ALBERT

Description: Two Visible-Near Infrared (VNIR) scanners, the NS-001 and the M2S, were flown over the Rosemont porphyry copper deposit as part of the NASA/JPL/GEOSAT test site program. This program was established to determine the feasibility and limitations of mapping hydrothermal alteration with multispectral scanners. Data from the NS-001 at 0.83 and 2.2 microns were used to identify Fe(3+) and OH enriched outcrops. These areas were then correlated with three alteration assemblages. The first correlation, hematite-epidote, was the most obvious and appeared as a strong ferric iron signature associated with hematite stained Cretaceous arkoses and andesites. The second correlation, qtz-sericite, showed a combined ferric-hydroxyl signature for a phyllicly altered quartz monzonite. The third correlation, skarn, was identified only after a review of calc-silicate mineral VNIR spectra. Altered limestones that outcrop west of the deposit have a similar ferric iron-hydroxyl signature as the quartz-sericite altered quartz monzonite. This skarn signature has been interpreted to indicate the presence of andradite, hydro-grossularite and idocrase. Data from the second scanner, M2S, was used to search for variation in ferric iron mineral type. Resulting imagery data indicated that hematite was the dominant ferric iron mineral present in the Rosemont area.