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Application of spectral analysis to discriminate hydrothermal alteration zones at Daralu copper deposit, SE Iran

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Abstract

The aim of this research is discrimination of the hydrothermal alterations related to copper mineralization in the Daralu deposit, which is located in the south of Kerman, SE Iran. The rocks of the surrounding area consist of Eocene volcanics and Oligocene–Miocene intrusive bodies. The main mineralization has occurred in a granodiorite porphyry intrusion and to some extent in the nearby volcanic and pyroclastic rocks. Some methods such as band ratio, principal component analysis (PCA), and supervised classification methods like spectral angle mapper (SAM), spectral feature fitting (SFF), and linear spectral unmixing (LSU) were carried out on Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) and Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) satellite images in order to detect propylitic, phyllic, and argillic alterations. In addition, potassic alteration was studied by LSU using region of interest (ROI) method for resampling on the basis of the field studies. LSU procedure displayed the best matching with the reality in comparison with the field observations at the Daralu deposit. Two major fault systems with NW-SE and NE-SW trends were determined by remote sensing using linear enhance and sharpen filter by visible near-infrared (VNIR) in ASTER bands. Propylitic, argillic, and phyllic alterations show the same directions with the major faults of the area.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the National Iranian Copper Industries Company (NICICO) for their support to perform this research. We would like to specially thank the reviewers for their worthwhile comments and valuable contribution to this paper.

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Sojdehee, M., Rasa, I., Nezafati, N. et al. Application of spectral analysis to discriminate hydrothermal alteration zones at Daralu copper deposit, SE Iran. Arab J Geosci 9, 41 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-015-2068-0

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