Based on a number of Digital Terrain Models (DTM) different aspects of the geology of Mount Everest will be visualized. We use terrain models based on ASTER satellite images, the “ETH” DTM (Prof. Dr. Armin Gruen, Institute of Geodesy and Photogrammetry, ETH Zurich), as well as SRTM-data and own digitized contours taken from maps (1 : 10 000) kindly provided by Dr. Brad Washburn (Boston museum of Science) in our study to create a 3D view over the study area. Differences in the DTMs will be discussed together with the way in which they merged to form our data base.
Ground truth of the geological information is given by the newly released geological map of the Everest region (Searle, 2003), and fieldwork carried out by both authors independently at different occasions. Satellite imagery used in this study was produced by the following space born high resolution sensors:
Landsat MSS, TM, ETM+, MOMS, ASTER, and HYPERION
Finally we draped geological maps and remote sensing imagery over the optimized DTM, which allowed an interactive evaluation and comparison of the different data sets. Results from supervised classifications of the imagery will be compared with different maps based on geological fieldwork. The interaction and dependence of geology and geomorphology of the Mt. Everest Massif will be discussed.
Searle, M.P. 2003. Geological Map of the Mount Everest region, Nepal - South Tibet Himalaya. Scale 1:100,000. Dept. Earth sciences, Oxford University, UK.
2005.
Remote Sensing, Hyperspectral data, 3D visualization, Himalaya, Mount Everest