ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 818–832

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/isprsjprs

Auto-detection and integration of tectonically significant lineaments from SRTM

DEM and remotely-sensed geophysical data
Alaa A. Masoud a,⇑, Katsuaki Koike b,1
a
Geology Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, 31527 Tanta, Egypt
b
Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, 2-39-1 Kurokami, Kumamoto 860-8555, Japan

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: A set of techniques was developed for automatically detecting tectonic lineaments from multi-source
Received 2 January 2010 remotely-sensed data at various scales. The techniques include adaptive shading of grid data to enhance
Received in revised form 15 August 2011 linear features, a segment-tracing algorithm to extract line segments from the shaded grid data, grouping
Accepted 16 August 2011
of the segments by concatenating short segments, and connecting them by proximity and co-linearity cri-
Available online 8 October 2011
teria to form a lineament that represents significant tectonic structure. B-spline smoothing was adopted
for lineament representation. Finally, a technique for assessing the orientations and styles of faulting
Keywords:
(normal, reverse, and strike-slip types) was developed for use in characterizing the extrapolated fracture
Adaptive shading
Segment tracing
planes. The applicability of the developed techniques was examined using 30 arc-second topography/
Segment grouping bathymetry grids, 1-min gravity anomaly grids, and 2-min total field magnetic intensity grids covering
B-spline Egypt and its surroundings. Lineaments derived from data types so diverse in composition and from var-
Tectonic model ious depths corresponded well with the referenced tectonic features over much of the region. Prominent
Egypt trends and faulting styles of lineaments provided important clues as to the timing of their development
as well as strong support for a structural inheritance model. Results demonstrated the effectiveness of the
developed techniques combined with integration of remotely-sensed data in detecting regional fracture
systems accurately and in characterizing geodynamics over a long timeframe.
Ó 2011 International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Inc. (ISPRS). Published by Elsevier
B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction With recent advances in computer hardware and spatial-analy-

Lineaments are one of the essential topographic features used in
exploring for resources such as groundwater, hydrocarbons, miner-
als, and geothermal energy, as well as in mapping hazard suscep-
tibility from earthquakes and landslides (e.g., Guild, 1974; Dix
and Jackson, 1981; Sibson, 1986a,b; Boucher, 1995; Rowan and
Bowers, 1995; Rowland and Sibson, 2004; Masoud et al., 2007).
In this regard, characteristics of lineaments such as spatial extent,
density, intersection, and orientation have proved significant be-
cause they indicate zones and trends of high permeability and/or
low pressure that may serve as pathways for migration, and thus
targets for increased reserve. Lineaments may represent faults that
control basin development and distribution of reservoirs (Warner,
1997). Regional lineaments are commonly interpreted as surface
expressions of geologic weak zones at tectonic boundaries of ba-
sins and plates, as well as faults and rock fractures (e.g., Oakey,
1994; Fichler et al., 1999; Kudo et al., 2004; Salem et al., 2005;
Milbury et al., 2007; Austin and Blenkinsop, 2008).
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: alaamasoud09@live.com (A.A. Masoud).
1
Present address: Graduate School of Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan.
sis techniques, computer-assisted lineament analysis on a large
scale has become practical for characterizing geologic structures
and tectonics. Many methods of automatically extracting linea-
ments from digital data have been proposed, such as from satellite
images and the Digital Elevation Model (DEM). Such methods are
mostly based on edge-detection techniques using spatial and mor-
phological filters (e.g., Morris, 1991; Süzen and Toprak, 1998; Tri-
pathi et al., 2000). In cases where the results are extrapolated using
filters, the frequency and connectivity of the line segments is
strongly affected by the scale of the source data and the detection
parameters (Argialas and Mavrantza, 2004). This may prevent
plausible representation of tectonically significant lineaments rel-
evant to long rock fractures and faults. Therefore, it is indispensible
to develop an auto-detection technique that can increase the fre-
quency and connectivity of detected lineaments so that resultant
lineament maps resemble fault maps by geologists.
Another important point to be considered for auto-detection of
tectonically significant lineaments is the selection of suitable data
sources. Generally, satellite images representing reflectance and
backscattering characteristics of the earth’s surface in response to
electromagnetic waves at various wavelengths are used for linea-
ment extraction. However, linear artificial features unrelated to

