Comparative Studies on the Extraction of Lineaments and Its Variability Based on an Improved Line Segment Tracking Method—Taking the Gaosong Ore Field in the Gejiu Gejiu Tin Ore Deposit as an Example

Remote sensing technology is widely used in the application of the extraction of lineaments in geological research. However, most of the current traditional lineament extraction methods are based on edge detection technology using a digital filter to extract the mitochondrial features in the image. These previously used algorithms are generally unable to extract the mitochondrial features in the shadow area on the mountain and the area parallel to the direction of the solar incident angle. In this paper, we have improved the STA algorithm (Line Segment Tracking method). The line segmentation and connection methods were firstly proposed, and then 32 search directions were set with one pixel as the center to find the best continuity direction of the lineament. A threshold was then set in this direction to determine whether it was a line element. Finally, line elements were connected into lineaments for further lineament interpretation. The lineament data from three different directions were collected in the Gaosong ore field in the Gejiu mining area, namely at the first place the traditional Canny algorithm, then the improved line segment tracking method, and finally the field measurement. The coefficients of the three-type lineament variations were compared by calculating the lineaments’ strength and their density attributes. It shows that the lineament variability extracted based on the improved line segment tracking method is closer to the measured lineament variability. The results show that the lineaments extracted by the improved algorithm are closer to the measured data. The improved algorithm has higher precision than the traditional Canny algorithm. More realistic and comprehensive lineaments can be attained by using the improved method to extract lineaments in the mining area, which is helpful to the study of the geology of the mining area and helps to construct a more accurate structure model to serve the needs of the mine production.