Active mud volcanism observed with Landsat 7 ETM+

Abstract

Mud volcanoes are relatively small spatter cones that erupt water-laden mud and gases, and occur throughout the world. For many mud volcanoes, the eruption of warm mud (10–40°C) can be detected with high-resolution thermal satellite imagery. We demonstrate the utility of Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) imagery for thermal monitoring of active mud volcanism. We constrain the temperature and area of active mud discharge and estimate surface heat flux for two isolated mud volcanoes in the Copper River Basin, Alaska using Band 6 (10.4–12.5 μm). The heat flux results span a wide range due to uncertainties in the environmental conditions at the time of image acquisition, but can be constrained to be less than 0.24 MW for each of the two mud volcanoes considering previously published field measurements. With this higher-resolution Band 6 on the ETM+ sensor, as well as the high-resolution thermal bands on the ASTER sensor, reliable monitoring of mud volcanism on this scale is possible for the first time.