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Cristo Redentor Pass, Argentina
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Cusiana, Colombia
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Growing trade between Argentina and Chile is overwhelming the main road link between the two countries, which
runs through the Cristo Redentor mountain pass (See first photo on the left). For an IDB-financed study of the feasibility of
upgrading and paving passes at 11 other points along the border, engineers needed a precise, detailed image of the region's
geologic features. Taking aerial photographs of such a vast area would have been prohibitively expensive and time-consuming.
Instead, consultants at the Berger Group, a U.S.-based engineering firm, purchased Landsat images processed with "false colors"
that reveal vegetation types, watershed locations and other features used to identify optimum road locations and conduct
environmental impact assessments. The ability to bring out contrasts in the Earth's lithology makes infrared satellite imagery
useful in oil exploration as well. Viewed from the air, the portion of Colombian jungle would appear as a blue-green haze (See
second photo left). After processing, this infrared satellite image "sees through" the haze and brings into sharp focus a variety of
geological features that scientists can label as faults or folds in the Earth's crust-features that often indicate petroleum deposits.
Combined with seismic tests and other data, these maps are used to pick promising drilling sites.
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