University of Miami graduate student Kelly Jackson and Camera Wings Aerial Photography recently teamed up to capture high-resolution photographs of remote islands in the Bahamas using specially equipped drones. The study is aimed at finding new ways to more precisely study the geological evidence preserved inside bedrock during critical events in Earth’s history.
“Drones are changing the way geologists map,” said Jackson, a Ph.D. student in the Marine Geology and Geophysics program at the UM Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. “It is now possible to acquire high-resolution photographs and elevation data of the hardest to reach locations.”
From the deck of the John G. Shedd Aquarium’s research vessel R/V Coral Reef II, Jackson and her team launched this unmanned aircraft outfitted with high-resolution digital cameras and position loggers over the remote islands of the Exuma Cays. Their goal of the study is to look back in time at the formation of the islands, which was driven by rapid fluctuations in sea level 125,000 years ago during the Pleistocene.
Using this newly available data from the drone technology, scientists can develop more detailed 3-D maps of the complex carbonate deposits, which holds important information about what Earth was like during the last interglacial period, when warmer global temperatures caused glacial melting.
Jackson and her team are currently analyzing the data obtained from the drone mapping survey.
— Annie Reisewitz
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