Great Basin, Railroad Valley, Nevada

The first-year study in Railroad Valley, conducted in 1984, consisted of a regional lineament evaluation made from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) imagery. Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery and regional soil-gas probe sampling to identify areas of significant hydrocarbon seepage (Jones, et al. 1985). Railroad Valley was chosen for this research study because of the excellent surface expression of structural features. 

An alternative approach to contour maps is to generate a colour compositional dot map (Fig. 5-37), in which the size of each dot is proportional to the ethane magnitude and the colour is selected from the Pixler ratio plot (Fig. 5-37, inset, upper left). 

Fracture Systems Identifiable from Air Photos and Remote Sensing Imagery 

This study in Railroad Valley demonstrates a unique surface geochemical expression of one particular lineament, herein named the Currant Lineament, which appears to have a dramatic effect on the commercial possibilities for a subsurface oil deposit. The noncommercial Currant No. 1 well is located just to the southeast of a NE-SW linear feature, which crosses the valley through the town of Currant in northern part of Railroad Valley. The location of this lineament is obvious on all of the regional remote-sensing products. Although the lineament is dramatically expressed both northeast and southwest of Currant, it is not as obvious in the centre of the study area. Even more detailed aerial 

Mapped Photolinears, Currant Detail Area, Railroad Valley, Nye County, Nevada TZ  

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