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Ground-based hyperspectral imaging is used for development of digital outcrop models which can facilitate detailed qualitative and quantitative sedimentological analysis and augment the study of depositional environment, diagenetic processes, and hydrocarbon reservoir characterization in areas which are physically inaccessible. For this investigation, ground-based hyperspectral imaging is combined with terrestrial laser scanning to produce mineralogical maps of Late Albian rudist buildups of the Edwards formation in the Lake Georgetown Spillway in Williamson County, Texas. The Edwards Formation consists of shallow water deposits of reef and associated interreef facies. It is an aquifer in western Texas and was investigated as a hydrocarbon play in south Texas. Hyperspectral data were registered to a geometrically accurate laser point cloudgenerated mesh with sub-pixel accuracy and were used to map compositional variation by distinguishing spectral properties unique to each material. More calcitic flat-topped toucasid-rich bioherm facies were distinguished from overlying porous sucrosic dolostones, and peloid wackestones and packstones of back-reef facies. Ground truth was established by petrographic study of samples from this area. This research integrates high-resolution datasets to analyze geometrical and compositional properties of this carbonate formation at a finer scale than traditional methods have achieved and to model the geometry and composition of rudist buildups.

Abstract:Ground-based hyperspectral imaging is fairly new for studying near-vertical rock exposures where airborne or satellite-based imaging fail to provide useful information. In this study, ground-based hyperspectral image analysis was performed on a roadcut, where diagenetic tripolite facies is observed in southwestern Missouri. Laboratory-based reflectance spectroscopy and hyperspectral image analyses were also performed on collected samples. Image classification was performed using Spectral Feature Fitting (SFF) and Mixture-tuned Match Filtering (MTMF) with laboratory-and image-derived end-member spectra. SFF provided thorough yet detailed classification, whereas MTMF provided information on the relative abundances of the lithologies. Ground-based hyperspectral imaging demonstrated its potential to aid geological studies providing valuable information on mineralogical and lithological variations rapidly and with two-dimensional continuity in inaccessible rock faces of near-vertical outcrops. The results showed decreasing tripolite abundance going downward in the investigated vertical succession. Also, a leaching pattern has been observed such that persistent and continuous limestone layers become lenses and patches towards the upper portion of the outcrop. These observations show that the effect of tripolitization decreases when going deeper in the succession, suggesting that the fluid responsible for the weathering of siliceous precursors may have been flowing from top to bottom and thus have had a meteoric origin.

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