DEVELOPMENT OF APPROPRIATE IMAGE PROCESSING METHODS FOR GEOLOGIC MAPPING OF SEDIMENTARY ROCKS IN NORTHERN SINAI, EGYPT

Abstract

The Sinai peninsula has strategic historicaland economic value to Egypt and indeed the world. The objective of this dissertation is to develop a procedure for using satellite remote sensing techniques for mapping the sedimentary rocks in Sinai peninsula. Sinai has optimum conditions for application of remote sensing techniques given its barren terrain with no vegetation or snow cover and its nearly cloud and pollution-free atmosphere. representative The peninsula is shaped similar to a triangle with its head directed southward. The area of the peninsula approximately is 61,000 km 2• The peninsula is delineated from the west by the Suez Canaland the Gulf of Suez; from the east by Palestinian boundary and Gulf of Aqaba and from the north by the Mediterranean Sea (Fig. 1.1). The peninsula has many strategically important ore deposits such as copper, iron and manganese, fuel deposits such as coal and petroleum oil and many construction materials such as limestone, gypsum, kaoline, sandstone and marble. Much of Sinai's geologic wealth is yet undetermined and so requires extensive exploration and mapping. Geologic application of remote sensing are concerned mainly with instruments which measure intensity of light emitted or reflected by objects at different wavelengths. These techniques are based on the fact that "in different wavelength ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum, each type of object reflects or emits a certain intensity of light which is dependent upon the physical and compositional attributes of the object.