Textural and Rule-based Lithological Classification of Remote Sensing Data, and Geological Mapping in Southwestern Prieska Sub-basin, Transvaal Supergroup, South Africa

I sincerely thank my supervisor Prof. Dr. Wladyslaw (Wlady) Altermann and Dr. Michaela Frei. They do not only adviced me on academic issues, but also on my life in Munich. I thank Wlady for accepting this thesis, for respecting my cultural background and for his tolerance towards my ideas and behaviours. He was always encouraging me, which give me confidence to progress in my research work. Michaela was very serious in scientific issues. In hundreds of discussions, she patiently answered my questions, solved the problems and gave valuable suggestions on the future research. This dissertation could not have been finished without her contribution. Thank you very much, for your guidance and constant support during the last three years! I am also grateful to the University of Pretoria and the farmers in Griqualand West, South Africa, especially the family of Jan and Sybil Visagie, who facilitate the field work and gave me a good glimpse into life in South Africa. I have enjoyed this time very much. I appreciate the help of Dr. J. Henkel from the Department of Geography, LMU. He was always patient to my questions and interruption of his explanations, helping to solve the problems with the software. My colleagues, Simon Kübler and Markus Hoffmann, never hesitate to help and to give good suggestions during my research work. comfort smoothed my lonely life abroad. Their encouragement prompted me to go forward. ii Finally, I would like to thank my parents and my husband. Their love, understanding and support always accompany me. Because of you, I can stand at this point now. Thank you all! iii ABSTRACT Although remote sensing has been widely used in geological investigations, the lithological classification of the area interested, based on medium-spatial and spectral resolution satellite data, is often not successful because of the complicated geological situation and other factors like inadequate methodology applied and wrong geological models. The study area of the present thesis is located in southwest of the Prieska sub-basin, Transvaal Supergroup, South Africa. This area includes mainly Neoarchean and Proterozoic sedimentary rocks partly uncomfortably covered by uppermost Paleozoic and lower Mesozoic rocks and Tertiary to recent soils and sands. The Precambrian rocks include various formations of volcanic and intrusive rocks, quartzites, shales, platform carbonates and Banded Iron Formations (BIF). The younger rocks and soils include dikes and shales, glacial sedimentary rocks, coarser siliciclastic rocks, calcretes, aeolian and fluvial sands, etc. …