Abstract
The highest percentage of exposed rocks and soils in Antarctica occurs in Northern Victoria Land (NVL). Exposed Rocks in NVL were part of the paleo-Pacific margin of East Gondwana during the Paleozoic time. This investigation provides a satellite-based remote sensing approach for regional geological mapping in the NVL, Antarctica. The Landsat-8 and the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) datasets were used to extract lithological-structural and mineralogical information. Several new spectral-band ratio indices were developed using Landsat-8 and ASTER bands and proposed for Antarctic environments to map spectral signatures of iron oxide/hydroxide minerals, Al-OH-bearing and Fe, Mg-O-H and CO3 mineral zones. For mapping abundance of iron oxide/hydroxide mineral groups in rocks surface, Fe-minerals Index (Fe-MI) was developed using Landsat-8 bands by way of (band 6 / band 5) × (band 4 / band 3) and for ASTER bands through (band 4 / band 3) × (band 2 / band 1). Al-OH-bearing alteration minerals Index (Al-OH-MI) was calculated for Landsat-8 bands by means of (band 6 / band 7) – (band 4) and for ASTER spectral bands using (band 5) × (band 7 / band 6). Bands 7, 8 and 9 of ASTER were used to calculate the Fe, Mg-OH-bearing alteration minerals Index (Fe, Mg-OH-MI) as a result of (band 7) × (band 9 / band 8) for detecting Fe, Mg-O-H and CO3 mineral groups. Resultant image maps derived from spectral-band ratio indices that developed in this study are fairly accurate and correspond well with geological maps of the NVL.
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