Lithological mapping in the Eastern Desert of Egypt, the Barramiya area, using Landsat thematic mapper (TM)

The Barramiya area, Central Eastern Desert, Egypt, comprises a variety of Late Proterozoic rocks including serpentinites, island-arc assemblage of metasediments and metavolcanics, and syntectonic granitoids. Lithological mapping in the Barramiya area is carried out by using Landsat thematic mapper (TM) image enhancement techniques, including RGB band ratio and supervised classification images. The significant spectral characteristics of serpentinites have been used previously by other authors to map these rocks using different band ratio images. In the current study, band ratio images (5/3, 5/1, 7/5), and (7/5, 5/4, 3/1) together with supervised classification techniques are used and proved effective for lithological mapping of the serpentinite rocks. Integrating previous knowledge lithological mapping studies of the study area and our visual interpretations of the different enhanced Landsat images, we mapped, in detail, the distribution of the Pan-African serpentinites in the Barramiya area.