For You Lot Data - Learning Nearly The Himalayas Using Mars Technology

The Himalayan Range includes or as well as thence of the youngest as well as most spectacular mountains on Earth, but the rugged landscape that lends it the hitting beauty for which it is known tin also proceed scientists from fully agreement how these mountains formed. "We know to a greater extent than nigh the rocks on parts of Mars than nosotros produce nigh or as well as thence of the areas inwards the Himalaya," said MD Alka Tripathy-Lang.

Temple inwards the Nubra Valley of Ladakh, India, which is inwards the report area. The moving-picture exhibit illustrates the enormous size
and scale of the mountains inwards this purpose of the Himalayas [Credit: Wendy Bohon]

"Many researchers accept done extraordinary geologic mapping inwards this rugged region, but the fact is that or as well as thence places are only completely inaccessible because of topography, elevation, or geopolitical issues. The rocks inwards those areas are an of import slice of the tectonic puzzle as well as are of import for agreement the agency the portion evolved," said MD Wendy Bohon. "The tools nosotros used, originally developed for mapping rocks on Mars, were a agency to safely access information nigh the rocks inwards the Himalayas."

Bohon as well as colleagues worked amongst researchers at the Mars Space Flight Facility at Arizona State University to utilisation information from the basis orbiting satellite Terra inwards the same agency planetary geologists accept been using information from the Mars orbiting satellite Odyssey.

Top: Map made using ASTER satellite information imagery. Bottom: ane "stretch" - or ane
color combination - of the ASTER information that was used to brand the map
[Credit: Geological Society of America]

The researchers relied on the fact that every mineral has a unique spectral "signature," where or as well as thence parts of the thermal infrared spectrum are absorbed as well as or as well as thence parts are reflected. Rocks are made of dissimilar combinations of minerals, as well as thence when all of these mineral signatures are combined, they let out the stone type. To easily distinguish betwixt dissimilar kinds of rocks the researchers translated these signals into red/green/blue imagery, which results inwards a distinguishable color for each stone type that tin endure used to map the distribution of rocks throughout the region.

To double-check that the colors they're mapping are genuinely the stone type predicted past times the imagery, the researchers took manus samples from accessible locations inwards the report expanse to the laboratory as well as measured the spectral signatures of each stone using a thermal emission spectrometer. Then they compared these laboratory signatures to those collected from the ASTER (Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission as well as Reflection Radiometer) musical instrument on the Terra satellite. They matched. "There is or as well as thence variation betwixt the lab as well as ASTER spectral signatures due to dissimilar factors similar weathering as well as the averaging area, but overall the stand upwards for betwixt them was surprisingly consistent," said Tripathy-Lang.

This nautical chart shows the laboratory-collected spectral signature of 2 dissimilar types of rocks from the champaign area
 (shown past times dark lines) compared amongst the ASTER spectral signature of areas that displayed the color associated
with that stone type inwards the ASTER imagery (shown amongst colored lines). The unopen stand upwards for of the lines shows that
 the stone that was measured as well as identified inwards the laboratory is the same type of stone identified
by the remote sensing information [Credit: Geological Society of America]

The map they created revealed or as well as thence interesting geology. They were able to clearly run across "suture zones" -- ancient seafloor pushed upwards as well as exposed during the collision betwixt Republic of Republic of India as well as Eurasia -- equally good equally subtle differences inwards the granitic mountains that indicates dissimilar phases of formation. They were also able the run across the intersection of 2 massive error systems, the Karakoram as well as Longmu Co Faults. "These error systems are hugely of import to the story of the Himalayan-Tibetan collision, as well as determining the agency that these systems accept evolved as well as how they interact is critical for agreement this purpose of the Himalayan Mountains," said Bohon.

The report is published inwards Geosphere.

Source: Geological Society of America [June 20, 2018]


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