Microcomputer aided lineament analysis of Son-Mahanadi Valley coal basins,Central India from Landsat data

In the overall tectonic set up of various coal basins of the Peninsular India, the Son-Mahanadi Valley coal basins of Central India have a unique disposition. The coal measures sediments of Peninsular India are developed along well defined E-W and NW-SE trending linear narrow belts. The Son-Mahanadi Valley basins represent the tract where NW-SE trending Mahanadi Valley basins seemingly merge with the major east-west trending Damodar-Koel-Son-Satpura alignment. Landsat data of Son-Mahanadi Valley basins in the four spectral bands (0.5 to 1.1 Micrometers) were used to pick up the lineaments which are possibly of geologic origin. Detailed analysis of lineaments were carried out with the help of three softwares. Diglin (to produce rose diagram) and PLLIN (to plot digitized lineaments to produce a map on any scale) by a Hewlett Packard 45 series microcomputer equipped with graphics screen, plotter, digitiser and floppy disc unit. Detailed analysis revealed a pronounced direction roughly, N 70°E which is present in the northern half of the area while N 40°W direction is present alongwith N 70°E in the southern half. These trends correspond to the NW-SE trending Mahanadi Valley and to the E-W trending Damodar-Son Satpura belt. The above clearly brings out the striking parallelism between the lineament trends in the basement and the overlying coal bearing Gondwana Sediments. This parallelism is suggestive of a genetic relationship between the two.