Estimating bedding orientation from high-resolution digital elevation models

A high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM), generated from airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) remote sensing data, is used here to estimate the 3-D orientation of bedding planes. Methods for enhancement, manual identification and extraction of lineaments, and estimation of best fit planes representing bedding are presented and evaluated for a study area in foldedmetasedimentary rocks in northeast Tasmania, Australia. Estimated bedding plane dip directions are shown to be accurate and reliable when compared with field-based observations. The same cannot be said for dip angle estimates. It is likely that small errors in the location of a manually digitized lineament will affect dip estimation more than dip direction estimation, particularly for steeply dipping structures. Fold axis orientations calculated from the stereographic analysis of estimated bedding closely correspond to orientations determined from field data. The mean absolute differences ± standard error for 12 of the 14 regularly spaced domains located within the study area were 8.7° ± 1.2° for the fold plunge and 4.9° ± 0.9° for the fold trend. The techniques described here for the extraction of bedding plane orientations from high-resolution DEMs complement field-based geological mapping and can assist structural interpretations.