WAVELET-BASED MULTIFRACTAL ANALYSIS OF LANDSAT 8 IMAGES: APPLICATIONS TO MINERAL DEPOSITS AND SHALE GAS RESERVOIRS

The aim of this work is to explore a new statistical tool based on fractal and multifractal analysis of Landsat 8 images for assessing the presence of mineral deposits and shale gas reservoirs. The method uses the 2-D discrete wavelet transform for evaluating the fractal and multifractal spectra, and produces some descriptors that could be useful for discriminating mineralized and shale gas areas. For showing the performance of the method we consider three different areas of study: an area located in the North of Chile, a wide shale gas reservoir in the United States, and a shale gas area in the Vaca Muerta region of Argentina.