1303 Indian Journal of Science and Technology Vol. 4 No.

10 (Oct 2011) ISSN: 0974- 6846

Satellite geometry of faults and fractures and its relationship with porphyry deposits in northern parts of Dahaj-Sardoiyeh belt, south of Iran
Mehran Arian1*, Hasan Alizadeh1 and Hamideh Noroozpour2
2

Department of Geology, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch, Tehran, Iran Young Researchers Club, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran mehranarian@yahoo.com*

Abstract Dehaj-Sarduiyeh area is located in the central Iranian volcano-sedimentary complex, southwest of the Kerman province. The study area, in the southern part of this complex, is located with the copper mineralization which is mainly of porphyry type and is associated with extensive hydrothermal alteration. This area has a great potential as far as tertiary porphyry copper deposits are concerned. To provide guides for exploration of porphyry copper mineralization at a district scale, we examine the spatial association between known 16 copper deposits and fracture in the area. Analysis of the lineaments interpreted out of ETM+(band8) data is recognized as another method for locating porphyry type copper mineralization. There is a close correlation between photolineament factor values and the known copper mineralization in the area. Keywords: Porphyry Copper deposit, Photo lineament factor, Dehaj- Sarduiyeh, ETM+image, Kerman. Introduction Creation of porphyry copper deposits is related to The study area is located in the southern part of the magmatic and hydrothermal process as well as regional central Iranian volcano-sedimentary complex, southwest tectonic and regimes (Padila et al., 2001; Richards et al., of the Kerman province (Fig.1). This complex has a great 2001). In a mineralization province, numbers of lineation potential as far as the exploration of porphyry copper and fractures can be a key for exploration, because these mineralization is concerned. Meiduk and Sar Cheshmeh fractures can act as a conduit for moving of mineral porphyry copper deposits are presently mined for Cu and content fluids. Fluids mostly move from high pressure Mo in the area. areas towards low pressure and low temperature areas. Recognizing areas of enhanced mineral potential is At this case magmatic fluids instead of concentrating, one of the primary goals of a mineral exploration spread more (Caranza, 2002). program. Many layers of data, including bedrock and Faults, fractures, shear zones and different spatial surficial geology, geophysical and geochemical maps, stresses concentrate magma or move it toward shallow structural features interpreted from remotely sensed parts of the crust (Ryan, 1990). Study of geometry and image data and the distribution of known mineral faults that are linked with porphyry copper deposits, can occurrences, are used to produce a mineral potential map be valuable for finding proper location of porphyry for porphyry copper deposits in the area. deposits (Zarasvandi et al., 2005). Mineralization systems
Fig.1. Map showing study area and central Iranian volcanic belt

Research article Indian Society for Education and Environment (iSee)

Copper deposit in Iran http://www.indjst.org

M.Arian et al. Indian J.Sci.Technol.

1304 Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Fig.2.Geological map of the study area (Dimitrijvic and Djokovic, 1973).

Vol. 4

No. 10 (Oct 2011)

ISSN: 0974- 6846

in volcano-plutonic belts of the earth, is closely related to strike slip faults which are created in these arcs (Richardes et al., 2001: Carranza et al., 2002). Geology of the area The study area is situated in the southern part of the central Iranian volcano-sedimentary complex, southwest of the Kerman province (Fig.1). There has been folding of Lower Tertiary volcano-sedimentary rocks and emplacement of Late Tertiary Granodiorite, diorite,

Monzonite and Tonalite in the volcanosedimentary complex. A detailed description of the geology between the Rafsanjan Belt and Sirjan Belt, in which the study area is located, is given by Dimitrijevic (1973) and Hasanzadeh (1993). The Eocene volcano-sedimentary rocks consist of Trachybasalt and Trachyandesitic tuffs, lava flows and Porphyrites, Trachyandesitic and Trachybasaltic rocks, tuffaceous sediments, and andesitic and basaltic rocks. The sedimentary rocks in the volcanic sedimentary complex are mainly sandstone and, less frequently limestone. The intrusive rocks are Granodiorite to Tonalite. Most of the plutonic and volcanic rocks are hydrothermally altered and mineralized in places. Argillization, Sericitization and Propylitization are the most common types of hydrothermal alteration in the area. Cretaceous coloured melange is the oldest and the Quaternary alluvial deposits and gravel fans are the youngest exposures in the study area (Fig.2). The oldest faults of the area have eastwest trend and later faults with trend northeast-southwest trend, were created. The youngest faults of the area are north-south faults. The study area as a shear plain right lateral fault system is surrounded by Rafsanjan fault in the north and Shahre babak fault in the south (Walker, 2006). These faults are strike slip with oblique vector. Fault-parallel contraction and fault-parallel simple shear are the most common faults in the area. As the first faults had east-west trend, thus shear was acted as fault-parallel contraction. After shifting stress trend, it has changed to fault-parallel simple shear. Using Swanson (1988) and Storti et al. (2006) models indicate good relationship between fractures with faults and lineations. Data analysis and discussion There are several deposits and numerous mineral occurrences in the Kerman region. There are two main types of mineralization: porphyry-type and vein type. Porphyry-type mineralization is more prevalent and located near post-Eocene intrusive bodies in the Eocene volcano-sedimentary complex. Vein-type mineralization is controlled by faults striking in various directions and is found both in intrusive and volcanic rocks. Meiduk and Sar Cheshmeh are the largest porphyry copper deposits in the region. The study area has 16 porphyry copper deposits that are listed in Table 1.
M.Arian et al. Indian J.Sci.Technol.

