OICC Press Iranian Journal of Earth Sciences 2228-785X 17 3 2025 07 10 Application of Stepwise Fractal Modeling for Interpretation of Remote Sensing data, NE Iran 10.57647/j.ijes.2025.16799 EN Hassan Saadati Department of Geosciences, SR.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Peyman Afzal Department of Petroleum and Mining Engineering, ST.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Habibollah Torshizian Department of Geology, Ma.C., Islamic Azad University, Mashhad, Iran Ali Solgi Department of Geosciences, SR.C., Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran Journal Article 2025 07 10 Remote sensing data is one of the common tools for recognition and separation index minerals of alteration zones especially clay minerals. In this study, an important clay mineral as named hectorite was detected by Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) method based on ASTER data in a large region of NE Iran for reconnaissance of lithium ores. For this purpose, a proposed stepwise fractal modeling was used for determination and separation of the pixels with high intensity which can be shown the hectorite’s zones. This process is used in three steps for reduction of zone’s areas and extracted main hectorite zones. Based on results obtained by the stepwise fractal modeling in this region, the main anomalous zones for hectorite are located in the southern and SE parts of this region. Finally, the results derived via the stepwise fractal modeling were correlated with XRD data and field observations of the related clay minerals.