Study of Zones of Hydrothermal Alteration in the Zaruma Urcu and Santa Bárbara hill using ASTER satellite images. Province El Oro. Canton Zaruma.

Abstract

This study focuses on the identification of hydrothermal alteration zones whose centers are associated with the Zaruma Urcu and Santa Bárbara hills located in the Zaruma-Portovelo mining district with a methodology that includes the processing of ASTER images and works of complementary fields. For the discrimination of zones with alteration minerals, different spectral techniques defined by various authors were applied, such as combinations, band ratios and indices defined by Ninomiya, later the vegetation suppression was applied using the vegetation ratio 3/2. The techniques were verified in the field with the TerraSpec analysis, from which 19 spectral signatures were considered to perfom the SAM method. Four types of hydrothermal alterations were defined according to the metallogenetic environment and type of mineral deposit where the study area is located, these were propylitic, intermediate argillic, advanced argillic and argillic to phyllic alteration.