Remote Sensing Contribution to The Identification of Potential Geothermal Deposits: A Case Study of The Moroccan Sahara

Geothermal energy refers to any heat stored, naturally, in the earth's crust and is considered as renewable, ecological, universal and sustainable energy. In Morocco, geothermal energy is not yet exploited, neither considered, to support the institutional energy mainly focused on solar and wind energy. However, modest researches and some interventions related to geothermal resources were led and conducted by few Moroccan university. Remote sensing is a preliminary prospection tool for geothermal research allowing to face the lack of valuable data constraint and also the absence of officially credible data which will allow us to successfully complete our study. The main purpose of this research is to locate potential geothermal resources in the Moroccan Sahara using remote sensing and geospatial technologies. A set of satellite images (MODIS, ASTER and Landsat) were used and were completely processed and analyzed. Furthermore, significant indices were calculated from satellite images to prospect for potential deposits, namely diurnal and nocturnal surface temperature, hydrothermal alteration indices and lineaments density layer. This study allowed us to detect nocturnal thermal anomalies in the locality of Tichla. The statistical analysis showed a strong correlation between the intensities of the different indices in the prospected area of Tichla. Therefore, this significant concordance leads us to conclude that this locality has a strong potential for geothermal reservoirs. important tool for the preliminary identification of potential geothermal energy deposits. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.