ARTICULO

Craters in the Telsen area, Chubut Province, Argentina: Satellite imagery digital processing techniques applied to surficial geology mapping

CRÁTERES EN EL ÁREA DE TELSEN, PROVINCIA DE CHUBUT, ARGENTINA: TÉCNICAS DE PROCESAMIENTO DIGITAL DE IMÁGENES SATELITALES APLICADAS AL MAPEO GEOLÓGICO DE SUPERFICIE.

 

Edgardo NAVARRO¹, Claudia PREZZI², María Julia ORGEIRA², Martín CANO³ y Ricardo ASTINI⁴

¹⁾ Departamento de Geología, CGAMA, Comisión Investigaciones Científicas. Universidad Nacional del Sur - Bahía Blanca. San Juan 670, 8000 Bahía Blanca. e-mail: enavarro@criba.edu.ar
²⁾ IGeBA (ficEyN, Univ. de Bs. As.- CONICET). Intendente Güiraldes 2160, Pabellón II, Piso 1, Ciudad Universitaria, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, CP 1428. e-mail: claudiaprezzi@yahoo.com.ar - orgeira@gl.ficen.uba.ar
³⁾ Departamento de Geología, CONICET. Universidad Nacional del Sur - Bahía Blanca. San Juan 670, 8000 Bahía Blanca. email: martinbahia@hotmail.com.
⁴⁾ Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias de la Tierra (CONICET-Universidad Nacional de Córdoba), Laboratorio de Análisis de Cuencas, Av. Vélez Sarsfeld 1611. e-mail: ricardo.astini@unc.edu.ar

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Abstract: Subcircular features, with crater morphology, developed in a volcano-sedimentary context, with diameters no greater than 2 km, were recognized in the vicinity of the Telsen locality, northeastern Chubut Province, Argentina. These structures are surrounded by tabular volcanic rocks of the Quiñelaf Forma-tion with low radial-centrifugal dip, exhibit an external ring with dark visual levels enclosing topographic highs with mostly light visual levels. Surficial geological aspects of one of the larger structures in the area (S 42° 22’ 55’’, W 66° 49’ 15’’) were mapped from raster data at a scale of 1:3.000, following the stages of the photographic interpretation. Panchromatic and multispectral Spot images, and Google Earth image with 0.5 m. spatial resolution were used. Idrisi, Global Mapper, StitchMaps and Corel Draw sofitware were used in the digital processing. The geological references of the area were obtained from the Telsen Geolo-gical map, herein georeferenced with Global Mapper. The frequency distribution histograms of the image windows of the different mapped sectors, allowed the generation of different contrast enhancements. Di-rectional flters of the menu texture analysis of Idrisi permitted the identification of the oriented features. The images obtained herein, allowed the recognition of homogeneous units in terms of interpretation keys linked to the photo-analysis phase. Subsequent feld observations contributed to the adjustment and to the final assignment of categories to each homogeneous unit (photo-interpretation last stage).The final map was compiled with the sofitware Corel Draw, it was based on the synthesis image from the digital processing and referenced using Global Mapper. Deposits and fragments of basalt that constitutes the external ring of the crater along with different volcanic rocks, breccia and Chubut Group rocks fragments enclosed within the crater are mainly showed in this map. Also, deposits and dipping strata of the Chubut Group following the strike of the ring and outcrops of volcanic rocks in the central - south part of the mapped area were recognized. Detailed geophysical surveys detected magnetic anomalies in the SE part of the mapped crater. Several mechanisms such as magmatism, phreatomagmatism and/or bolide impacts constitute hypotheses related to the probable origin of these landforms.

Key words: Image processing. Craters. Geologic map. Telsen. Argentina.

