Prospección de yacimientos de tipo hidrotermal mediante la utilización de imágenes aster en la parroquia Pumpuentza del cantón Taisha, provincia de Morona Santiago.

Abstract

The current research work aimed the spectral analysis of Aster satellite images in order to locate possible mineral deposits through the identification of areas of hydrothermal alteration. At the beginning, it was possible to determine the spectral signatures typical of hydrothermal alterations, besides characterized the zones of mineralogical importance through remote sensing, and then generated a map of the hydrothermal alterations of the study. On the other hand, the digital numbers (ND) were converted into reflectance values whose process was carried out using radiometric correction and atmospheric correction. To highlight spectral anomalies in the image; areas covered by vegetation, bodies of water, shadows, clouds, and saturated areas were processed. After that, it performed the combination of red, green and blue (RGB) bands to identify possible signs of minerals associated with hydrothermal alterations. The spectral angle mapping (SAM) method was applied for mineral identification using the spectral pattern for minerals reference. Evidence of minerals such as: kaolinite, goethite, haematite, jarosite and pyrophyllite were found by the remote sensing technique. Finally, it concludes that these minerals would be associated with hydrothermal alteration due to silicification and recommends to carry out field tests with a precision spectrometer, or to carry out a mineralogical study to support the results of this study.