Thesis (M.Sc.) - Cairo University - Faculty of Science - Department of Geology

Exploration of mineral resources is a challenge for the future of economy and development in Egypt. However various geological metallogenic maps are available, many of such mineral resources are not well mapped and determined yet. The technology and the new techniques of earth observations developed to capture images of the earth can be functioned effectively to determine the alteration zones containing economic mineral resources as well as defining their exact location and spatial extension. In the present study, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) data were used to map the different exposed rock units and the alteration zones related to gold mineralization at El Sid-Fawakhir area, Central Eastern Desert of Egypt. Integration of band selection, band rationing and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) techniques was used to clearly determine the lithological units cropping out in the study area. The alteration zones in the study area were efficiently mapped from the ASTER reflectance data using the mineral ratio indices, Constrained Energy Minimization (CEM) and two spectral signature based supervised classification techniques which are the Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) and Spectral Information Divergence (SID). Field studies, sampling and laboratory microscopic examination of thin and polished sections were used for the validation process

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