Use of AVIRIS Imagery to Assess Clay Mineralogy and Debris-Flow Potential in Cataract Canyon, UTAH: A Preliminary Report.

摘要

Worldwide debris flows destroy property and take human lives every year. As a result of extensive property damage and loss of life there is a pressing need to go beyond just describing the nature and extent of debris flows as they occur. Most of the research into debris-flow initiation has centered on rainfall, slope angle, and existing debris-flow deposits. The factor of source lithology has been recently addressed by studies in the sedimentary terranes of Grand Canyon and on the Colorado Plateau as a whole. On the Colorado Plateau shales dominated by kaolinite and illite clays are significantly more likely to be recent producers of debris-flows than are shales in which smectite clays dominate. Establishing the location of shales and colluvial deposits containing kaolinite and illite clays in sedimentary terranes on the Colorado Plateau is essential to predicting where debris flows are likely to occur. AVIRIS imagery can be used to distinguish between types of clay minerals, providing the basis for surface-materials maps.