Gearchaeological remote sensing in the Sud Lípez mining district, polymetallic belt, Bolivia

J.P. DEROIN, F. TEREYGEOL, P. CRUZ E I. GUILLOT

Viena

Congreso; EGU General Assembly; 2011

European Geosciences Union

New investigations have been carried out in the frame of a joined French-Argentine project dealing with the mineral resources and the metal production in the Andean plateau from the 10th to the 18th century. Geoarchaeology of the Sud Lípez, southern Bolivia, is revisited using multisource remote sensing data including archive data from the 1960’s and recent very high resolution data simultaneously acquired with field work. The detailed geological mapping of the area is allowed by the field survey complemented by the multispectral and very high resolution (VHR) data. The emphasis is on integrating all the geological features such as morphologies, petrology of the volcanics, lithology of the volcano-sedimentary rocks, regional and local faulting, veins, hydrothermally altered rocks, etc. GeoEye-1, that features the most advanced technology ever used in a civilian remote-sensing system, allows the detailed mapping of the archaeological remains that are particularly numerous at San Antonio de Lípez, with shallow pits, shafts connected in depth with adits, and large slag areas. Particularly, the plan of three old miner’s villages has been drawn and its accuracy has been evaluated.