Remote Sensing Data for Geological Mapping in the Saka Region in Northeast Morocco: An Integrated Approach

Together with geological survey data, satellite imagery provides useful information for geological mapping. In this context, the aim of this study is to map geological units of the Saka region, situated in the northeast part of Morocco based on Landsat Oli-8 and ASTER images. Specifically, this study aims to: (1) map the lithological facies of the Saka volcanic zone, (2) discriminate the different minerals using Landsat Oli-8 and ASTER imagery, and (3) validate the results with field observations and geological maps. To do so, in this study we used different techniques to achieve the above objectives including color composition (CC), band ratio (BR), minimum noise fraction (MNF), principal component analysis (PCA), and spectral angle mapper (SAM) classification. The results obtained show good discrimination between the different lithological facies, which is confirmed by the supervised classification of the images and validated by field missions and the geological map with a scale of 1/500,000. The classification results show that the study area is dominated by Basaltic rocks, followed by Trachy andesites then Hawaites. These rocks are encased by quaternary sedimentary rocks and an abundance of Quartz, Feldspar, Pyroxene, and Amphibole minerals.