Evaluation of MSS Landsat imagery over central Spain

Twenty four MSS Landsat I and II images have been selected to determine the most persistent lineaments within a given area in Central Spain. This area comprises four different geotectonic units: the Hercynian basement, an intermediate-type Alpine chain and two undeformed Tertiary basins. Lineaments appear to be well established in the Iberian Peninsula and their general pattern in good accordance with the faults system. Some of them correspond to simple or composite linears that extend over the entire peninsula, and must affect the whole crust. A generalized late-Hercynian fracture event is admitted to be the origin of these linears and their extension into the post-Hercynian areas is related to an Alpine reactivation. The main lineament directions are NS, N20, N70, N120 and N160. These trends seem to correlate well with arches and troughs inferred from gravimetric and aeromagnetic surveys carried out over both Tertiary basins.BPCG, Sn, W mineralizations within the Hercynian basement occur in relation to quartz and baryte dykes trending N20, N70, and N120.