of the SGS average results for H2S flux modeled for the Puhimau geothermal -2 -1 area. H2S flux values are in g m d . .................................................................................... 29 Figure 18. Fumarole with steam activity at the northeast region of the Puhimau geothermal feature, an area with