Morphometric analysis of shallow marine stromatolites in Hamelin Pool based on Fluid Lensing Image Processing

The earliest macroscopic evidence of life on Earth is found in the form of stromatolites, bio-accretionary structures built by complex microbial communities. These ancient sedimentary structures have persisted on Earth for the past 3.5 billion years and can still be found growing in several locations. Hamelin Pool, Western Australia is home to the largest and most diverse assemblage of modern marine stromatolites that span for tens of kilometers. Mapping and documenting the diverse morphometric structure of stromatolites has proven challenging given the limitations of spatial resolution and coverage using traditional coastal mapping techniques.

Our project utilizes high resolution imagery processed using a novel technique developed at NASA AMES Laboratory for Advanced Sensing, known as Airborne Fluid Lensing. This technology takes drone-based aerial imagery of subaqueous environments, removes surface wave distortion and produces a centimeter-scale spatial resolution 3D dataset. The dataset is then segmented to extract stromatolitic structures. These structures can be difficult to describe using standard Euclidean measures like diameter or length, but can be quantitatively assessed using measures of complexity. By applying multifractal analysis, lacunarity (λ) data, and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) these segmented structures are examined for trends in size, shape and distribution. Extensive high-resolution coverage allows for the identification and mapping of distinct stromatolite morphologies across diverse environmental conditions. These morphometric analyses may provide insight to help interpretation of ancient structures as well as identifying spatial patterns that may be indicative of life beyond Earth, particularly in Martian paleolakes.