Landsat band combinations for Washington state?

[Ragnor]

Hello, Ive done allot of work obtaining and combining sattelite sensor imagery into mineral maps over the winter. Ive had some success and have some usable data for my prospecting this summer. However I am not satisfied with my results. I have had real problems with mapping hydrothermal alteration zones. I am not sure if this is because the entire area is blanketed in trees and pumice of if I am missing some band data or I am not properly combining band data for my area. I just feel that I am not getting the level of contrast and detail i should be.

So I am wondering if anyone on here can steer me to more publically available data from higher resolution sensors and perhaps more importantly band combinations for this specific region, with all the water and trees and volcanic ground cover.

So far i have had the best results with 2-5-7 Iron, 4-5-6 clay and 7-10-11 for silicates. This works to compile usable false color rgb maps.
However I understand that it is possible to get much more specific using different, higher resolution sensor data.

I have found EO-1 Hyperion data but I think I am missing somthing about how to incorperate it.

I would like to be able to map hydrothermal alteration zones, iron oxide vs iron III oxide and tell one kind of clay from another.
I'm not sure if i can do that using publically available data and I know I won't know how to combine them without another full year of research if nobody is able to give me a shortcut.

So any help would be appreciated.

 

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[Alex Burke]

I think you are right that the Landsat won't see through the surface sediment layers and it won't help too much completing your "band" I think permissive tract is same thing not sure

I'm not sure Landsat is the best for what you are trying to do and I would think a magnetic map if available of the area would see deeper and be more useful maybe.

I'm not able to interpret magnetic maps personally but there are obvious correlations sometimes with placer mining claims/sites and magnetic surveys in some areas. Companies are using magnetic maps not just for highly anomalous porphyry or skarn deposits but they are now using them for placer and lode exploration.

Near the Taylor highway in AK surveys show magnetic anomalies over a whole district of mines east of it, the anomaly continues west on the other side of the highway and possibly has more rich placers along the same strike buried by overburden, so with the correct interpretation these maps and the data could possibly be useful.

Re: publicly avail data- I'm sure someone has done the year of research you need and it is on the DNS and USGS site. The geological maps are detailed down to the faults and alteration zones and the modern stream samples are actually done with decent controls and available. So there is no need to get too bogged down remapping Washington

Also think small, you can compile info/map out an area much easier if you just focus on a small area. I understand that "this will take me years feeling" There is way more info out there than we actually need and that can work against us.

Now that I have my general source pages for research and the various sites to research land and history etc mostly figured out, I try not to collect random detailed reports of an area I have no plans to go to or get sidetracked reading a paper I don't really understand or burn time trying to decipher it. I have a bad habit of collecting every interesting mining lead and this leads to a mess of useless research cluttering any good research I have compiled and creates more work.

I speak from my own trials and tribulations I spent tons of time mapping spots in Ca then realized I'll never make a dollar mining gold here lol. I wish I'd focused on Alaska and moved there a few years ago. I wish I hadn't wasted so much time hunting telluride pockets and reading Ca research the last couple of years...

You have probably come across this report but page 16 has the sources of data for their themes and I would track down the dikes, lithology and fault coverage maps/info they refer to, might as well grab the stream sample report too Then just use the Landsat to find ancient Mayan temples

http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2001/of01-501/of01-501.pdf

 

[Rob in KS]

I've been following your adventures with great interest, mainly because I'm a nerd. I just watched a show on PBS. A prof at Alabama uses Satellite data to find ancient sites around the world. The show was about finding Viking sites in north America. The sat she was using was called WorldView. I don't know if the data is available to us mortals but you might want to look. She was using near IR to find below ground anomalies. It might have some application in your adventures. You can probably see the show on PBS.org

 

[Alex Burke]

http://landsatlook.usgs.gov/ I forgot to post this before not sure if you were using this viewer already but I think it's the maybe the best one? and has the most layers and best imagery I've come across.