Mineral and Petroleum Exploration

Landsat and other remote sensor systems (SPOT; JERS; radar, etc.) have been heavily used in searching for surface indicators of "leaking" subsurface oil and gas. The general approach to petroleum exploration is described. One line of investigation looks at structural analysis of space imagery in search of subsurface traps. Another, of infrequent success, seeks alteration at the surface caused by chemical changes related to surface-reaching oil or gas. In the early days of Landsat-1, a study in the Anadarko Basin of Oklahoma sought to demonstrate how alteration anomalies and lineaments analysis can aid in finding new petroleum by showing a relationship to already known fields. This pioneering program led to ambiguous but interesting results.

Here is a link to this study in Oklahoma:

http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect5/Sect5_4.html

Remote Sensing and Satelite Imagery can also be used to look for other minerals. LANDSAT 4, and 5 are perhaps the most useful. In particular the sensor on board (Thematic Mapper), in the Mid IR band is most useful in discrimination of mineral and rock types.

Thematic Mapper homepage: http://edcwww.cr.usgs.gov/glis/hyper/guide/landsat_tm#tm13

How Remote Sensing is applied to mineral exploration using White Mountains in Utah as an example:

http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect5/Sect5_2.html

More analysis, including Maximum Likelyhood Classifier of the Utah site:

http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect5/Sect5_3.html