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INTERPRETATION OF AIRVIEWS AND SATELLITE IMAGES: MORE POTENTIALITIES FOUND
Valentina B. Sokolova, Chief of Aerophotogeology Research Group of "Sevzapgeologia" State Geological
Enterprise, Russia
Vladimir V. Proskuryakov, President of Northwest Regional Geological Center, Russia
Commission VII - Resources and Environmental Monitoring
KEY WORDS: Photogeological Mapping, Unconventional Method, Basement, Great Depth.
ABSTRACT:
The authors have revealed a new solution in the field of plotting aerial and remote survey data, which enables to
visualize crystalline formations deep beneath the Earth's surface. That lithological/facial features of deep-seated
geological bodies turn out to become visible makes us to admit that we are facing natural phenomena still unknown
and independent in terms of time and space. Such ability to discern the results of these phenomena offers many
prospects in various fields of geoscience. This presentation demonstrates how successfully a practical utilization of the
said ability comes off in geological industry.
This presentation is intended to inform an audience and
geological community on abilities the remote sensing
data conceals. One of such "secret" powers consists in
that a pattern of deep-seated crystalline formations can
be recognized (invention covered by Author's Certificate
31393026, registered January 3, 1988, in the former
USSR). This, to a great extent, facilitates a procedure of
constructing geological maps showing a top surface of a
basement overlain by a "sandwich" of sedimentary strata.
The pattern can be produced to view in a scale range
from 1/10,000 to 1/1,000,000. Geological plotting of
compound multilayer sections is known to be a toilsome
job requiring expensive methods in the field of
geophysics, geochemistry, drilling, aerogeology, remote
sensing, etc. And yet, sometimes even such a
multidisciplinary study fails to yield a complete picture,
be it a top surface of a buried basement or some deep-
seated structural level of unconformity. As for the
commonly applied conventional airborne survey
methods, these all are known, as it is admitted in the
manuals, to possess a low efficiency in case of deep
mapping. What makes their application fairly limited is a
sedimentary cover’s thickness, lithified rocks in the cover
sequence, geological setting of an area in question, its
geographic localtion, how well the area is economically
developed, and many other factors as well.
True, what we suggest as a method of constructing the
geological maps for various depth intervals on the basis
of airviews and satellite images may sound rather
uncommon, and yet the Earth pictures are such that they
enable to reconstruct the lithological/facial mode of a
plate basement and the surfaces of regional
unconformities in the very deeply seated crystalline rocks
varying in composition. To acquire indispensable data,
one needs nothing but airphotos and satellite flown
Images, and topographic base maps to make the latter's
geolocation. To avoid any predisposition when
constructing geological maps based on airborne-satellite-
flown survey data, we abstain from examining any
geological information already available for the area in
scrutiny.
As far as Well-exposed areas are concerned, to recognize
and plot geological objects there by dint of natural
633
indicators is known to have been a long-time practice.
Specialists can easily interpret the patterns on the basis
of airborne and satellite data: indeed, they are quite
confident in plotting linear and planar elements, as well
as such rock features as a texture, structure and
composition, a shape of a geological body, its
boundaries, strike and dip of layers, etc.
Thanks to natural indicators, plotting of very deeply
seated crystalline formations is possible, too; here the
indicators are put together in the form of lines
reproducing similar landscape components which one
identifies on remote survey photos. Field work experience
has proved each such line to correspond to particular
sets of arranged in persistently repeated rows ultimate
groups of unambiguous landscape components. The
latter comprise minute and microtopographic features,
nano- and mesocombinations of plant communities and
water-impregnated areas, these being arranged in
nonrandomly oriented linear or curvilinear forms. No
study has been made yet as to how texture and structure
of the crystalline rocks are translated vertically up to the
surface, whereupon they give shape to the abovesaid
landscape complexes.
Thus, a spatial combination of landscape components
that form up an array of the lines, or "symbols",
unmistakenly reproduces a composition of deep-seated
crystalline formations as an imprint on a surface of the
sedimentary rocks. Geological mapping, prospecting and
detail exploration in various landscape- and geozones
have established and proved this phenomenon quite
definitely. The lines, as an outcoming information, are
pinpointed on a photo and then plotted on a topographic
map where these are called the lines with "preferred
orientation" (LPO). Borrowed from F.H.Lahee's "Field
geology", NY, 1961, this definition has been reserved to
the authors since 1978. Normally, the lines with
resemblant patterns make up persistent "cartographic
images” (CI) - a definition borrowed from A.M.Berliand's
"An image of a space: a map and information'(Moscow,
"Mys!" Publishing House, 1986, in Russian). As it shows
up from the LPO's, a particular Cl corresponds to
particular features of a particular deep-seated rock.
Provided a specialist knows by appearances the
International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXI, Part B7. Vienna 1996
