Discrimination between sedimentary rocks from close-range visible and very-near-infrared images

Abstract

Variation in the mineral composition of rocks results in a change of their spectral response capable of being studied by imaging spectroscopy. This paper proposes the use of a low-cost handy sensor, a calibrated visible-very near infrared (VIS-VNIR) multispectral camera for the recognition of different geological formations. The spectral data was recorded by a Tetracam Mini-MCA-6 camera mounted on a field-based platform covering six bands in the spectral range of 0.530-0.801 μm. Twelve sedimentary formations were selected in the Rhône-Alpes region (France) to analyse the discrimination potential of this camera for rock types and close-range mapping applications. After proper corrections and data processing, a supervised classification of the multispectral data was performed trying to distinguish four classes: limestones, marlstones, vegetation and shadows. After a maximum-likelihood classification, results confirmed that this camera can be efficiently exploited to map limestone-marlstone alternations in geological formations with this mineral composition.