Abstract: In this study a novel alternative synthesis methodology is presented, employing inexpensive multi-spectral Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper (ETM+) data to delineate vegetation ano-malies potentially related to a hydrothermal alteration zone. Therefore, the authors employed ETM+ data of the Zhaoyuan gold deposits in summer to analyze and to determine if anomalies could be mapped using this assumption. To accomplish this, the process includes (1)data preparation, (2)vegetation indices (Veg. Index,TNDVI,SQRT(IR/R),NDVI,IR/R etc. ) and band ratios indices, (3)principal component analysis(PCA), (4)unsupervised classification and (5)supervised classification. The results clearly delineated several areas of vegetation anomalies related to the Zhaoyuan gold deposits, Shandong Province. Field checking of other areas, mapped as vegetation anomalies, also revealed several hydrothermal alteration zones. The results showed that extracting vegetation anomalies information using alternative synthesis methodology from ETM+ data is useful.

Key words: vegetation anomalies, remote sensing exploration, Zhaoyuan gold deposits, Landsat ETM+