REMOTE SENSING RESEARCH IN THE ANTI-ATLAS MOUNTAINS, MOROCCO

A comprehensive remote sensing mosaic of twelve Landsat Thematic Mapper scenes has been produced using ERDAS Imagine to study the geologic structure of the Anti-Atlas Mountains of Morocco. The primary focus of this project involves delineation of rock types within erosional inliers and determining the continuity of structural lineaments throughout the Anti-Atlas region. Erosional inliers within the Anti-Atlas Mountains expose segments of a 600 million year old suture zone resulting from the subduction of a Late Precambrian ocean basin. The inliers contain ophiolites, volcanic arc assemblages and sedimentary sequences recording this tectonic collision.

A June 2001 groundtruthing program collected spectral data using a hand-held spectroradiometer from the Bou Azzer and Siroua inliers, located along the Precambrian suture zone marking the 600 million year old collision. The ground-based spectral data of known rock types were used to assess the spectral characteristics of the rocks in the field, comparing it with the satellite spectral readings of the sample site in order to aid in the identification of rock types in other inliers for which geologic mapping is sparse. The remote sensing data effectively provide a large-scale view of the mountain belt that will aid in the detailed ground-based geologic mapping necessary to characterize critical specific regions within the main tectonic zones. Analysis of remote sensing data will also facilitate comparisons of adjoining mountain belts to the west (Mauritanide-Bassaride) and east (Transaharan). This regional assessment will help define the role of the Anti-Atlas region in relation to the Latest Precambrian West Gondwana supercontinent assembly.