Resumen: En cercanías de la localidad de Telsen, NE de Chubut, se reconocieron rasgos subcirculares, con morfología de cráteres, desarrollados en un contexto volcano-sedimentario con un diámetro que no superan los 2 km. Estas estructuras, rodeadas por rocas volcánicas tabulares con bajo buzamiento radial centrífugo de la Fm. Quiñelaf, presentan un anillo externo con niveles visuales oscuros que encierra en su interior altos topográficos caracterizados por niveles visuales mayoritariamente claros. Se desarrolló un mapeo de detalle, a escala 1:3.000, de una de las estructuras mayores reconocidas (S 42° 22' 55'', W 66° 49' 15''), empleando imágenes satelitales y siguiendo las pautas propias de la fotointerpretación. Se utilizaron bandas de imágenes pancromática y multiespectral de Spot y ventanas de imágenes Google Earth de 0.5 m de resolución espacial. Los sofitware Idrisi, Global Mapper, StitchMaps y Corel Draw fueron empleados para el tratamiento digital de las imágenes. Las referencias geológicas del área fueron consideradas a partir de la Hoja Geológica Telsen, georreferenciada con Global Mapper. Histogramas de distribución de frecuencias de ventanas de imágenes de los sectores mapeados, permitieron realizar distintos realces de contraste. Filtros direccio-nales del menú texture analysis de Idrisi facilitaron el reconocimiento de rasgos. Las imágenes así obtenidas, posibilitaron la delimitación de unidades homogéneas en términos de caracteres de observación directa, vinculadas con la etapa de fotoanálisis. El ajuste y asignación final de categoría de cada unidad homogénea (etapa de fotointerpretación final), se realizó con posteriores observaciones de campo. El mapa final se desarrolló con el sofitware Corel Draw a partir de la imagen resultante de síntesis del procesamiento digital, georreferenciado posteriormente con Global Mapper. Se delimitaron aforamientos y fragmentos de basaltos que constituyen un anillo externo y encierran fragmentos de volcanitas de diferente composición, brechas y fragmentos del Grupo Chubut esparcidos en toda la superficie. En la parte centro-sur, se destacan aforamientos de volcanitas y fragmentos y estratos buzantes del Grupo Chubut cuyo rumbo tiende a acompañar al rumbo del anillo. Estudios geofísicos de detalle, permitieron reconocer dos anomalías magnéticas en el sector SE. Diversos mecanismos como magmatismo, freatomagmatismo y/o impacto de bólidos constituyen hipótesis relacionadas al probable origen de estas geoformas.

Palabras clave: Procesamiento digital. Cráteres. Mapa geológico. Telsen. Argentina.

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Introduction                                               

The sedimentary sequence that crops out in the study area and associated to the crater The study area is located near the Telsen geoforms herein studied, includes a broad va-locality, to the southeast of the Somún Curá mas- riety of reddish and greyish clastic rocks of the sif in the northeastern margin of the Somuncu- Chubut Group of Albian age (~106 Ma., Na-rá-Cañadón Asfalto (S-CA) Basin (figura 1).  varro et al., 2015), displaying a record of lacutrine, alluvial and fuvial systems. The latter are overlain by lacustrine and shallow marine deposits of the La Colonia Formation of Maastrich-tian-Paleocene age (Malumián, 1999; Nañez and Malumián, 2008; Guler et al., 2014). In turn, the succession is overlain by the Late Oligocene (ca. 26 ± 2 Ma, Ardolino and Franchi, 1996) basal-tic rocks of the Somún Curá Formation. Other regionally extensive tabular deposits of the Sarmiento Group and the Quiñelaf Superunit (Oli-gocene-Miocene, Ardolino and Franchi, 1996) complete the local stratigraphy. This succession overlies non-conformably rhyolitic rocks of the Marifl Formation (182 - 185 Ma, in the Telsen area, Navarro et al., 2015).

