3D visual modeling of hydrothermal chimneys using a rotary laser scanning system

Hydrothermal chimneys are indicators of hydrothermal activity and therefore important in ocean research. Because of the complex terrain and suspended solids in the water around hydrothermal chimneys, it is difficult to measure them with traditional methods. In this paper we propose an innovative method to measure the shape and color of them by a rotary laser scanning (RLS) system. By combining multiple scans taken from different angles and extracting the color information from the surface of hydrothermal chimneys, we can create visual color models of them as described in figure 1. The proposed method was implemented during sea experiments in Kagoshima Bay and we were successful in reconstructing the model of a hydrothermal chimney in post processing.