Acquisition of a Film Scanner Facility for the Study of Ocean Floor Photography

Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory at Columbia University will acquire a 35 mm film scanning device that will be made available to investigators throughout the Northeast. The scanner digitizes black & white and color film with very high resolution. The digital data can then be cataloged and stored on a variety of computer devices. It will be used for processing films of the seafloor and will be especially useful for stereo pairs from which bottom roughness spectra can be computed. Other research applications include the assembly of geological cross-sections of submarine escarp- ments, relative age dating of lava flows, and color profiling of sediment cores. It will also provide a capability to digitally archive large collections of seafloor photographs obtained by towed camera vehicles and manned submersibles.