Fractal and Multifractal Characteristics of Lineaments in the Qianhe Graben and Its Tectonic Significance Using Remote Sensing Images

Abstract

The distribution and characteristics of geological lineaments in areas with active faulting are vital for providing a basis for regional tectonic identification and analyzing the tectonic significance. Here, we extracted the lineaments in the Qianhe Graben, an active mountainous area on the southwest margin of Ordos Block, China, by using the tensor voting algorithm after comparing them with the segment tracing algorithm (STA) and LINE algorithm in PCI Geomatica Software. The main results show that (1) the lineaments in this area are mostly induced by the active fault events with the main trending of NW–SE, (2) the box dimensions of all lineaments, NW–SE trending lineaments, and NE–SW trending lineaments are 1.60, 1.48, and 1.44 (R2 > 0.9), respectively, indicating that the faults exhibit statistical self-similarity, and (3) the lineaments have multifractal characteristics according to the mass index τ(q), generalized fractal dimension D(q), fractal width (Δα = 2.25), fractal spectrum shape (f(α) is a unimodal left-hook curve), and spectrum width (Δf = 1.21). These results are related to the tectonic activity in this area, where a higher tectonic activity leads to more lineaments being produced and a higher fractal dimension. All of these results suggest that such insights can be beneficial for providing potential targets in reconstructing the tectonic structure of the area and trends of plate movement.