Lithological Mapping of Kimberlite Clan of Rocks Using Airborne Hyperspectral AVIRIS Data in Eastern Dharwar Craton, India

We have utilized the Airborne Visible InfraRed Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) and Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) datasets to delineate new kimberlite locations. The objective of this work is to map and locate new kimberlite formations. We applied two classification algorithms, Matched Filtering and Adaptive Coherence Estimator (MF and ACE). The pure spectra from the known kimberlite bodies on the Bhukosh GSI map were used as a reference to map and locate unknown kimberlite bodies. New circular anomalies were found in the image that were similar to the known bodies. SAM classification was performed to map the associated minerals in the image and validate these unknown kimberlite bodies. The unknown bodies' spectral absorption characteristics matched the known kimberlites' pure spectra in the SWIR range. Further, lineaments in the study area were delineated using the two datasets, AVIRIS and ASTER, to find their association with kimberlites.