Abstract

Digitally processed Landsat imagery offers geologists a new perspective for detecting and assessing active faults in the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain. Many known active faults in and around Houston, such as those which periodically disrupt the Katy Freeway and the runway at Ellington Air Force Base, appear on Landsat imagery as discrete linear features. Many other linear features correlate with the surface projection of down-to-the-basin growth faults mapped in the subsurface. Several linear features observed do not appear to correlate with any mapped features. Investigations of these features using surface and subsurface data could reveal incipient or potentially active faults which may constitute geologic hazards as urban growth and development continue.

Many lineaments are marked by geomorphic features. Some lineaments are marked by small-scale disruption of agricultural and cultural patterns. Still others appear as lines of vegetation or changes in tone across sharp linear boundaries that may reflect differences in soil moisture within or on either side of a fracture system. Each linear feature detected on space or aircraft imagery must be carefully investigated before it is designated a fault, because its recognition as such can both guide future development and adversely affect current property values.