Structural geological study of Southern Apennine (Italy) using Landsat 7 imagery

A structural geological study has been carried out by automatic and visual interpretation of Landsat 7 imagery. The new improved features of ETM+ imagery are tested in the southern part of the Apennines mountain chain, which is characterized by several inverse faults and overthrusting. Spatial information is crucial for structure detection; nevertheless spectral data can also help in the geological interpretation of optical images. In order to combine the spatial and spectral information, panchromatic and multispectral images were fused in synergetic imagery. A lineament analysis was accomplished by visual interpretation and additional processing techniques such as edge detection and morphologic filtering. The combination of different analytical techniques enables the production of a lineament map of the study area. A spatial statistic analysis of the lineaments was performed to analyze their frequency and main direction. The structural geological interpretation of remotely sensed data was compared to the field data collected over some sample areas and structural geological studies carried out by different authors. The features of geological interest detected during the interpretation process were digitized using a raster-based GIS software. A preliminary vector structural geological map was produced.