Journal de géologie et géophysique
Libre accès

Abstrait

The Use of Satellite Gravity to Enhance the Geological Mapping, Southern Hamissana Area, Red Sea Region, Sudan

Abdalla E. M. Elsheikh, Osman M. Mohamed Ali, Sami O. El Khidir

The study area is located in the north-western flanks of the Red Sea hills in the Hamissana area, NE Sudan. The area is representing a basement terrain as a part of the Arabian-Nubian shield during the Pan African Oregon. Geologically and structurally the terrain is complicated and undergone multi deformational phases. The main objective of the current study is to investigate the capability of enhanced satellite gravity data for to support the accuracy of geological mapping. The method of the study is based on the integration of remote sensing techniques, geological field survey with the processed satellite gravity data to strength the surface and subsurface geological mapping as guide for mineral exploration, hence the area is considered as important zone for mineral resources. The remote sensing investigations are based on the digitally processed Landsat +7 ETM and Sentinel 2 data, which produce more appealing images suitable for geological interpretation through false color compositing and image transformations, confirm by field survey. The satellite gravity data was processed informs of Bouguer Anomaly (BA), Second Vertical Derivatives (SVD) to detect the density variations and structural features in subsurface geology. The occurrences of mafic-ultramafic rocks appear in high density anomaly, the granitic rocks and meta-sediments appeared in low density values, while the metavolcanics appeared in medium anomaly. The subtle thrusted slaps of ophiolitic melange were detected through the compilations of geological and satellite gravity data, in other way the surface appearance of some lithological units is not always reflect the actual geological setting.