Image processing on meso-scale photographs of brittle shear zones

Abstract

Study of structures and fabrics from different scales of observation is an indispensable first step in structural geology and other branches of geoscience. We process three selected images of brittle shear zones from quartzite, limestone and schist samples using various methods, steps and filters. Such exercises more effectively detect brittle planes when the planes are not too close-spaced and devoid of white fault gouge. Edge detection methods using fuzzy logic seems to be one of the best methods to detect brittle shear planes more distinctly in meso-scale from photographs acquired from ordinary cameras. Notwithstanding, structural geologists’ identification and categorization of structures in the field with naked yet “trained” eyes or in other scales of observation continues to be indispensible.