Geomorphons for topographic analysis of on an offshore data in Iceland and the north Atlantic

Geologic seafloor mapping based on multibeam, or other ship-based observations of the regionally extensive Icelandic waters has traditionally been the work of human interpreters. Icelands seafloor morphology features a highly variable morphology with features associated to deep ocean structures, volcanism, tectonism, erosional features, or bio-habitat related features. Here we present our progress to use computer-based analysis on various bathymetry and topographic data for Iceland. Geomorphons are a measure of topographic features that can be classified into 498 landscape patterns that are classified in to 10 landscape elements. The method, defined by Jasiewicz and Stepinski (2013) has been implemented in various GIS applications, such as Grass, Whitebox, or ArcGIS pro. The applied method compares elevation values of a grid cell value in a raster digital elevation model to neighbouring grid cells within a defined search radius by weighting grid cells by distance from the cell that is being analysed. This provides a landscape metric that skips small local features but can identify the bigger landscape features. Here, geomorphon analysis is applied to bathymetry data available in the Iceland waters at various resolutions, ranging from very low global datasets to high resolution bathymetry data and the impact of search and skip distances is explored. The results are compared with man-digitiesd mapping carried out within the Emodnet project. Furthermore are we comparing the analysed geomorphons on the ocean floor to landbased features to search submerged terrains. Thus, we see great potential for useing semi-automated methods for our mapping work in Iceland.