Figure 1. Location of the study area. Arrows point out the biggest crater structures near the Telsen locality. Red arrow points out the studied crater. S-CA B: Somuncurá - Cañadón Asfalto Basin. Image modifed from Google Earth 2017. (For the color references in this figure, see the web version of this article). / Figura 1. Localización del área de estudio. Las fechas señalan las dos estructuras mayores de cráteres en las cercanías de la localidad de Telsen. Flecha roja identifica al rasgo estudiado. S-CA B: Cuenca Somuncurá - Cañadón Asfalto. Imagen modificada de Google Earth 2017. (Para las referencias color de esta figura ver la versión web de este artículo).

 

Subcircular craters were recognized in northeastern Patagonia, in the Cañadón Blanco area, in the proximity of the Telsen locality (figure 1). These morphologic units have been related and mapped as annular dykes (Yllañez and Lema, 1979; Ardolino and Franchi, 1996) and even though they are associated to an ig-neous-sedimentary context, the mechanisms that would have originated them are still deba-table. Signals of large-magnitude energy were observed in the area through the identification of brecciation related to over-pressurizing me-chanisms (Navarro and Astini, 2010). Besides, impact craters were recognized in Bajada del Diablo (Acevedo et al., 2009, among others), 100 km southward of Telsen. Hence, mecha-nisms like freatomagmatism, magmatism and bolide impacts or combination of these pro-cesses constitute hypothesis related to the probable origin of these geoforms. As part of a multidisciplinary approach and in the initial stage of the study of these features, a detai-led-scale mapping was carried out using digital processing of high-resolution satellite imagery. The main objective is to identify the surficial geological aspects that characterize these circular structures, as well as the lithological types associated to the different stratigraphical units and their distribution either as in situ deposits or fragments of these rocks. Geomatics consti-tute a useful tool to be applied in this case, con-sidering successful results obtained in previous regional geologic studies, where digital proces-sing techniques were developed using different types of geographic information systems (GIS) (Navarro, 2012; Navarro and Astini, 2014).

Figure 2. Panchromatic band window of Spot 6 (spatial resolution 1.5 m) used in the photo- analysis stag e of the detailed mapping of the crater str ucture. Red dotted rectangle delimits the area associated to the principal component analysis imag e window shown in figure 4. (For the color references in this figure, see the web version of this ar ticle). / Figura 2. Ventana de imagen de la banda pancr omática de imagen Spot 6 (1.5 m de r esolución espacial) empleada en la etapa de fotoanálisis del mapeo de detalle de la estr uctura de cráter. El r ecuadr o r ojo punteado delimita el sector asociada a la ventana de imagen de análisis de componentes principales de la figura 4. ( Para las r ef er encias color de esta figura ver la versión w eb de este ar tículo).

 

Materials and Methods

The detailed mapping was made fo-llowing the stages of photo-interpretation pro-posed by the American Society of Photogram-metry (1960): Photo-identification, Photo-analysis and Photo-interpretation. The GISs used in all the stages were Idrisi Selva and Global Mapper 15 and the sofitware Stitch Maps 2.61.

Previous studies in the area using digital processing technics are related to the palaeoenvi-ronmental analysis of the Chubut Group and the stratigraphical interpretation in the northeastern S-CA Basin (Navarro, 2012; Navarro and Asti-ni, 2014). For the 1:60000 scale map, Landsat 7 ETM+ band images, Path 229, row 89 and 90, ac-quired in June of 2009 (30 m of spatial resolution except band 8 and 6, with 15 and 120 m spatial resolution, respectively) and 3 spectral bands at the visible wavelengths of the Aster images (15 m spa-tial resolution) acquired in August of 2006, were used. Processing related to the principal compo-nent analysis, composite image, edge enhancement and flters, was also applied for the development of this map. The geological units correspond to the Hoja Geológica Telsen (Ardolino and Franchi, 1996), georeferenced using Global Mapper 15. The semi-detailed mapping facilitated the pho-to-identification of sub-circular features in the area, which reach less than 2 km of diameter; two of these structures were recognized 8.5 km to the east of the Telsen locality (figure 1). They are cha-racterized by an external ring with dark brightness levels, whereas a dome inside them presents lighter brightness levels. The ring is surrounded by tabular

volcanic rocks of the Quiñelaf Superunit. A low centrifugal radial dip, with regard to the centre of these structures, was determined using a digital ele-vation model (DEM) of the SHUTTLE RADAR TOPOGRAPHY MISSION (SRTM) of 90 m of spatial resolution.

