In laser damage experiments, damage initiation and growth are typically
monitored by imaging the surface of the tested fused silica sample,
ignoring their bulk morphology. The depth of a damage site in fused
silica optics is considered to be proportional to its
equivalent diameter. However, some damage sites experience phases with
no diameter changes but growth in the bulk independently from their
surface. A proportionality relationship with the damage diameter does
not accurately describe the growth of such sites. In the following, an
accurate estimator for damage depth is proposed, which is based on the
hypothesis that the light intensity scattered by a damage site is
proportional to its volume. Such an estimator, using the pixel
intensity, describes the change of damage depth through successive
laser irradiations, including phases in which depth and diameter
variations are uncorrelated.