Landsat-8, advanced spaceborne thermal emission and reflection radiometer, and WorldView-3 multispectral satellite imagery for prospecting copper-gold mineralization in the northeastern Inglefield Mobile Belt (IMB), northwest Greenland

© 2019 by the authors. Several regions in the High Arctic still lingered poorly explored for a variety of mineralization types because of harsh climate environments and remoteness. Inglefield Land is an ice-free region in northwest Greenland that contains copper-gold mineralization associated with hydrothermal alteration mineral assemblages. In this study, Landsat-8, Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER), and WorldView-3 multispectral remote sensing data were used for hydrothermal alteration mapping and mineral prospecting in the Inglefield Land at regional, local, and district scales. Directed principal components analysis (DPCA) technique was applied to map iron oxide/hydroxide, Al/Fe-OH, Mg-Fe-OH minerals, silicification (Si-OH), and SiO2 mineral groups using specialized band ratios of the multispectral datasets. For extracting reference spectra directly from the Landsat-8, ASTER, and WorldView-3 (WV-3) images to generate fraction images of end-member minerals, the automated spectral hourglass (ASH) approach was implemented. Linear spectral unmixing (LSU) algorithm was thereafter used to produce a mineral map of fractional images. Furthermore, adaptive coherence estimator (ACE) algorithm was applied to visible and near-infrared and shortwave infrared (VINR + SWIR) bands of ASTER using laboratory reflectance spectra extracted from the USGS spectral library for verifying the presence of mineral spectral signatures. Results indicate that the boundaries between the Franklinian sedimentary successions and the Etah metamorphic and meta-igneous complex, the orthogneiss in the northeastern part of the Cu-Au mineralization belt adjacent to Dallas Bugt, and the southern part of the Cu-Au mineralization belt nearby Marshall Bugt show high content of iron oxides/hydroxides and Si-OH/SiO2 mineral groups, which warrant high potential for Cu-Au prospecting. A high spatial distribution of hematite/jarosite, chalcedony/opal, and chlorite/epidote/biotite were identified with the documented Cu-Au occurrences in central and southwestern sectors of the Cu-Au mineralization belt. The calculation of confusion matrix and Kappa Coefficient proved appropriate overall accuracy and good rate of agreement for alteration mineral mapping. This investigation accomplished the application of multispectral/multi-sensor satellite imagery as a valuable and economical tool for reconnaissance stages of systematic mineral exploration projects in remote and inaccessible metallogenic provinces around the world, particularly in the High Arctic regions

Identification of phyllosilicates in the antarctic environment using aster satellite data: Case study from the mesa range, campbell and priestley glaciers, northern Victoria land

In Antarctica, spectral mapping of altered minerals is very challenging due to the remote-ness and inaccessibility of poorly exposed outcrops. This investigation evaluates the capability of Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) satellite remote sensing imagery for mapping and discrimination of phyllosilicate mineral groups in the Antarctic environment of northern Victoria Land. The Mixture-Tuned Matched-Filtering (MTMF) and Constrained Energy Minimization (CEM) algorithms were used to detect the sub-pixel abundance of Al-rich, Fe -rich, Fe -rich and Mg-rich phyllosilicates using the visible and near-infrared (VNIR), short-wave infrared (SWIR) and thermal-infrared (TIR) bands of ASTER. Results indicate that Al-rich phyllosilicates are strongly detected in the exposed outcrops of the Granite Harbour granitoids, Wilson Metamorphic Complex and the Beacon Supergroup. The presence of the smectite mineral group derived from the Jurassic basaltic rocks (Ferrar Dolerite and Kirkpatrick Basalts) by weathering and decomposition processes implicates Fe -rich and Fe -rich phyllosilicates. Biotite (Fe -rich phyllosilicate) is detected associated with the Granite Harbour granitoids, Wilson Metamorphic Complex and Melbourne Volcanics. Mg-rich phyllosilicates are mostly mapped in the scree, glacial drift, moraine and crevasse fields derived from weathering and decomposition of the Kirkpatrick Basalt and Ferrar Dolerite. Chlorite (Mg-rich phyllosilicate) was generally mapped in the exposures of Granite Harbour granodiorite and granite and partially identified in the Ferrar Dolerite, the Kirkpatrick Basalt, the Priestley Formation and Priestley Schist and the scree, glacial drift and moraine. Statistical results indicate that Al-rich phyllosilicates class pixels are strongly discriminated, while the pixels at-tributed to Fe -rich class, Fe -rich and Mg-rich phyllosilicates classes contain some spectral mixing due to their subtle spectral differences in the VNIR+SWIR bands of ASTER. Results derived from TIR bands of ASTER show that a high level of confusion is associated with mafic phyllosilicates pixels (Fe -rich, Fe -rich and Mg-rich classes), whereas felsic phyllosilicates (Al-rich class) pixels are well mapped. Ground truth with detailed geological data, petrographic study and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis verified the remote sensing results. Consequently, ASTER image-map of phyllosilicate minerals is generated for the Mesa Range, Campbell and Priestley Glaciers, northern Victoria Land of Antarctica. 3+ 2+ 3+ 2+ 2+ 3+ 2+ 3+ 2

