Statistical Lineament Analysis in South Greenland Based on Landsat Imagery

Linear features, mapped visually from MSS channel-7 photoprints (1: 1 000 000) of Landsat images from South Greenland, were digitized and analyzed statistically. A sinusoidal curve was fitted to the frequency distribution which was then divided into ten significant classes of azimuthal trends. Maps showing the density of linear features for each of the ten classes indicate that many of the classes are distributed in zones defined by elongate maxima or rows of maxima. In cases where the elongate maxima and the linear feature direction of the class in question are parallel, a zone of major crustal discontinuity is inferred. In the area investigated, such zones coincide with geochemical boundaries and graben structures, and the intersections of some zones seem to control intrusion sites. In cases where there is no parallelism between the elongate maxima and the linear feature direction, an en echelon pattern of the lineaments may be inferred.