A method for extracting anomaly map of Au and As using combination of U-statistic and Euclidean distance methods in Susanvar district, Iran

Abstract

Quantitative descriptions of geochemical patterns and providing geochemical anomaly map are important in applied geochemistry. Several statistical methodologies are presented in order to identify and separate geochemical anomalies. The U-statistic method is one of the most important structural methods and is a kind of weighted mean that surrounding points of samples are considered in U value determination. However, it is able to separate the different anomalies based on only one variable. The main aim of the presented study is development of this method in a multivariate mode. For this purpose, U-statistic method should be combined with a multivariate method which devotes a new value to each sample based on several variables. Therefore, at the first step, the optimum p is calculated in p-norm distance and then U-statistic method is applied on p-norm distance values of the samples because p-norm distance is calculated based on several variables. This method is a combination of efficient U-statistic method and p-norm distance and is used for the first time in this research. Results show that p-norm distance of p=2 (Euclidean distance) in the case of a fact that Au and As can be considered optimized p-norm distance with the lowest error. The samples indicated by the combination of these methods as anomalous are more regular, less dispersed and more accurate than using just the U-statistic or other nonstructural methods such as Mahalanobis distance. Also it was observed that the combination results are closely associated with the defined Au ore indication within the studied area. Finally, univariate and bivariate geochemical anomaly maps are provided for Au and As, which have been respectively prepared using U-statistic and its combination with Euclidean distance method.