GEOLOGICAL MAPPING

Introduction  
Geologic mapping is a highly interpretive, scientific process that can produce a range of map products for many different uses, including assessing ground-water quality and contamination risks; predicting earthquake, volcano, and landslide hazards; characterizing energy and mineral resources and their extraction costs; sitting; land management and land-use planning; and general education. 

Course Outline

 Basics of Geological Mapping  

1. Produced a detailed geological map on scale, depend on the purpose of the map. 
2. Represent the different rock units in the study area, rock types, and its properties. 
3. Describe the mineral composition of different rock units. 
4. Study the structure geology of mapped area and its effect in different rock units and its mineral composition (major structures and minor structures). 
5. Study the effect of major structure on the shape and arrangement of minerals component of different rock units. 
6. Study the tectonic setting of different rock unites. 
7. Illustrate the economic potential localities in the mapped area. 
8. Produce technical report include all previous aspects attached with the map. 

Field Mapping Equipments 

1-     Geological hammer.
2-     Hand lens (5 x and 10 x).
3-     Compass with clinometers by Brunton.
4-     Field notebook.
5-     GPS set.
6-     Camera.
7-     Field Stereoscope. 

Planning Stage 
1-     Study all previous work.
2-     Study aerial photographs covered the study area (scale 1:40000) and aerial photographs Mosaics (scale 1:50000). 
3-     Study TM Land sat images of the whole area (different band ratios), which included study area (regional study).
4-     Draw base map for study area using controlled land sat (MSS land sat image) image or topographic map. 

Field Work  

A-   Types of rock bodies: 

1-     Intrusive Igneous Rock Bodies.
2-     Sills, Laccoliths, Dikes, Pipes, Stocks, Plutons and Batholiths.
3-     Extrusive Igneous Rock Bodies.
4-     Flows, Tuff.
5-     Sedimentary Rock Bodies.
6-     Strata, Laminations, Beds, Formations, Members, Members and Facies.
7-     Metamorphic Rock Bodies.
8-     Contact metamorphism, Regional metamorphism, Metamorphic grade and Metamorphic facies.
9-     Types of contacts.
10-    Depositional, Unconformity, Intrusive, structure contact (Fault, thrust and shear zone).  

B-    Sampling. 

Collect Fresh Samples Represent:- 

1-     The different rock units.
2-     The mineral varieties within the rock unit.
3-     Samples must cover all the study area and represent all verities of rock units. 

 C-    Data Recorded in Field Notebook. 

1-     Describe the location of the sample.
2-     Physical properties of hand specimen, color, grain size, hardness and deformation.
3-    Detect the mineral composition of the sample by   using hand lens (5x or 10x).
4-     Locate the collected sample on the overlay of aerial photograph and as way point on the GPS.
5-     Looking for structure elements in sample location :
6-     Register the structure feature by camera photograph    with scale to recognize the structure feature size.
7-     Measure the strike and dip of the foliation, bedding and layering with detect the trend of dip.
8-     Measure the linear fabric (azimas and plunge)
9-     Locate all this field data on the aerial photograph    overlay and field notebook
10-   Looking for the contact between different rock units, detect the contact type (Intrusive contact, thrust contact, structure
       contact along shear zone) to find out the field relations between different rock units.
11-  Tis data help you to classify the rock units and build up the geological history of mapped area.
12-  Move all field data to base map to start compile the structure geological map.   

Data Must recorded on the Map 
1-     Name of the map
2-     Coordinates of latitudes and longitudes bounded mapped area
3-     Scale of the map (written or as bar scale).
4-     Illustrate the North direction on the map (most maps, north is to the top of the map, south to the bottom, east to the right and west to the left..
5-     Location map illustrate the position of mapped area in relative to the whole country.
6-     Legend is included with the map and defines what the different map colors, patterns and symbols represent. Only symbols representing features seen in the map area will be shown on the map legend.
7-     Map Age It is important, especially if a map is going to be used for navigation, that you take into consideration the age of the map. Obviously cultural features, such as roads etc will change over time.
8-     Cross Section
9-     Sketch map illustrate the major structure patterns on the mapped area.
10- Sketch map for the previous mapping carried out for mapped area or parts of the area. 

The Most Important Geological Structures 
1-     Faults.
2-     Folds.
3-     Sketches and symbols of folds and faults.
4-     Structure Dome and basin.
5-     Tectonic Forces. 

Geologic Reports 

The geological report must include:- 
1-     Title Page
2-     Abstract.
3-     Contents.
4-     List of Tables.
5-     List of Figures
6-     Introduction.
7-     Regional geologic setting: Full Description of each rock unit occurred in the map area, its extension, morphology field relations, different geologic structures and the geologic history of map area. 

     A-   Lithologies: summarizes the rocks found in the area, from old to young. Described the different rock units and the mineral composition variety within the rock unit. Supported with Field photographs
     B-    Geological Structures: describe the tectonic features, For example, nature of contacts, folds, faults, cross-cutting relationships. Supported with Field photographs 

 8-     Petrography: Full Description of thin sections,      which chosen to represent the different rock unit and the mineral composition variety within the rock unit.
9-     Ore Mineralogy: Polished sections description for     ores occurred in the map area.   
10- Geochemistry: choose representative samples for       chemical analyses (Major oxides and trace elements), plotting the results on chemical diagrams to illustrate the classification and tectonic setting of rock units.
11- Geological Interpretation and Analysis: Describe       the regional and local geology in terms of rock types, geologic structures, and geologic history.
12- Economic Geology: Describe the ores and mineral occurrences, building ores, ornamental stones and economic promising localities in study area.
13- Summary and conclusion.
14- Recommendations.
15- References.

 Remote Sensing and GIS in Geological Application Course

  1-   Remote Sensing Concept

• Electromagnetic Energy
• Electromagnetic Spectrum
• The interaction of electromagnetic spectrum with earth surface
• (Absorbtion-Emission Source-Reflection-Transmission-Scattering)
• The interaction of electromagnetic spectrum with Atmosphere
• (Absorbtion-Reflection-Scattering)
• Satellite Image bands characteristics

 
2- Earth Resources and Environmental Satellite

• Land Sat Thematic Mapper (TM) and + ETM imaging
• Spot and Spin …
• Image Mosaics
• Image Subset

 
3- Digital Image Enhancement Processing

• Coordinate Systems
• Geometric Corrections
• Image Enhancement
• Spectral Enhancement
• Spatial Enhancement
• Classification

 4- Remote Sensing Applications

• Geological and geomorphological Applications
• Mineral Exploration

 5- Create Coverage (polygon, arc, point)

• Attribute table
• Symbology
• create coverage from ascii file

 6- Create Layout of map to print

WORKSHOP STYLE

A mixture of short presentations, interactive discussion, individual exercises and group work. The emphasis throughout is on a practical approach using case material and examples.