A 1:3.000-scale photo-analysis was de-veloped over one of the greater structures (S 42° 22' 55'', W 66° 49' 15''). It is elongated in a NW-SE direction, the major axis reaches 1.5 km longitude, while the length of the minor axis is of approximately 1 km. The study was focused on the digital processing of spatial high-resolution image bands, particularly in the application of different enhancement techni-ques. The resulting products allowed the def-nition and combination of the interpretation keys that facilitated to demarcate homogeneous units in terms of brightness levels. For the de-velopment of this phase, panchromatic and multispectral image bands of Spot 6 acquired in June of 2015 with spatial resolutions of 1.5 m and 6 m respectively (figure 2) orthorectifed at UTM projection based on WGS84 datum, were used. Google Earth image windows with spatial resolution of 0.5 m were captured using the sofitware Stich Maps 2.61; this process com-plements in more detail the information of the Spot bands. In this stage, the mapping area was divided in nine sub-areas as individual units; and then, the image window processing tech-niques where applied to each of them. In the initial phase of this stage, the evaluation of the frequency distribution histograms of the Spot images windows allowed us to select the suita-ble enhancement techniques. The Google Earth windows were used not only because of their contribution to the spatial resolution, but also due to their support to the visual analysis. The contrast of tones between the different litholo-gical types of the Chubut Group and also with the volcanic rocks, is highlighted due to the use of these windows.

Processing related to lineal stretching and histogram equalization techniques (Richards, 1995; Chuvieco, 2010), using the menu stretch of the Idrisi sofitware allowed visually recognizing the different homogeneous units. Direc- 2010) using the texture analysis menu; the linear tional flters were used for the identification of arrangement of the dark pixels linked to the elongated features (Richards, 1995; Chuvieco, feature shadows defined the flter direction.

 

Figure 3. Lithologies and field geological features of the mapped crater : Reassignment stag e of the photo-analysis units to field units. A) Reddish pelitic deposits of the Chubut Group outcropping in the northeaster n sector. B) Conglomeratic deposits of the Chubut Group in the souther n par t of the crater dipping to the S W. C) Subhorizontal volcanic de posits in the central part of the crater. D) Volcanic rocks in the external rim. E) Sandstone de posits of the Chubut Group dipping to the S W. Scale: person in blue circle and hammer (0.30 m) in white circle. (For the color references in this figure, see the web version of this ar ticle). / Figura 3. Litologías y aspectos geológicos de campo del cráter mapeado: Reasignación de las unidades homogéneas de la etapa fotoanálisis a unidades de campo. A) Pelitas r ojizas del Grupo Chubut aflorantes en el sector NE. B) Depósitos conglomerádicos del Gr upo Chubut en el sector sur del cráter, buzando al S O. C) Volcanitas subhoriz ontales en el sector central del cráter. D) Volcanitas en el anillo exter no. E) De pósitos de ar eniscas del Gr upo Chubut buzando al S O. Escala: persona en círculo azul y piqueta (0.30 m) en cír culo blanco. ( Para el color de las r ef er encias de esta figura ver la versión web de este ar tículo).

