Remote detection of geochemical soil anomalies

This paper describes a preliminary experiment that was made to compare the spectral reflectance from trees growing in soil over a mineral deposit with reflectance from trees of the same species growing in a nearby unmineralized area. Although the measurements were made on a relatively small number of trees, some significant differences were obtained and the over-all results are encouraging enough to warrant additional studies. Preliminary results suggest that measurement of spectral reflectance may become a dramatic new way of detecting geochemical soil anomalies by remote means in tree-covered areas.