Magnetic signature of La Corona lava tube (Lanzarote, Canary Islands) as a planetary analog

The island of Lanzarote (Canary Islands) is widely recognized as a terrestrial analog for planetary science due to its geological and environmental characteristics. This island hosts numerous lava tubes, including the 7.6-km-long La Corona tube, one of Earth’s largest. Detecting lava tubes and other subsurface cavities is crucial for planetary exploration, as they may be used as safe shelters in future planetary missions. 

Magnetic data, including scalar and vector magnetometer data as well as magnetic susceptibility measurements, were collected during the NASA Goddard GeoLife expedition in May 2023 to study three lava tubes of different morphometry, age, and geological features: La Corona, Los Naturalistas, and Tahiche. This study focuses on analyzing vector magnetometer measurements over La Corona tube. We rotate and process the vector magnetic measurements to derive magnetic anomalies of both the total magnetic field and the individual vector components. To identify, delineate, and characterize the lava tube, we apply various enhancement techniques such as calculating the reduction to the pole or the lateral derivatives.

Our findings reveal the feasibility of using vector magnetometer data to detect lava tubes. Additionally, we show that our magnetic anomaly values derived from vector magnetometer data are comparable to those obtained from scalar magnetometer data. Lastly, we illustrate that we can extract valuable information from each of the vector magnetic field components and use them together with the total field values to identify and interpret magnetic subsurface features.