ABSTRACT: Potential of Structural Interpretation Using Space Shuttle Hand-Held Photography

VEAL, STEVEN L., DCX Resources Ltd., Denver, CO, and KATHRYN SULLIVAN, NASA, Houston, TX

Space Shuttle hand-held photography gives the geoscientist a useful tool that can be applied in a variety of ways to structurally oriented geologic studies. For example, it allows structural and tectonic features rendered during field work and aerial mapping to be interpreted on a regional and, in some cases, continental basis. Conversely, an opposite approach can be applied as Shuttle photography can supply a wide-scale structural framework from which specific field studies can begin.

Shuttle photographs are taken during each mission based upon general scientific interest or by project personnel requests for specific climatic, geologic, or environmental sites. The photos are taken through the orbiter's windows from altitudes specific to each mission. Shuttle missions have varied this altitude between 125 and 300 nautical miles above the earth using various photographic equipment. Recent missions have used a NASA-modified Hasselblad 500 EL/M 70mm camera for still photography.

It is the authors' intent to demonstrate that use of Shuttle photography for broad-based regional structural analysis can form a tectonic framework to provide a useful reference for local and regional geologic studies. Three locales have been selected by the authors to demonstrate the Shuttle photographs' potential as a geologic tool. They include (1) the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, (2) the Zagros and Makran ranges in Iran, and (3) the Alps centered near Liechtenstein.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91012©1992 AAPG Annual Meeting, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, June 22-25, 1992 (2009)