Quantitative Analysis of Terrestrial Caldera Shape and Applications in Planetary Geomorphology

Salt Lake Community College Westpointe Campus, Salt Lake City, UT

Volcanism on rocky planets and moons can yield valuable insights into their composition, evolution, and heat regime. This study creates a model to determine characteristics of extraterrestrial volcanoes based on imagery, one of the most abundant resources for studying other planetary bodies. We found that of 56 measured calderas, 61% were correctly classified into compositional categories based on shape alone. These results indicate that this model can be applied to calderas on other planets and moons to help constrain characteristics of their volcanism.