Application Of Remote Sensing for Geological Mapping Using Landsat Etm+ Satellite Image for part of Western Hazara Ranges Across Siran River, North Pakistan.

The Aluli area, Western Hazara Ranges, comprises of Precambrian Tanawal Formation, Early Cambrian Abbottabad Formation and Recent alluvium. These formations consist of variety of lithological units including phyllite, quartzites, quartz mica schist, sandstones, siltstones, conglomerates, dolomites, limestones and alluvium. The geological mapping of these constituent lithologies is carried out using Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) image enhancement techniques, which include band composition and band rationing. The False Color Composite (FCC) 5-3-1 is found significant to recognize the folds and faults on Landsat ETM+ satellite image. The FCCs 7-5-4, 4-5-7 and 3/1-5/7-5/4 are best in differentiating the geological units. The field mapping along selected traverses gave a better control to identify the specific lithological units on the FCC images. This exercise gives a better geological control to extend the geological units to nearby areas. This study provides a simple supplementary and effective application of Landsat ETM+ satellite image to be used in the future as an aid to geological mapping.