Remote sensing applied to the exploration for uranium-mineralized breccia pipes in northwestern Arizona

Thesis/Dissertation · Fri Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1988

OSTI ID:6795616

Kwarteng, A M.Y.

Exploration for uranium-mineralized breccia pipes in northwestern Arizona has been active because of the high-grade ore they contain, which may also include such by-products as Ag, Au, Cu, Pb, Zn, and V. These breccia pipes were formed from the collapse of the overlying sedimentary strata into karst caverns developed in the Mississippian Redwall Limestone; mineralization occurred between 200 and 220 m.y. ago as determined previously by U-Pb isotopic analyses. Spectroscopic and statistical analyses of field, laboratory, and digital Landsat Thermatic Mapper (TM) data were carried out to determine the fundamental spectral and mineralogical differences between samples on the surface of breccia pipes and their background areas. Spectroscopic and XRD mineralogical studies clearly demonstrate that hydrothermally altered rocks associated with mineralized breccia pipes are distinguished from the surrounding rocks by the Fe{sup 3+}, hydroxyl, and carbonate minerals content. Discriminant analyses of field, laboratory, and TM data indicates that 64-80% of the samples collected on the surfaces of breccia pipes and their immediately surrounding areas were correctly classified. Digitally enhanced TM images printed at the scale of 1:100,000 resulted in the recognition of more than 80% of previously known orebodies as well as additional anomalies identified in the study areas. Digital image processing techniques were applied to airborne geophysical data consisting of apparent resistivity, total-field magnetics, derived overburden thickness, and very low-frequency electromagnetics (VLF-EM) to evaluate the utility of the data sets for breccia pipe exploration. The processing and critical analysis of the geophysical data is apparently the most promising approach to breccia pipe exploration in this study.

• Research Organization: Texas Univ., El Paso, TX (USA)
• OSTI ID: 6795616
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

050100* -- Nuclear Fuels-- Reserves
Exploration
& Mining
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
ACTINIDE ISOTOPES
AGE ESTIMATION
ARIZONA
CARBONATE ROCKS
CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD
CLASSIFICATION
COHERENT SCATTERING
COPPER
DIFFRACTION
DIMENSIONS
ELECTRIC LOGGING
ELECTRICAL SURVEYS
ELECTROMAGNETIC SURVEYS
ELEMENTS
EXPLORATION
FEDERAL REGION IX
GEOLOGIC AGES
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOLOGIC HISTORY
GEOLOGIC MODELS
GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES
GEOPHYSICAL SURVEYS
GOLD
HYDROTHERMAL ALTERATION
ISOTOPE DATING
ISOTOPE RATIO
ISOTOPES
LANDSAT SATELLITES
LEAD
LEAD ISOTOPES
LIMESTONE
MAGNETIC SURVEYS
METALS
MINERAL RESOURCES
MINERALIZATION
MINERALS
NORTH AMERICA
ORIGIN
OVERBURDEN
PALEOZOIC ERA
REMOTE SENSING
RESISTIVITY LOGGING
RESOURCES
ROCKS
SATELLITES
SCATTERING
SEDIMENTARY ROCKS
SILVER
SPECTROSCOPY
SURVEYS
THICKNESS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
URANIUM DEPOSITS
URANIUM ISOTOPES
USA
VANADIUM
WELL LOGGING
X-RAY DIFFRACTION
ZINC