0924-2716/$ - see front matter Ó 2011 International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Inc. (ISPRS). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2011.08.003
 A.A. Masoud, K. Koike / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 818–832
fractures, such as land use boundaries and land cover, also tend to
be detected in satellite images. Instead of such data, it may be more
promising to use grids of data from multiple sources that encom-
pass the widely varied composition and depths represented by
the topography and the subsurface geophysical attributes, espe-
cially when integrated at various scales. This can lead to a better
understanding of the relationship between tectonic trends and
anomalies from which they develop.
Based on the above background, this study has three purposes.
The first is to develop a method that can enhance line features in
grid data. For this, we use grids of composite topography–bathym-
etry data, gravity data, and aeromagnetic data. The second is to de-
velop methods for detection and connection of lineaments. The
third is an effective integration of lineaments from such multi-
source data that describe different geologic attributes. The resul-
tant lineaments are used in geological characterization to estimate
orientations of fracture planes and fault types. We demonstrate,
through a case study of a wide area around Egypt situated at the
intersection of the African, Arabian, and Eurasian plate boundaries,
that the techniques developed are useful for better understanding
regional tectonics and geodynamics.
2. Methodology
With these purposes in mind, the methods developed for
enhancement of line features in grid data, identification and group-
ing of lineaments, calculating orientations of fracture planes, and
fault type modeling are described below. The developed tech-
niques are applicable not only to the DEM, but also to gravity
and magnetic grid data, as was the case in the research presented
herein.
Fig. 1. Shaded DEM at constant tilt angle of 45° from the horizon with four illumination azimuths from west, north, east, and south, for the test DEM data (middle figure) in
SW Sinai Peninsula in Egypt. Location of the test DEM is shown in Fig. 7. White arrows demarcate areas of suppression and shift in position of the linear features.
819
2.1. DEM shading
With the increase in regions for which elevation data has been
extrapolated using high spatial resolution DEM, geomorphologic
and lineament analyses using DEM have also increased signifi-
cantly. Because shading of DEM can enhance the linear features,
shading has played an important role in such analyses. A variety
of shading methods have been proposed such as the Lambertian
reflection (Yoëli, 1967; Foley et al., 1990; Horn, 1982), the Phong
illumination (Bui-Tuong, 1975), the Blinn reflection (Blinn, 1977),
and ray-tracing (Foley et al., 1990), which are generally based on
a physical model for illumination at specified azimuth and tilt an-
gles over a DEM. Assuming a constant albedo equal to unity and
Lambertian reflectance properties for the whole DEM surface, the
gray shade intensity value, G (x, y), for a pixel located at (x, y) in
the DEM space becomes proportional only to the squared inner
product of the directional vector along the illumination s, and
the surface normal vector t as follows:
!2
tx sx  t y sy þ sz
2
Gðx; yÞ ¼ cðs  tÞ ¼ c pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ðc : constantÞ ð1Þ
tx2 þ t y2 þ 1
where:
s ¼ ½sx ; sy ; sz T ð2Þ
and
t ¼ ½t x ; t y ; 1T ð3Þ
The horizontal components sx and sy control the illumination
azimuth, while the vertical sz defines the tilt angle. This shade
intensity at a given position varies with illumination azimuth
820 A.A. Masoud, K. Koike / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 818–832
and tilt. Therefore, linear features striking perpendicularly to the
illumination azimuth are optimally emphasized, whereas they
are suppressed if oriented parallel to the illumination (Cooper,
2003). This bias can be confirmed by the DEM for a part of our
study area located in southern Sinai, Egypt, where a flat plain
(Qaa Plain) lies adjacent to high mountain ranges (Fig. 1). In this
figure, the position of the intense linear shades resulting from
the same topographic features varies greatly even for opposite illu-
mination azimuths.
To reduce the bias from the illumination effect on the appear-
ance of linear features, Zhou and Dorrer (1995) presented a meth-
od consisting of a wavelet transform of the DEM and then
adjustment of the main illumination direction. Prechtel (2000)
developed an alternative technique, identifying clusters of simi-
larly-oriented cells from which a triangulation is derived for the
deflection of direction. Masoud and Koike (2006) applied a multi-
directional technique that assigns the average of shade intensities
for several illumination directions to the kernel center for accentu-
ating tectonic lineaments. However, the problem in the above
shading methods is that the tilt of the illumination source is kept
constant. The tilt change should affect the shade intensities, so
the characteristics of the line segments extrapolated from such
shading may vary accordingly.
In order to address this problem, we propose a technique for
adaptive-tilt multi-directional shading (ATMDS) to obtain the
maximum shade intensity at each DEM grid node. ATMDS sets
the six northward illumination azimuths at 30° intervals clockwise
from west and automatically sets the tilt angle defined by the vec-
tor component sz in Eq. (1) to range from 0° to 45° upward from the
horizon as shown in Fig. 2. The reason for selecting these limited
directions is because opposite southward illumination azimuths
and tilt angles greater than 45° suppress shade intensities rather
than enhancing them. At each grid node, shade intensities for the
six illumination azimuths and the tilt angles in the defined range
are calculated. Then, the maximum value is selected (Eq. (4)). This
calculation is repeated for all the grid nodes.
( !)2
t x sxi  t y syi þ szj
Gðx; yÞ ¼ max c pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
t x2 þ t y2 þ 1
where ði ¼ 0 ; 30 ; . . . ; 150 Þ and ðj ¼ 0  45 Þ
Figs. 1 and 3 are based on the same DEM, but Fig. 3 illustrates
the differences resulting from adopting the ATMDS method.
Fig. 3 demonstrates the strong effect of applying the ATMDS meth-
Fig. 2. Schematic idea of the adaptive-tilt multi-directional shading (ATMDS) technique with six illumination azimuths at 30° interval from the northward and tilt angle
ranging from 0° to 45°. Base of this figure is a perspective view of the test DEM shown in Fig. 1.
od with tilt angles of 15°, 30°, and 45° on the multi-directional
shading (as compared to Fig. 1 where the ATMDS method was
not applied). Next, linear features (line segments) were extracted
from the DEM using the segment-tracing algorithm (STA: Koike
et al., 1995, 1998; Koike and Ichikawa, 2006) described below.
The resultant extractions and rose diagrams showing the directions
of linear features are compared in Fig. 3. Table 1 summarizes
descriptive statistics of the length distributions of the line features.
As clearly seen, high tilt angle (45°) is inferior to identify linear fea-
tures in the flat and lowland areas such as those detected on the
Qaa Plain (Fig. 3c). The superiority of ATMDS can be demonstrated
by the numerous linear features extrapolated thoroughly from all
parts of the test area regardless of the slope of the topography
(Fig. 3d). Table 1 also demonstrates the superiority of the ATMDS
method in that the number of detected segments and the total
length are both greater compared with those detected applying
15°, 30°, and 45° tilt angles.
2.2. Detection and extraction of linear features
Computer-assisted lineament detection and extraction basically
rely on edge detectors that model edge points as extrema of data
gradients over a threshold and their orientations in images. The
edge points that are straightly aligned or smoothly curved are con-
nected to form a longer segment as an element of a lineament.
Based on the review by Argialas and Mavrantza (2004) of the
widely used edge detectors, edge detectors can be classified into
three categories based on the principles they use: line segment
detection based on the region-growing algorithm, spatial filtering
techniques, and the technique of directional detection of a segment
in a local area.
We tested the performance of these three categories of detec-
tors that have been proved successful in many case studies: LSD
(Grompone von Gioi et al., 2010), EDISON (RIUL, 2003), and STA.
LSD is a parameterless linear-time line segment detector based
on the region-growing algorithm (Burns et al., 1986). In LSD, a line
segment is defined as a straight rectangular region whose edge
points share roughly the same gradient angle. EDISON is a feature
extraction tool that integrates confidence-based edge detection
(Meer and Georgescu, 2001) and mean shift-based image segmen-
ð4Þ
tation (Comanicu and Meer, 2002). In EDISON, Canny Edge is ap-
plied, and the line segment is adjusted to the candidate edge
points based on thresholds for gradient, segment length, and hys-
teresis criteria for type, rank, and confidence levels. STA defines a
 A.A. Masoud, K. Koike / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 818–832 821

Fig. 3. Shaded DEM of the test area (DEM and the location are shown in Figs. 1 and 7, respectively) at varying tilt angles (left); (a) 15°, (b) 30°, (c) 45°, and (d) the adaptively
set tilts, overlain with the detected segments (middle) derived by STA, and rose diagrams and counts of the segments (right).

