Undergraduate Research Project: Remote Sensing of Blueschist Minerals in the Anti-Atlas Mountains, Morocco
Abstract
Through a National Geographic Society Research and Exploration Grant, undergraduate students have participated in a June 2001 Moroccan field excursion. Field research objectives focus upon collecting spectral reflectance data from discrete lithologies within the Bou Azzer inlier. The Bou Azzer inlier exposes a 650 Million Year Old (Ma) subduction zone, wherein some of the world's oldest blueschist minerals occur. Blueschists form in high pressure/low temperature conditions, which occur only in subduction zones. Precambrian blueschist-bearing subduction zones are exceedingly rare; most of the known blueschist assemblages are less than 200 Ma. This study utilizes Landsat Thematic Mapper remote sensing images, rock spectral reflectance data collected in the field, and laboratory spectral reflectance data provided by the U.S.G.S. We examine the spectral reflectance properties of rock types within the Bou Azzer inlier, with special emphasis on the blueschist minerals. The objectives of this research activity are to: 1) analyze spectral reflectance properties of distinctive rock assemblages; 2) correlate these data with field observations; 3) test whether geologic terrains in Morocco containing blueschist have unique spectral reflectance properties; 4) determine whether the blueschist spectra are statistically distinct from other mineral terrains within the region; and 5) test whether supervised classification techniques enable identification of other possible blueschist outcrops. We hypothesize that other blueschist terrains occur along the strike of the Anti-Atlas suture zone. We are using remote sensing techniques to test this hypothesis. This undergraduate remote sensing research project utilizes a successful collaboration with the National Geographic Society and the United States Geological Survey.
- Publication:
-
AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2002
- Bibcode:
- 2002AGUSMED22A..07B
- Keywords:
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- 3040 Plate tectonics (8150;
- 8155;
- 8157;
- 8158);
- 8040 Remote sensing;
- 9305 Africa;
- 9619 Precambrian;
- 1744 Tectonophysics