Improved discrimination of rock units using Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery of the Oman ophiolite

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Abstract
The short wavelength infrared channels recorded by the Landsat Thematic Mapper make this instrument more suitable than the Landsat Multispectral Scanner for lithological mapping using enhanced imagery. The weathering mineralogy of igneous rocks causes absorption features in their reflectance spectra which are particularly characteristic in the near infrared. A Landsat Thematic Mapper band 7,5,4 red, green, blue false colour composite of part of the Oman ophiolite confirms much of the previous mapping and indicates certain hitherto unrecorded features. These include a new mafic-ultramafic late-intrusive complex and differences between deeper and near-crustal levels in the mantle sequence, which may be related to the environment in which serpentinization took place. Decorrelation stretching is an excellent means of accentuating colour variations within an image as an aid to visual interpretation.