line composed of adjacent pixels as a vector element by examining Table 1

local variance of the gray level using 11  11 kernel in the digital Descriptive statistics of the length (km) of the segments by STA for the test area
image, and connects retained line elements along their expected (shown in Fig. 3) to demonstrate sensitivity of tilt angle to detection accuracy of
segments.
directions. Threshold values for the extraction and the linkage of
line elements are direction-dependent in order to avoid the illumi- Tilt angle 15° 30° 45° ATMDS
nation bias. Some advantages of this method over other filtering Parameter
methods are its capabilities to (1) trace only continuous valleys Mean 2.61 2.57 2.51 2.59
and (2) extract more lineaments that are parallel to the illumina- Standard error 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03
tion azimuth as well as those located in shadow areas. Median 2.16 2.17 2.12 2.18
Standard deviation 1.59 1.43 1.42 1.44
The three detectors were applied to the DEM for the test area Sample variance 2.53 2.06 2.02 2.08
(shown in Figs. 3(d) and 4(a)) that was shaded using the ATMDS. Range 19.03 16.56 15.97 16.55
Fig. 4(b–d) are the line segments extracted by LSD, EDISON, and Minimum 0.18 0.723 0.72 0.36
STA, respectively. The performance of LSD depends on shade inten- Maximum 19.21 17.28 16.69 16.91
Sum 5638.23 5388.73 4937.75 6026.13
sity; line segments were not extracted from low intensity (dark)
Count 2159 2092 1965 2329
zones. Connectivity of the line segments from LSD is the worst
822 A.A. Masoud, K. Koike / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 818–832
Fig. 4. Line segments for the test area detected from (a) the shaded DEM by ATMDS using (b) LSD, (c) EDISON, and (d) STA, respectively. Yellow arrows point to remarkable
ridge features. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
among the three detectors: most extracted segments do not follow
the edges of those shade intensities that correspond with the long
linear valleys and the boundaries between the mountain and plain.
Line segments from EDISON are higher in frequency compared
with those derived from LSD. However, there are two drawbacks:
low detection accuracy from low shade intensity zones and
appearance of many curved segments with short length in areas
with rolling topography. Fracture information cannot be derived
from such curved segments. Another serious problem is that LSD
and EDISON cannot distinguish between line segments corre-
sponding to ridge and valley features. Fractures tend to form linear
valley features by selective erosion. More than 50% of the line seg-
ments detected are located on ridge features, as marked in Fig. 4(b
and c). Conversely, STA can overcome the above problems as line
segments are extracted thoroughly even from low shade intensity
zones, and their connectivity into straight or slightly curved fea-
tures is higher. These advantages enable STA to produce a more
precise lineament map. Consequently, we selected STA for the lin-
eament analysis.
2.3. Lineaments produced from line segments
Line segments detected using STA (Figs. 3d and 4d) provide the
potential candidates for lineaments that correspond to fractures
and have tectonic significance. To identify such geologic linea-
ments, the next step is to concatenate line segments to form one
long lineament based on co-linearity and proximity. We have im-
proved the algorithm for concatenation in STA to produce long lin-
eaments from the short line segments by using B-spline as
described below.
As the first step, segments are sorted according to their start X
and then Y coordinates from the top-left margin of the study area.
Each line segment is nominated as a start segment in a group. The
algorithm searches for adjacent segments that cross-cut or are
displaced with a dynamic threshold distance related to the start
segment geometry (Koike et al., 1995, 1998) and are co-linear
at less than or equal to 10° angle. The longest searched segment
that satisfies these criteria and give the largest cumulative length
will be listed in the group as the second candidate segment. The
cumulative length is calculated from the start point of the start
segment to the end point of the candidate segment. The process
is repeated for the candidate segment searching for the next seg-
ment in the group and so on until there would be no segments
that satisfy the conditions. After completing the first grouping,
regrouping that merges cases of more than two groups is sequen-
tially adopted using the same criteria and the average azimuths
of the groups. The co-linearity angle (Fig. 5) proved crucial in
adjusting for length, frequency, and straightness of the resulting
lineaments. Performance analysis of the grouping algorithm
showed that the smaller the co-linearity angle, the fewer seg-
ments there are that satisfy the condition. Hence, short straight
lineaments are more abundant, and vice versa. Selection of the
10° co-linearity criteria is therefore based on the objective of
retaining the maximum achievable length, frequency, and
straightness, as well as minimizing the directional difference be-
tween the original segments and the resultant extrapolated
lineament.
The second step is to approximate the grouped line segments
with one smooth curve using B-spline (Fig. 5). This curve is re-
garded as a lineament. We selected the cubic B-spline curve for
representing lineaments because it well preserves the geometric
continuity of the line segments within the group and is indepen-
dent of the number of control points (Masoud and Koike, 2009).
Since B-spline is a well-known piecewise polynomial function
widely used for curve generation (e.g., Prautzsch et al., 2002), it
is only briefly explained herein.
 A.A. Masoud, K. Koike / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 818–832 823

N=6
P4
P0

u=0 P3 u=1
P1 B-spline Curve

Co-linearity angle P2

Start and end points of segments

Pn B-spline curve control points

Fig. 5. Connection of line segments and approximation of them into a smooth curve using B-spline.

We set the inter-group control points (n + 1) as P0, P1, P2, . . ., Pn of the desired plane and the surface slope i (Fig. 6), li should be
for n segments. P0 and P1 are the starting and midpoints of the first equal to the vector product of the two normal vectors:
segment, and Pn1 and Pn are the mid and end points of the last
li ¼ t i  n ði ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; ms Þ ð6Þ
segment. The rest P2, . . ., Pn2 are the midpoints of the other seg-
ments. The B-spline curve of order u (degree u1) is then defined The only unknown in this equation is n. It is prudent, therefore,
by the control points and the knot vector u: to obtain n by applying the least-squares method and solving the
normal equation that is deduced from:
X
nþ1 ( )
CðuÞ ¼ Ni;p ðuÞPi ; 06u61 ð5Þ @ Xms

i¼1 xi ðli  t i  nÞT ðli  t i  nÞ ¼ 0 ð7Þ

where C(u) is a piecewise continuous function defining the curve
with N = n + 1 discrete control points Pi. Ni,p(u) is a basis function
that blends the control points to form a smooth curve. The bound-
ary condition of u is u = 0 at the first control point (i = 1) and u = 1 at
the last control point (i = n + 1).
2.4. Estimating fracture planes and fault modeling from extrapolated
lineaments
Under the assumption that a fracture along a fault plane has a
finite dimension, a lineament, which is interpreted as a trace of a
fracture or fault plane on the terrain composed of concatenated
line segments, can be used to calculate the fault plane orientation
(strike and dip). The trace curvature on the surface depends on the
dip angle of the interpreted plane, which can be expressed by a
geometrical relationship between the terrain and the plane. A nor-
mal vector of a plane is denoted by n. The geometrical relationship
can be described through vector analysis (Koike et al., 1998). This
technique has been applied successfully to model fault types in
Kyushu island in Japan and validated by structural and lithologic
data (Koike et al., 2001). In this technique, a slope made by the
DEM and its normal vector is represented by ti (i = 1, 2, . . ., ms),
where ms is the number of slopes through which the lineaments
classified into the same group pass. Let the strike vector of the lin-
eament in a group be li. Because li is equivalent to the intersection
@n i¼1
where xi is a weighting coefficient.
Furthermore, directional relationship between n and the aver-
age vector of ti, t, is used to judge whether the obtained plane rep-
resents a normal or reverse fault feature. Dipping criteria of the
plane, its direction and angle of dip, are then estimated. We define
three features, normal, reverse, and strike-slip types depending on
whether the directions of n and t are the same (normal), opposite
(reverse), and undetermined (strike-slip) as shown in Fig. 6. Be-
cause strike-slip movements generally do not accompany down-
throws on the fault plane, the fault type cannot be specified by
the simple geometrical relationship in Fig. 6. Therefore, the unde-
termined type is assumed to have strike-slip components. The
technique is thought to be applicable to the gravity and magnetic
lineaments which depict very narrow low anomaly zones that
may be caused by planes associated with faulting of different styles
and types of movement.
3. Study area and data
The techniques developed in our study were applied to detect-
ing tectonically significant lineaments and characterizing the geo-
logic structures for Egypt and adjacent areas (Fig. 7). The region is
geologically and structurally complex, composed of lithologies of
different types and ages and showing varying tectonic styles and
trends. Better understanding of the kinematics and the spatial

(a) (b)
T Average surface normal vectors
ti (t1i , t2i , t3i ) Fault plane
Surface normal vector
n t
li (l1i , l 2i , l3i ) T
Lineament
n n
Normal fault Reverse fault

Fig. 6. (a) Definition of vectors used in estimating azimuth of ‘‘fracture’’ plane from lineaments, and (b) schematic idea of judging fault type by the directional relationship
between the average of surface normal vectors and the normal vector of the interpreted fracture plane.
824 A.A. Masoud, K. Koike / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 818–832

