Remote sensing satellite imagery for prospecting geothermal systems in an aseismic geologic setting: Yankari Park, Nigeria

Abstract

The aim of this investigation is to evaluate the applicability of multispectral satellite imagery for hydrothermal alteration mineral mapping and thermal anomaly detection as a proxy for the characterization of subtle geothermal systems in an aseismic geologic setting. The Yankari Park, an area in northeastern Nigeria characterized by several surface manifestations of hotsprings and hydrothermally altered rock deposits was selected for this study. The study evaluates the effectiveness of the Independent Component Analysis and Mixture Tuned Matched Filtering (MTMF) algorithm for target detection of hydrothermal alteration zones and the Single Channel Algorithm for thermal anomaly detection associated with subtle geothermal systems using spectral bands of Landsat-8, ASTER and Landsat-7, respectively. The results indicated that the use of verified image endmember spectra gives more accurate results compared to that from library spectra by implementing MTMF. Results of mapping thermally anomalous pixels did not conform to known locations of the thermal springs, however, examining the spatial correlation of the anomaly areas with the major fault-fracture systems from the geological map of the study area indicates a close affinity between them and with previously reported thermal gradients within heat conserving sedimentary formations. This investigation has significant implications as it signifies the need for the integrative use of alteration mineral mapping and thermal anomaly detection for cost-effective prefeasibility stage mapping of geothermal systems in an aseismic geologic setting located in African plate and other regions around the world.