 

Figure 4 illustrates with a screenshot, one of the enhancement techniques that contributed to the delimitation of the homogeneous units in this phase. The observed image resulted from the digital processing using principal com-ponent analysis (PCA) of the image windows (frst principal component) obtained from Spot 6 multispectral and panchromatic bands and of an image window captured from Google Ear-th. To develop this process, the images were re-sampled to a spatial resolution of 1m by 1m. Since the number of windows is scarce (3) for this processing and nevertheless the variables are expressed in the same unit, for this mapping the correlation matrix was used. Thus, with the standarized digital levels, each window had the same statistical importance (Jollife, 2002). Each band has the same weight to obtain the principal component (Pla, 1986) and consequently, it is avoided that most of the information of any of the images be expressed by only one of the components.

Finally, in order to delimit the mapping units in the Photo-interpretation stage, those homogeneous units defined in the photo-analy-sis stage were adjusted and associated to the li-thology and surficial geological features of the ground control points (figure 3). Moreover, geophysical studies indicated the existence of magnetic anomalies in the southeastern part of the mapped crater (figure 5). Those quantitative data non - mappable from the images, like strike and dip of the strata, were added in this stage.

Figure 4. A) Photo-analysis stag e. Screenshot: Imag e window associated to the first principal component. B) Photo-units related to the imag e window obtained in a): Homog eneous units created from keys of identification, par ticularly tone and mottled texture. (For the color of this figure, see the web version of this ar ticle). / Figura 4. A) Etapa de fotoanálisis. Captura de pantalla: Ventana de imagen asociada al primer componente principal. B) Fotounidades asociadas a la imagen obtenida en a): Unidades homogéneas definidas por claves de identificación, particular mente tono y textura moteada. ( Para el color de las figuras ver la versión w eb de este ar tículo).

 

Figure 5. Detailed surficial geologic map of the crater structure in the Telsen area made using digital processing of satellite imagery. (For the color references in this figure, see the web version of this ar ticle). / Figura 5. Mapa geológico superficial de detalle de la estr uctura de cráter en el ár ea de Telsen elaborado a par tir del pr ocesamiento digital de imágenes satelitales. (Para las r ef er encias color de esta figura ver la versión w eb de este artículo).

The final map was made using Corel Draw 17 sofitware, on the basis of the different digitally processed image windows and the feld visual observations. To reach a spatial integra-tion with other variables, the map was georefe-renced using Global Mapper 15.

Results and conclusions

A surficial geological map was obtained applying different digital processing techniques to satellite imagery (figure 5). The detailed map ping shows the arrangement and spatial distri-bution of some geological aspects (mainly dip and strike of the strata) and the lithological types associated with the subcircular morpho-logical features of a cráter exposed in Cañadón Blanco, in the proximity of the Telsen locality. The mapping exhibits:

-  An external ring of basaltic rocks [So-mún Curá Fm.] constitutes the most notable feature of this structure in the satellite imagery, presenting a centrifugal radial dip varying be-tween 12° and 70°. The feld observation allows determining that the inner slope is in general steeper than the outer one in cross section.

-  Strata and fragments of the different stratigraphic units that crop out in the área, with the exception of the La Colonia Formation, are

NAVARRO ET AL.

represented in this map.

-  Outcrops and disseminated fragments related to the conglomeratic, tuffaceous sands-tones and fine-grained red facies of the Chubut Group are the main deposits identifed within the limits of the ring. In particular, the conglo-meratic strata develop elongated positive topo-graphic reliefis up to 7 m high. The red fine-gra-ined lithologies crop out in the northwestern area of the crater exhibiting low reliefis.

- The strike and dip of the sedimentary strata, particularly those next to the external ring, tend to follow the strike and dip of the ring, in some cases with slopes of approxima-tely ~90º.

-  Volcanic rocks are sub-horizontal and also present dips of up to 68º in the central part of the crater.

-  Scattered fragments of breccia were recognized in the western and central-eastern parts of the mapped area.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Mr Ruben Muchico for his support during the feld work. We grate-fully acknowledge the suggestions of the anon-ymous reviewers, which significantly improved the final version of this manuscript. This work was partially funded by the Grant 24/ZH26 de SCyT UNS and the ANPCyT project PICT 1950-2013.

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