Fig. 7. Geological and kinematic structural map of the study area modified from CGMW (2006). Structural features described in Fig. 2 of Guiraud and Bosworth (1999) are
shown in pink and those described in Fig. 10 of (Keely, 1994) are shown in black.

extent of the dominant tectonic trends may have implications for
identifying the potential for natural resources in the area. The re-
gion has been shaped through extension-dominated tectonism
alternated with intermittent less-influential but intense compres-
sive phases (Guiraud and Bosworth, 1999). Extensional tectonics
lead to the Neotethys opening along the Mediterranean Basins in
the Permian (Guiraud and Bosworth, 1999). Polyphased extension,
inversion, and folding resulted in the development of the Syrian
Arc belts, commenced in the latest Cretaceous, and continued as
a series of pulses into the Late Oligocene (Keeley and Massoud,
1998). The convergence and suturing of Africa–Arabia with Eurasia
came to effect since the late Cretaceous and proceeded to the pres-
ent (Ziegler and Roure, 1999). In the Late Oligocene, the Gulf of
Suez–Red Sea rifting initiated (Omar and Steckler, 1995). During
the Middle Miocene, the Red Sea divergent plate boundary aban-
doned the Gulf of Suez and broke through the Arabian plate via
the Gulf of Aqaba–Dead Sea transform fault, establishing the pres-
ent-day plate kinematic framework (Guiraud and Bosworth, 1999).
Many studies have addressed the repeated reactivation of the
older structures by plate-scale stress fields along broad lineaments
in the region (e.g., Guiraud and Bellion, 1995; Guiraud and Bos-
worth, 1999; Bumby and Guiraud, 2005; Abdeen and Greiling,
2005). In these studies, lineaments played an important role in
understanding the region’s geodynamic evolution. However, these
were commonly generalized sketches reviewed from interpreta-
tions of geologic observations and scarce geophysical surveys
which lack spatial inter-relationships. Integrating lineaments
extrapolated from various spatial data describing surface and
 A.A. Masoud, K. Koike / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 818–832 825

subsurface features seems a more promising way to draw a de-
tailed, reliable structural map of the region.
We used three grid data sets: the 30-arc second topography/
bathymetry grid (SRTM30_PLUS) by Becker et al. (2009); the 1-
arc minute gravity anomalies grid (mGal) by Sandwell and Smith
(1997); and the 2-arc minute earth magnetic anomaly (nT) grid
by Maus et al. (2007) and Maus et al. (2009). For short, topogra-
phy/bathymetry is hereafter termed topography. Use of the gravity
data allowed an integrated response to density contrasts, and grav-
ity data was closely related to topography by a linear transfer func-
tion. Integrating gravity and topographic data is significant in
studying crustal structures (McNutt, 1979; Smith and Sandwell,
1994). Gravity and magnetic data are related to different rock attri-
butes in the subsurface which provides a basis for joint interpreta-
tion of both kinds of data. Coinciding gravity and magnetic
anomalies may suggest a common origin. Contrasting gravity and
magnetic anomalies may result from erasing the crust’s magnetism
by heating (Milbury et al., 2007) or from rocks with low magnetic
contents (Fichler et al., 1999). Magnetic intensities of rocks
occurring below the Curie isotherms can provide insight into the

Fig. 8. STA-derived line segments (left) overlaid on shaded grid data of (a) topography, (b) gravity, and (c) magnetic, and their corresponding lineaments by connection (right)
overlaid on the shaded DEM (top), and the shaded gravity (middle) and magnetic data (bottom) as shown in color.
826 A.A. Masoud, K. Koike / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 818–832

Table 2 integrated extrapolation based on all three kinds of data reduces

Descriptive length statistics (unit: km) of (a) segments and (b) lineaments derived the degree of ambiguity in surface and subsurface crustal struc-
from the topographic, gravity, and magnetic data (shown in Fig. 8).
tural modeling in the study area.
Data Topography Gravity Magnetic
(a) 4. Results and discussion
Parameter
Mean 13 58 60
Standard error 0.03 0.32 0.31
4.1. Line segments and lineaments
Median 11.4 45.6 49.5
Standard deviation 7.71 40.84 38.66 STA-derived line segments and grouped lineaments from the
Sample variance 59.48 1668.66 1495.17 three grid data sources are shown in Fig. 8, with their correspond-
Range 107.49 481.13 592.05
ing statistics summarized in Table 2. Magnetic-derived segments
Minimum 4 4 4
Maximum 108.50 485.13 596.05 and lineaments are the longest, but least frequently occurring,
Sum (km) 823,578 913,679 930,339 among the three. Segments and lineaments derived from the
Count (Number) 60,131 15,689 15,349 topography are the most frequent, but are shorter in length com-
(b) pared with those derived from the gravity data. Variations in the
Mean 81 163 305
length and frequency of occurrence of the line segments and linea-
Standard error 0.93 3.28 5.35
Median 69.22 138.93 267.5 ments are attributable to the difference in spatial resolutions of the
Standard deviation 36.03 73.42 112.10 source data. The segments had average lengths of 13, 58, and
Sample variance 1298.5 5390.5 12,567.9 60 km and maximum lengths of 108, 485, and 596 km while the
Range 262.16 493.7 691.15
lineaments had average lengths of 81, 163, and 305 km and maxi-
Minimum 50.01 100.11 200
Maximum 312.17 593.81 891.15 mum lengths of 312, 593, and 891 km, for the topography, gravity,
Sum (km) 120,013 81,689 133,677 and magnetic data, respectively. The enhancements in the average
Count (number) 1460 483 422 and maximum lengths of the lineaments over the segments prove
the validity of the grouping technique applied to the various data
in enhancing the connectivity of the linear features (Table 2).
subsurface structure and the composition of rocks in the crust. As Superimposition of lineaments extrapolated from all 3 data
topography, gravity, and magnetic data are mutually independent, sources and the reference structural features of Keely (1994) and

Fig. 9. Distributions of three kinds of lineaments originated from the topography, gravity, and magnetic data and their superimposition on the geological map of Fig. 7. Color
legend of the geological map is shown in Fig. 7. Structural features described in Fig. 2 of Guiraud and Bosworth (1999) are shown in pink and those described in Fig. 10 of keely
(1994) are shown in black.
 A.A. Masoud, K. Koike / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 818–832 827