Research article Indian Society for Education and Environment (iSee)

Copper deposit in Iran http://www.indjst.org

1305 Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Table 1. Location of porphyry copper deposits in the study area

Vol. 4

No. 10 (Oct 2011)

ISSN: 0974- 6846

Fractures and lineations with using of some special filters were studied. The result is shown in Fig.3. Using photo lineament factor (PF) for exploration of groundwater in fractured hard rock is common. Results of such techniques can be useful for exploration of porphyry deposits as well. Number of lineations, their length, and number of intersection of lineations can be used to analysis of these structural phenomena. Hardcastle in 1995 has introduced the following formula to calculate photo lineament factor: PF= (a/A) + (b/B) + (c/C) + (d/D) Where; a: Number of lineation in each cell; A: Average lineation in whole of the map; b: Length of lineation in each cell; B: Average number of lineations in whole of the map; c: Number of lineation intersection in each cell; C: Average number of lineation in whole of the map; d: Number of trends in each cell; D: Average number of trends in whole of the map. Using photo lineament factor (PF) for exploration of groundwater in fractured hard rock is common. Honarmand and Ranjbar (2006) suggested that using different image processing techniques such as band ratios, Crosta technique, supervised fuzzy classification, and lineament factor analysis can be used to identify alteration zones associated with copper mineralization.

Fig.3. Contour map of PF distribution in the study area

Fig.4. Contour map of d/D ratio distribution in the study area

Research article Indian Society for Education and Environment (iSee)

Copper deposit in Iran http://www.indjst.org

M.Arian et al. Indian J.Sci.Technol.

1306 Indian Journal of Science and Technology Vol. 4 No. 10 (Oct 2011) ISSN: 0974- 6846

Fig.5. Map showing faults in the study area. Points are porphyry copper deposits described in Table 1

Photo lineament factor and its related factors in this research were calculated and drawn using satellite photos and softwares like Surfer, RS and arcGIS (Fig.4). The results show that relationship of all these factors and porphyry mines (shown in Table 1) does exists but the best result is between the numbers of trends in each cell divided to average number of trends in whole of the map (d/D ratio). For a better result, different factors collaborated with distribution of porphyry copper deposits. The results show that the ratio of d/D, in above mentioned formula, has better collaboration with the porphyry copper deposits even from PF (Fig.5). The contour maps of Fig.4 indicate that the number of trends in each cell is quite important for mineralization of porphyry deposits. The reason is that as much as lineation trends in the area indicate more fracturing and tectonization that can give a suitable place for mineralization. Conclusion Local fractures are the major reason to help transferring hydrothermal fluids towards the surface of the crust. Even in the area without surface alteration manifestations that has high amount of number of trends in each cell (d), porphyry deposits are visible. During the preliminary exploration for porphyry deposits, the geometry and mechanism of faults and fractures can be used. Acknowledgement This work is funded by the Department of geology, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research branch, Tehran, Iran. Also, special thanks to Vice-President for Research in Science and Research branch, Tehran. References 1. Caranza EJM (2002) Geologicallyconstrained mineral potential mapping. Ph.D. Thesis, Delft Univ. Technol. The Netherlands. pp: 480. 2. Caranza EJM and Hale M (2002) Where are porphyry copper deposits spatially localized? A case study in benguet province, Philippines, Natural Resource Res. 11, 45-59. 3. Dimitrijevic MD (1973) Geology of Kerman region. Geology Survey of Iran. Report Yu. 52, 334. 4. Dimitrijevic MD and Djokovic I (1973) Geological map of Kerman Region (1:500,000). Geological Survey of Iran publication.
Research article Indian Society for Education and Environment (iSee)

5. Hardcastle KC (1995) Photolineament Factor: A new computer aided method for remotely sensing the degree to which bedrock is fractured. Photogrammetric Engg. Remote Sensing. 61, 739 747. 6. Hasanzadeh J (1993) Metallogenetic and tectonomagmatic events in SE sector of the Cenozoic active continental margin of central Iran (Shahr-e-babak, Kerman province). Ph.D. Thesis, Univ. of California, Los Angeles. 7. Honarmand M and Ranjbar H (2006) Application of different image processing techniques on ETM+ Images for exploration of porphyry and vein type copper mineralization in Kuh-e-Mamzar and Kuh-ePanj areas. Geosci. Magaz. Geol. Soc. Iran. 57, 110127. 8. Padilla, Garza RA, Titley SR and Francisco Pimentel B (2001) Geology if the Escondida porphyry copper deposit, Antofagosta region, Chile. Econ. Geol. 96, 307344. 9. Richard SP, Boyce AJ and Pringle MS (2001) Geologic evolution of the Escondida area, northern Chile: a model and temporal localization of porphyry Cu mineralization. Econ. Geol. 98, 15151513. 10. Ryan PD and Dewey JF (1990) A geological and tectonic cross-section of the Caledonides of western Ireland. J. Geol. Soc. London. 148, 173-180. 11. Storti F, Rossetti F, Lufer AL and Salvini F (2006) Consistent kinematic architecture in the damage zones of intraplate strike-slip fault systems in North Victoria land, Antarctica and implications for fault zone evolution. J. Structural Geol. 28, 50-63. 12. Swanson MT (1988) Pseudotachylite-bearing strikeslip duplex structures in the Fort Foster Brittle Zone, S. Maine. J. Structural Geol. 10, 813828. 13. Walker RT (2006) A remote sensing study of active folding and faulting in sothern Kerman province, S.E. Iran. J.Structural Geol. 28, 654668. 14. Zarasvandi A, Liaghat S and Zentilli M (2005) Geology of the Darreh Zerreshk and Ali Abad porphyry copper deposit, central Iran. Intl. Geol. Rev. 47, 620646.

Copper deposit in Iran http://www.indjst.org

M.Arian et al. Indian J.Sci.Technol.

Copyright of Indian Journal of Science & Technology is the property of Indian Society for Education & Environment and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.