Ice sheet–free West Antarctica during peak early Oligocene glaciation

One of Earth’s most fundamental climate shifts – the greenhouse-icehouse transition 34 Ma ago – initiated Antarctic ice-sheet build-up, influencing global climate until today. However, the extent of the ice sheet during the Early Oligocene Glacial Maximum (~33.7–33.2 Ma) that immediately followed this transition, a critical knowledge gap for assessing feedbacks between permanently glaciated areas and early Cenozoic global climate reorganization, is uncertain. Here, we present shallow-marine drilling data constraining earliest Oligocene environmental conditions on West Antarctica’s Pacific margin – a key region for understanding Antarctic ice sheet-evolution. These data indicate a cool-temperate environment, with mild ocean and air temperatures preventing West Antarctic Ice Sheet formation. Climate-ice sheet modeling corroborates a highly asymmetric Antarctic ice sheet, thereby revealing its differential regional response to past and future climatic change

Ice sheet–free West Antarctica during peak early Oligocene glaciation

One of Earth’s most fundamental climate shifts – the greenhouse-icehouse transition 34 Ma ago – initiated Antarctic ice-sheet build-up, influencing global climate until today. However, the extent of the ice sheet during the Early Oligocene Glacial Maximum (~33.7–33.2 Ma) that immediately followed this transition, a critical knowledge gap for assessing feedbacks between permanently glaciated areas and early Cenozoic global climate reorganization, is uncertain. Here, we present shallow-marine drilling data constraining earliest Oligocene environmental conditions on West Antarctica’s Pacific margin – a key region for understanding Antarctic ice sheet-evolution. These data indicate a cool-temperate environment, with mild ocean and air temperatures preventing West Antarctic Ice Sheet formation. Climate-ice sheet modeling corroborates a highly asymmetric Antarctic ice sheet, thereby revealing its differential regional response to past and future climatic change

Late Ross-orogenic deformation of basement rocks in the northern Deep Freeze Range, Victoria Land, Antarctica: the Lichen Hills Shear Zone

Kinematic data from the basement rocks exposed at Lichen Hills in the upper Rennick Glacier, northern Victoria Land, indicate the presence of an intra-Wilson Terrane late Ross-orogenic high-strain reverse shear zone. ENE directed ductile shearing and WSW-directed late-stage brittle reverse faults overprint metasedimentary rocks and thick leucogranites of the Granite Harbour Intrusives. The Ross-orogenic age of the structures is attested by the involvement of leucogranites in ductile shearing and cross-cutting relationships between younger aplitic dykes and brittle deformations. This structural pattern strongly supports a relationship between the Lichen Hills Shear zone and the Wilson Thrust in Oates Land, the eastern branch of a late-Ross bivergent high-strain thrust system. Post-Ross structures are represented by reverse off-sets of the – in this area – Triassic to early Jurassic Beacon strata that are probably related to volcanotectonic events during Ferrar intrusion and the Cenozoic development of NW-SE striking dextral faults and N-S striking large-scale normal faults that parallel the Rennick Glacier