Guiraud and Bosworth (1999) is shown on Fig. 9. Lineaments from
two to three data sources are congruent in many places and show
broad concentrated continuous parallel zones, in spite of differ-
ences in spatial resolution and geologic attributes. Topographic lin-
eaments showed more abundance in the inland, followed by the
magnetic and the gravity lineaments. Gravity and magnetic linea-
ments dominate in the Mediterranean Sea. Structural zones along
the lineaments combined from the 3 data sources agree in orienta-
tion and position with the common tectonic features in the region,
as well as with the structures mapped in Keely (1994) and Guiraud
and Bosworth (1999). They highlight important elements consti-
tuting the plate boundaries, intra-plate structural zones, bound-
aries of rift basins, and intra-basin structural features (Fig. 9), as
explained in later sections.
Directional trends of the three types of lineaments and their
composite rose diagram are shown in Fig. 10, with statistics for
their frequency of occurrence and length summarized in Table 3.
In the composite rose diagram, ratios of the counts of individual
lineament types to total counts of all types along each direction
are calculated. The major trends of lineaments from the three data
sources are congruent, which suggests a possible common source
for their origin. However, their order of abundance and relative fre-
quencies vary greatly in the individual rose diagrams and the
composite.
The composite rose diagram shows five prominent trends: NE-
SW, NNE-SSW, NNW-SSE, NW-SE, and WNW-ESE, arranged coun-
ter-clockwise according to decreasing order of abundance
(Fig. 10d). The magnetic lineaments show the largest contributions
to the NE-SW, NNE-SSW, NW-SE, and WNW-ESE directions, ar-
ranged in decreasing order of contribution. Magnetic lineaments
probably originate from compositional discontinuity in the under-
lying mantle and crust. The topographic lineaments contribute the

Fig. 10. Rose diagrams showing strike frequencies of the lineaments from (a) topographic, (b) gravity, and (c) magnetic data, and (d) total of the three kinds of lineaments. In
(d), the colors in each direction sector denote the ratios of the three kinds of lineaments: the magnetic lineaments are the most prominent in most sectors.

Table 3
Statistics for the number (n) and length (l) in km of lineaments derived from topography (T), gravity (G), and magnetic (M) data in each directional range. Dominant trends are
marked by bold letters.

Trend Parameter (°) T (n) T (l) G (n) G (l) M (n) M (l) Total (n) Total (l)
NW 80–90 25 2200 6 1068 11 3118 42 6386
70–80 16 1675 8 1594 17 5083 41 8352
60–70 14 1246 10 1871 12 4100 36 7217
50–60 43 3132 23 3565 17 5643 83 12,340
40–50 37 2836 8 1283 5 1722 50 5841
30–40 72 5665 19 3495 9 2695 100 11,855
20–30 87 7368 31 6008 4 1442 122 14,818
10–20 109 8858 34 5621 11 3610 154 18,089
0–10 78 5895 21 3200 20 5149 119 14,244
NE 0–10 55 4638 22 2954 17 4911 94 12,503
10–20 121 10,159 47 8521 30 9759 198 28,439
20–30 118 10,131 40 5975 31 9255 189 25,361
30–40 161 13,843 52 8263 30 10,374 243 32,480
40–50 167 13,966 65 11,715 60 18,489 292 44,170
50–60 159 12,551 38 6422 61 20,900 258 39,873
60–70 115 9146 37 6446 49 16,027 201 31,619
70–80 54 4261 16 2721 17 4659 87 11.641
80–90 29 2443 6 967 21 6741 56 10,151
Total 1460 120,013 483 81,689 422 133,677 2365 335,379
828 A.A. Masoud, K. Koike / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 818–832
Fig. 11. Lineament distributions classified into the three fault types (normal, reverse, and strike-slip) and overlaid on the geological map of Fig. 7. Color legend of the
geological map is shown in Fig. 7. Structural features described in Fig. 2 of Guiraud and Bosworth (1999) are shown in pink and those described in Fig. 10 of (Keely, 1994) are
shown in black.
most to the NNW-SSE direction, which may indicate shallower
crustal fault characteristics.
4.2. Characterizing the style of faulting along lineament zones
Fault types were identified for all the derived lineaments as
shown in Fig. 11. In the Mediterranean Sea, marked with the sub-
duction of the African and European plates, lineaments with strike-
slip and reverse faulting types are dominant. Reverse faults are of
marked appearance south of Crete close to the Hellenic arc. In
the inland areas, lineaments of strike-slip type of faulting showed
more abundance, followed by the normal and then the reverse
types. Lineaments of various fault types can mix or alternate along
the regional tectonic features in the area. The azimuth and angle of
dip of various interpreted fault types along lineaments and their
composite are plotted on the rose diagrams and the Schmidt nets
(lower hemisphere projection) and shown in Fig. 12. The results
show that the most abundant type is the strike-slip type, followed
by the normal and then the reverse types. The lineaments of strike-
slip and normal fault types are commonly vertical or nearly verti-
cal, while the reverse types show wide dip variations in the range
of 20°–90°. The strike-slip type is abundant relative to the normal
and reverse types along the NE, NNE-SSW, and NNW-SSE trends.
Strike-slip and normal faulting are predominate and contribute
nearly equally to the type in the NNE-SSW and NNW-SSE direc-
tions. Fault types along the E-W direction vary with location. As
for the dip direction, normal fault types show a distinctive south-
easterly dipping, while reverse fault types are concentrated in
the opposite (northwesterly) direction. These results agree well
with the tectonic framework in the region as discussed in the next
section.
4.3. Geologic characterization of the tectonic trends
The exceptional continuity (Table 2b), co-linearity, and orienta-
tion/positional congruence among the topographic, gravity, and
magnetic lineament zones (Fig. 9) and their prominent trends
across the region indicate a common source of origin. The origin
is likely lithosphere dynamics that acted during the Neoproterozo-
ic era and have been repeatedly reactivated since that time. A note-
worthy point is the coincidence with recent (1900–2006) strong
(>5 Mb) earthquake epicenters, which are quoted from the dat-
abases of the National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC,
2009) and the Egyptian National Seismograph Network (ENSN),
along the extent of the lineament zones and at their intersections,
in particular in the Mediterranean Sea area (Fig. 13). These results,
underpinned with the persistence of the trends over several depo-
sitional phases (Keely, 1994; Guiraud and Bosworth, 1999) and the
geodynamic evolution of the region, strongly support the repeated
reactivation of tectonism along such deep lineaments to accommo-
date the subsequent strain, to control the upward propagation of
fractures into the younger rocks, and to have acted as the loci for
the development of the younger rift-related geological structures
(Klitzsch, 1986; Daly et al., 1989; Meshref, 1990; Keely, 1994;
 A.A. Masoud, K. Koike / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 818–832 829

Fig. 12. Rose diagrams (left) and Schmidt nets (right) for the lineaments of three fault types: (a) normal, (b) reverse, (c) strike-slip, and (d) all the lineaments summing (a–c).
In rose diagram of (d), the colors in each direction sector denote the ratios of the three kinds of lineaments: strike-slip and normal types are significant in most direction
sectors.

