HYDROTHERMAL ALTERATION AND LITHOLOGICAL MAPPING USING LANDSAT-9 AND ASTER REMOTE SENSING SPECTRAL IMAGERY IN THE NORTHEAST MOJAVE DESERT, CALIFORNIA

The northeast Mojave Desert in California has a high potential for rare earth element (REE) mining because of its unique geodynamic circumstances and the presence of vast carbonate platforms. This region hosts the Sulfide Queen rare-earth element mine at Mountain Pass, California, which is the only significant producer of REE ore in the United States. Evaluation of the Landsat-9 Operational Land Imager (OLI-2) and Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) image of the northeast Mojave Desert in California indicates that several important lithologic groups and hydrothermal alteration zones can be mapped in areas with good exposure by using image-based techniques. Image processing methods, including band ratios (BR) and minimum noise fraction (MNF) transform, were used to generate thematic layers of each satellite's data. The results of this investigation demonstrate the capability of these approaches in distinguishing various lithological units from the multispectral satellite datasets.