New ASTER derived thermal indices to delineate mineralogy of different granitoids of an Archaean Craton and analysis of their potentials with reference to Ninomiya's indices for delineating quartz and mafic minerals of granitoids—An analysis in Dharwar Cr

• Three new indices were proposed based on processing of ASTER level 1B data. These indices were quartz bearing rock index(QRI), mafic bearing rock index(MRI), Feldspar bearing rock index(FRI). These indices were able to delineate different granitoids.
• QRI and MRI were compared with Ninomiya's quartz index (NQI) and Ninomiya's mafic Index(NMI). QRI was also compared with ASTER based quartz index (QI-RH) proposed by Rockwall and Hofstra (2008). QRI was proved superior over NQI in enhancing quartz enrichment especially in alkali feldspar granite whereas MRI and NMI were comparable in terms of results obtained for delineating mafic minerals in granitoids. QRI and QIRH derived similar results while delineating quartz enrichment in granite and associated alkali granites. New indices would be suitable to understand the metallogeny of granitoids of different mineralogy.
• Regression analysis of new indices indicated the synergy between indices and mineralogical framework of granitoids.

We processed five thermal infrared (TIR) bands of Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) “at-sensor radiance” (Level 1B) data to derive few new indices to delineate variation in quartz, feldspar and mafic minerals in three different variants of granitoid; commonly occurring quartz bearing intrusive rock group. In this regard, three indices named as quartz-bearing rock index (QRI), feldspar-bearing rock index (FRI) and mafic-bearing rock index(MRI) were proposed.QRI index was derived using band 10, band 12 and band 13((band 10/band 12) ∗ (band 13/band 12)) of ASTER radiance image. MRI index was derived using band 12, band 13 and band 14 ((band 12/band 13) ∗ (band 13/band 14)) of ASTER radiance bands while band 10, band 11 were combined to derive FRI ((band 10/band 11) index. Three indices were combined in false colour composite image (FCC) and three-dimensional scatter plot to delineate granite, alkali granite and mafic rich granodioritic gneiss from each other as these granitoids had variable abundances of quartz, feldspar and mafic minerals. QRI and MRI were compared with the corresponding quartz and mafic indices proposed by Ninomiya (2005). It was observed from the respective ratio images and their regression plots that MRI and Ninomiya's mafic index (NMI) were complementary to each other. On the other hand, QRI image was better in enhancing quartz enrichment in alkali granites than Ninomiya's quartz index (NQI).However, QRI index was comparable with the quartz index proposed by Rockwall and Hofstra (2008) in terms of delineating quartz enrichment in alkali granite. Mutual exclusive nature of mafic minerals and quartz in granitoids was also evident from the negative correlation between MRI and QRI indices of the granitoids. On the other hand, FRI and QRI were negatively correlated with low regression value. This was resulted due to the combined effect of inverse relation of abundance of two dominant feldspars with quartz in different granitoids. In granitoids, abundance of plagioclase is known to increase with decreasing quartz content in granodiorite and tonalite although alkali feldspar bearing granites are characterised with high silica content. Results of discrimination of granitoids using proposed indices were validated based on deriving emissivity spectra of rocks and comparing them with ASTER TIR band resampled laboratory spectra of respective granitoids in addition to use geological map of the study area. Emissivity spectra of granitoids were derived from emissivity image (derived using emissivity normalisation method) after geospatially tagging it with QRI–FRI–MRI image composite; which was used to delineate exposures of granitoids. Further, we also found that the QRI, MRI and FRI indices had poor temperature dependence; when these indices were compared with relative surface temperature image derived from radiance bands using emissivity normalisation algorithm. Therefore, proposed indices can be implemented for delineating mineralogical variations of granitoids irrespective of surface temperature condition. Hence, proposed indices may be used successfully to delineate different granitic intrusions and relating their mineralogical variations with metallogeny.

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