Guiraud and Bellion, 1995; Moustafa, 1997; Unrug, 1997; Guiraud
and Bosworth, 1999; Bojar et al., 2002; Abdeen and Greiling, 2005;
Bumby and Guiraud, 2005).
In order to highlight the correspondence between the linea-
ments (and associated prominent trends) with significant tectonic
elements in the region, co-linear, continuous lineaments were se-
lected from the concentrated lineament zones in Fig. 9. Then, more
regional zones passing over the study area were delineated.
Namely, we manually transformed overlapping long lineaments
into one lineament at first, and connected several lineaments hav-
ing similar directions by a gentle curve. Resultant Fig. 13 identifies
five zones and associated trends that characterize crucial plate
boundary and intra-plate features including basin boundaries and
intra-basin fractures. The five major fault trends (tectonic linea-
ments) extrapolated from the concentrated co-linear long linea-
ments and the fault types are compared to referenced structural
830 A.A. Masoud, K. Koike / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 818–832

Fig. 13. Five major fault trends (tectonic lineaments) interpreted from the concentrated co-linear long lineaments. Recent epicenters (1900–2006) with relatively large
magnitude (M > 5), which were derived from the NEIC and ENSN databases, are overlaid with trends on the geological map of Fig. 7. Color legend of the geological map is
shown in Fig. 7. Arrows denote the sense of lateral movement reviewed from literatures.

features. This comparison is summarized below in order of the
reactivation period, starting from the oldest:
(1) Najd Fault System (NFS) trend (WNW-ESE to NW-SE), posi-
tionally corresponds with the magnetic and gravity linea-
ments, represents principally Late Precambrian sinistral
strike-slip transpressive shear zones (Stern, 1985). Another
distinctive representative of the NFS trending system is its
extraordinary continuity from the southern Sinai to South
Cairo, Wadi Natrun, and the Northwestern Mediterranean
Sea (Fig. 13). Longacre et al. (2007) demarcated this fault
zone in the offshore as a sinistral ocean-continent transform
boundary that separates the ocean crust of the southern
Tethys from the mildly-extended continental crust of north-
ern Egypt.
(2) The Trans-African Lineament (TAL) trend (NE-SW) correlates
with the Tethyan shear zones (Keely, 1994) and the Pelu-
sium Line (Neev, 1977; Neev et al., 1982). The variable
senses of strike-slip movement induced transtention and
transpression stress fields, by which the TAL-parallel linea-
ments became active during the Tethyan rifting (Keely,
1994). This TAL trend demarcates also the Red Sea exten-
sional faults that have continued to be active from Tertiary
to Recent times (e.g. Cochran and Martinez, 1988).
(3) Red Sea–Gulf of Suez trend (NNW-SSE) correlates with the
proto-Clysmic or Erithrean fractures of Keely (1994). The
NNW-SSW trending lineaments chiefly extracted from the
topographic and gravity data are notably situated in the
Early Cretaceous deposits (Fig. 12). This corresponds with
the fact that the Red Sea–Gulf of Suez rifting likely com-
menced in the Cretaceous period (Makris and Rihm, 1991)
and reached its climax in the Oligocene period, predomi-
nantly controlling the linkage of rift-parallel faults in the
Gulf of Suez (Younes and McClay, 1998; Guiraud and Bos-
worth, 1999).
(4) The Gulf of Aqaba–Dead Sea trend (NNE-SSW) demarcates
the sinistral transtensive Gulf of Aqaba–Dead Sea fault zone
and associated transfer or linking faults which have been
active from the Middle Miocene to Recent periods (Guiraud
and Bosworth, 1999). A mixture of normal and sinistral
strike-slip movements was confirmed along the western
margin of the Gulf of Aqaba by Ben-Avraham (1985), which
agrees well with the estimated fault types in the present
study.
(5) Eastern Mediterranean Basin (EMB) related-trends are rep-
resented generally by a perpendicular conjugate set of zones
oriented nearly E-W resulting from compressional stress
fields and N-S resulting from extensional ones associated
 A.A. Masoud, K. Koike / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 818–832
with the northward movement of Africa and still active till
today. Lineaments of these trends were derived jointly from
the gravity and magnetic anomalies in the Mediterranean
offshore area dominated by reverse and strike-slip types
(Fig. 11). E-W striking lineaments are commonly concen-
trated near the southern boundary of the EMB, while the less
common N-S oriented lineaments represent intra-basin fea-
tures. The EMB trend’s agreement with the well-known Hel-
lenic and the Cyprean Arc (See Fig. 7) is striking.
5. Conclusions
Sophisticated techniques for digital processing and integration
of remotely-sensed data at various scales over wide compositional
and depth variations enabled, for the first time, successful auto-
matic mapping of significant tectonic lineaments that agree well
with known tectonic fabrics in the region. Three methods were
developed: ATMDS for enhancing line features in the grid data; re-
vised STA for extraction and concatenation of line segments; and a
technique for modeling fault types along lineaments. ATMDS
proved to be effective because the line segments were extracted
thoroughly regardless of the gradient of slopes in the grid data.
Further, it is an automated one-step process that saves time and ef-
forts and is not biased by the subjectivity that may arise from the
interactive setting of the azimuth and the altitude of one-direc-
tional source of illumination and the step-wise superimposition
of the resulting shaded grids from several directions. By comparing
the three edge detectors founded on typical principles, the high
capability for detecting line segments that satisfied the criterion
of straight linearity along valley features irrespective of the shade
intensities with STA was demonstrated using the shaded grid data.
Long lineaments were represented by concatenating the short line
segments derived from the grids and smoothing the connection
into a gentle curve using B-spline. Effectiveness of estimating ori-
entations and fault types (normal, reverse, and strike-slip) using
the lineaments was also demonstrated by comparison to regional
fault structures.
A case study of the adequacy of applying the developed auto-
mated techniques to the area covering Egypt and adjacent areas
demonstrated their effectiveness in identifying large-scale tectonic
structures based on integration of lineaments extracted from
topography, gravity, and aeromagnetic grid data. The continuous
lineaments corresponded well, both in position and orientation,
with the five referenced significant structural features and can be
used to update them: the Najd Fault System, Trans-African Linea-
ment, the proto-Clysmic or Erthrean fractures, the Gulf of Aqaba-
Dead Sea fault zone, and Eastern Mediterranean Basin structures,
which are plate boundaries and intra-plate features of shear zones,
boundaries of basins, and intra-basin fractures. The continuities of
the five structures and the faulting types were brought out in more
detail by this study. The tectonic significance of lineaments was
confirmed by the concentration of the epicenters of recent
(1900–2006) large seismic activity (M > 5) along the broad linea-
ment zones and at their intersections.
In spite of the differences in the main geologic attribute as well
as the varied depth range of the three grid data sources, the corre-
spondence of the lineaments from all three sources over much of
the region implies the persistence of the prominent trends over
wide horizontal and vertical ranges and provides strong support
for a structural inheritance model. In this model, basement struc-
tural zones have been repeatedly reactivated accompanying the
development and upward propagation of the fractures into the
Phanerozoic, which was underpinned with the discontinuities in
the crust’s sediment thickness. The abundance of five prominent
trends (NE-SW, NNE-SSW, NNW-SSE, NW-SE, and WNW-ESE)
seems to be related to the frequency of their reactivation periods.
831
Future research will focus on applying the developed tech-
niques on fine scale various potential field data where detailed
structural information would be available for local limited areas.
This can maximize the reliability of the results, in particular for
the fault type modeling, and make the validation process much
easier.
Acknowledgements
We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their construc-
tive review comments that greatly improved the manuscript.
References
Abdeen, M.M., Greiling, R.O., 2005. A quantitative structural study of late Pan-
African compressional deformation in the central Eastern Desert (Egypt) during
Gondwana assembly. Gondwana Research 8 (4), 457–471.
Argialas, D.P., Mavrantza, O.D., 2004. Comparison of edge detection and Hough
transform techniques for the extraction of geologic features. International
Archives of Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences
34 (Part B3), 790–795.
Austin, J.R., Blenkinsop, T.G., 2008. The Cloncurry Lineament: Geophysical and
geological evidence for a deep crustal structure in the Eastern Succession of the
Mount Isa Inlier. Precambrian Research 163 (1-2), 50–68.
Becker, J.J., Sandwell, D.T., Smith, W.H.F., Braud, J., Binder, B., Depner, J., Fabre, D.,
Factor, J., Ingalls, S., Kim, S-H., Ladner, R., Marks, K., Nelson, S., Pharaoh, A.,
Sharman, G., Trimmer, R., von Rosenburg, J., Wallace, G., Weatherall, P., 2009.
Global bathymetry and elevation data at 30 arc seconds resolution:
SRTM30_PLUS. Marine Geodesy 32 (4), 355–371.
Ben-Avraham, Z., 1985. Structural framework of the Gulf of Elat (Aqaba). Journal of
Geophysical Research 90 (B1), 703–726.
Blinn, J.F., 1977. Models of Light Reflection for Computer Synthesized Pictures. Proc.
4th Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques,
SIGGRAPH 77, 192–198.
Bojar, A.V., Fritz, H., Kargl, S., Unzog, W., 2002. Phanerozoic tectonothermal history
of the Arabian–Nubian Shield in the Eastern Desert of Egypt: evidence from
fission track and paleostress data. Journal of African Earth Sciences 34 (3-4),
191–202.
Boucher, R.K., 1995. The relevance of lineament tectonics to hydrocarbon
occurrences in the Cooper and Eromanga Basins, South Australia. Journal of
Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia 21, 69–75.
Bui-Tuong, P., 1975. Illumination for computer generated pictures. Communications
of the Association of Computing Machinery 18 (6), 311–317.
Bumby, A.J., Guiraud, R., 2005. The Geodynamic setting of the Phanerozoic Basins of
Africa. Journal of African Earth Sciences 43 (1-3), 1–12.
Burns, J.B., Hanson, A.R., Riseman, E.M., 1986. Extracting straightlines. IEEE
Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 8 (4), 425–455.
CGMW: Commission for the Geological Map of the World (2006). Structural and
kinematic map of the World, 1:50 M scale, A. Haghipour, CGMW/UNESCO
Cochran, J.R., Martinez, F., 1988. Structure and tectonics of the northern Red Sea:
Catching a continental margin between rifting and drifting. Tectonophysics 150
(1-2), 1–32.
Comanicu, D., Meer, P., 2002. Mean shift: A robust approach toward feature space
analysis. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 24 (5),
603–619.
Cooper, G.R.J., 2003. Feature detection using sun shading. Computers & Geosciences
29 (8), 941–948.
Daly, M.C., Chorowicz, J., Fairhead, J.D., 1989. Rift basin evolution in Africa: the
influence of reactivated steep basement shear zones. Geological Society,
London, Special Publications 44 (1), 309–334.
Dix, O.R., Jackson, M.P.A., 1981. Statistical analysis of lineaments and their relation
to fracturing, faulting, and halokinesis in the East Texas Basin. Bureau of
Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin TX, Report 110, 30.
Fichler, C., Rundhovde, E., Olesen, O., Saether, B.M., Ruelatten, H., Lundin, E., Dore,
A.G., 1999. Regional tectonic interpretation of image enhanced gravity and
magnetic data covering the mid-Norweigian shelf and adjacent mainland.
Tectonophysics 306 (2), 183–197.
Foley, J.D., van Dam, A., Feiner, K., Hughes, J.F., 1990. Computer Graphics: Principles
and Practice, 2nd ed. Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA.
Grompone von Gioi, R., Jakubowicz, J., Morel, J., Randall, G., 2010. LSD: a fast line
segment detector with a false detection control. IEEE Transactions on Pattern
Analysis and Machine Intelligence 32 (4), 722–732.
Guild, P.W., 1974. Distribution of metallogenic provinces in relation to major earth
features: Schriftenreihe der erdwissenschaftlichen Kommission der
Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften Band 1, pp. 10–24.
Guiraud, R., Bellion, Y., 1995. Late Carboniferous to Recent Geodynamic Evolution of
the West Gondwanian Cratonic Tethyan Margins. In: Nairn, A., Dercourt, J.,
Vrielynck, B. (Eds.), The Tethys Ocean. The Ocean Basins and Margins. Plenum
Press, New York, pp. 101–124.
Guiraud, R., Bosworth, W., 1999. Phanerozoic geodynamic evolution of northeastern
Africa and the northwestern Arabia platform. Tectonophysics 315 (1-4), 73–
108.
832 A.A. Masoud, K. Koike / ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 66 (2011) 818–832
Horn, B.K.P., 1982. Hill shading and the reflectance map. Geo-Processing 2, 65–146.
Keely, M.L., 1994. Phanerozoic evolution of the basins of Northern Egypt and
adjacent areas. Geologische Rundschau 83 (4), 728–742.
Keeley, M.L., Massoud, M.S., 1998. Tectonic controls on the petroleum geology of NE
Africa. Geological Society, London, Special Publications 132, 265–281.
Klitzsch, E., 1986. Plate tectonics and cratonal geology in Northeast Africa (Egypt,
Sudan). Geologische Rundschau 75 (3), 755–768.
Koike, K., Nagano, S., Ohmi, M., 1995. Lineament analysis of satellite images using a
Segment Tracing Algorithm (STA). Computers & Geosciences 21 (9), 1091–1104.
Koike, K., Ichikawa, Y., 2006. Spatial correlation structures of fracture systems for
identifying a scaling law and modeling fracture distributions. Computers &
Geosciences 32 (8), 1079–1095.
Koike, K., Nagano, S., Kawaba, K., 1998. Construction and analysis of interpreted
fracture planes through combination of satellite-derived lineaments and digital
elevation model data. Computers & Geosciences 24 (6), 573–583.
Koike, K., Kouda, R., Ueki, T., 2001. Characterizing fracture systems of Kyushu,
southwest Japan through satellite-image derived lineaments superimposed on
topographic and lithologic data. Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Japan 52
(9), 405–423.
Kudo, T., Yamamoto, A., Nohara, T., Kinoshita, H., Shichi, R., 2004. Variations of
gravity anomaly roughness in Chugoku district, Japan: relationship with
distributions of topographic lineaments. Earth Planets Space 56 (5), e5–e8.
Longacre, M., Bentham, P., Hanbal, I., Cotton, J., Edwards, R., 2007. New Crustal
Structure of the Eastern Mediterranean Basin: Detailed Integration and
Modeling of Gravity, Magnetic, Seismic Refraction, and Seismic Reflection
Data. EGM Innovation in EM, Gravity and Magnetic Methods: a new Perspective
for Exploration, Capri, Italy, April 15–18.
Makris, J., Rihm, R., 1991. Shear-controlled evolution of the Red sea: pull apart
model. Tectonophysics 198 (2-4), 441–466.
Masoud, A.A., Koike, K., 2006. Tectonic architecture through LANDSAT-7 ETM+/
SRTM DEM-derived lineaments and relationship to the hydrogeologic setting in
Siwa Region, NW Egypt. Journal of African Earth Sciences 45 (4–5), 467–477.
Masoud, A.A, Koike, K., 2009. Use of Bézier and B-Spline Curves for Smart
Representation of Lineaments Auto-detected from DEM. International
Association of Mathematical Geology (IAMG09): Computational Methods for
the Earth, Energy and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, California,
USA, 23–28 August, (on CD-ROM).
Masoud, A., Koike, K., Teng, Y., 2007. Geothermal Reservoir Characterization
Integrating Spatial GIS Models of Temperature, Geology, and Fractures. Proc.
12th Conference of International Association for Mathematical Geology, Beijing,
China, August 26-31, (on CD-ROM).
Maus, S., Barckhausen, U., Berkenbosch, H., Bournas, N., Brozena, J., Childers, V.,
Dostaler, F., Fairhead, J.D., Finn, C., von Frese, R.R.B., Gaina, C., Golynsky, S.,
Kucks, R., Lühr, H., Milligan, P., Mogren, S., Müller, D., Olesen, O., Pilkington, M.,
Saltus, R., Schreckenberger, B., Thébault, E., Caratori Tontini, F., 2009. EMAG2: A
2-arc-minute resolution Earth Magnetic Anomaly Grid compiled from satellite,
airborne and marine magnetic measurements. Geochemistry, Geophysics,
Geosystems 10 (Q08005). doi:10.1029/2009GC002471.
Maus, S., Sazonova, T., Hemant, K., Fairhead, J.D., Ravat, D., 2007. National
geophysical data center candidate for the world digital magnetic anomaly
map. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 8 (Q06017). doi:10.1029/
2007GC001643.
McNutt, M., 1979. Compensation of oceanic topography: an application of the
response function technique to the Surveyor area. Journal of Geophysical
Research 84 (B13), 7589–7598.
Meer, P., Georgescu, B., 2001. Edge detection with embedded confidence. IEEE
Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 23 (12), 1351–1365.
Meshref, W.M., 1990. Tectonic Framework. In: Said, R. (Ed.), The Geology of Egypt.
A.A. Balkema Publishers, Rotterdam, Netherlands, pp. 113–156.
Milbury, A.E.C., Smrekar, S.E., Raymond, C.A., Schubert, G., 2007. Lithospheric
structure in the east region of Mars’dichotomy boundary. Planetary and Space
Science 55 (3), 280–288.
Morris, K., 1991. Using knowledge-base rules to map the three-dimensional nature
of geologic features. Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing 57 (9),
1209–1216.
Moustafa, A.R., 1997. Controls on the development and evolution of transfer zones:
the influence of basement structure and sedimentary thickness in the Suez rift
and Red Sea. Journal of Structural Geology 19 (6), 755–768.
Neev, D., 1977. The Pelusium Line–a major transcontinental shear. Tectonophysics
38 (3-4), T1–T8.
Neev, D., Hall, J.K., Saul, J.M., 1982. The Pelusium Megashear System across Africa
and associated lineament swarms. Journal of Geophysical Research 87 (B2),
1015–1030.
National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC), 2009. US Geological Survey, http://
neic.usgs.gov. (Accessed 17 June 2009).
Oakey, G., 1994. A structural fabric defined by topographic lineaments: Correlation
with Tertiary deformation of Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg Islands, Canadian
Arctic. Journal of Geophysical Research 99 (B10), 0148–0227.
Omar, G.I., Steckler, M.S., 1995. Fission-track evidence on the initial opening of the
Red Sea: two pulses, no propagation. Science 270 (5240), 1341–1344.
Prautzsch, H., Boehm, W., Paluszny, M., 2002. Bézier and B-Spline Techniques.
Springer-Verlag, New York.
Prechtel, N., 2000. Operational Analytical Hill Shading within an Advanced Image
Processing System. In: Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on High Mountain
Cartography, Kartographische Bausteine 18. Technische Universität Dresden,
Dresden, pp. 85–98.
Rowan, L.C., Bowers, T.L., 1995. Analysis of linear features mapped in Landsat
thematic mapper and side-looking airborne radar images of the Reno 1 degree
by 2 degree Quadrangles, Nevada and California; implications for mineral
resource studies. Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing 61 (6), 749–
759.
Rowland, J.V., Sibson, R.H., 2004. Structural controls on hydrothermal flow in a
segmented rift system, Taupo Volcanic Zone, New Zealand. Geofluids 4 (4), 259–
283.
Salem, A., Furuya, S., Aboud, E., Elawadi, E., Jotaki, H, Ushijima, K., 2005. Subsurface
structural mapping using gravity data of Hohi Geothermal Area, Central
Kyushu, Japan. Proceedings World Geothermal Congress, Antalya, Turkey, on
CD-ROM.
Sandwell, D.T., Smith, W.H.F., 1997. Marine gravity anomaly from Geosat and ERS-1
satellite altimetry. Journal of Geophysical Research 102, 10039-10050. Data is
available at http://topex.ucsd.edu/cgi-bin/get_data.cgi. (Accessed 12 June
2009).
Sibson, R.H., 1986a. Earthquakes and lineament infrastructure. Philosophical
Transactions of the Royal Society, London A 317 (1539), 63–79.
Sibson, R.H., 1986b. Brecciation processes in fault zones; inferences from
earthquake rupturing. Pure Applied Geophysics 124 (1-2), 159–175.
Smith, W.H.F., Sandwell, D.T., 1994. Bathymetric prediction from dense satellite
altimetry and sparse shipboard bathymetry. Journal of Geophysical Research 99
(B11), 21803–21824.
Stern, R.J., 1985. The Najd Fault System, Saudi Arabia and Egypt: a Late Precambrian
rift system? Tectonics 4 (5), 497–511.
Süzen, M.L., Toprak, V., 1998. Filtering of satellite images in geological lineament
analyses: an application to a fault zone in Central Turkey. International Journal
of Remote Sensing 19 (6), 1101–1114.
Tripathi, N., Gokhale, K., Siddiqu, M., 2000. Directional morphological image
transforms for lineament extraction from remotely sensed images.
International Journal of Remote Sensing 21 (17), 3281–3292.
Unrug, R., 1997. Rodinia to Gondwana; the geodynamic map of Gondwana
supercontinent assembly. GSA Today 7 (1), 1–6.
Warner, T.A., 1997. Integration of remotely sensed geobotanical and structural
methods for hydrocarbon exploration in West-central West Virginia. Final
report for DOE-sponsored Research Contract DE-FG21-95MC32159.
Morgantown, WV, USA, 10 p.
Yoëli, P., 1967. The mechanisation of analytical hill shading. The Cartographic
Journal 4 (2), 82–88.
Younes, A., McClay, K., 1998. Role of basement fabric on Miocene rifting in the Gulf
of Suez–Red Sea. In: Proc. 14th Petroleum Conference, October Exploration Vol.
1. Egyptian General Petroleum Corporation, Cairo, pp. 35–50.
Zhou, X., Dorrer, E., 1995. An Adaptive Algorithm of Shaded-Relief Images from
DEMs Based on Wavelet Transforms. Digital Photogrammetry and Remote
Sensing ’95, SPIE Proceedings Series 2646, 212–24.
Ziegler, P.A., Roure, F., 1999. Petroleum systems of Alpine-Mediterranean foldbelts
and basins, in: Durand, B., Jolivet, L., Horváth, F., Séranne, M. (ed.), The
Mediterranean Basins: Tertiary extension within the Alpine orogen. Geological
Society, London, Special Publications 156, pp. 517–540.