Fractal analysis of geochemical landscapes using scaling noise model

• Fractal nature of geochemical landscapes is investigated using 1/f scaling noise.
• Scaling filtering method is used to simulate fractal geochemical landscape.
• Fractal mapping method is presented to recognize the geochemical anomalies.

Fractal/multifractal concepts have facilitated the description and analysis of complex geochemical data in both mineral exploration and environmental studies. Scaling (1/fβ) noise has been ubiquitously found in geosciences but lack in-depth studies for geochemical distribution pattern in mineral exploration. In the present paper, the 1/f scaling natures of geochemical landscapes are investigated using spectral method through geochemical samples in stream sediments from Nanling Range, China. The results show explicit differences in scaling exponent (β) between major elements and trace elements, between highly enriched elements (e.g., W, Sn, Mo and Bi) and relatively low enriched elements (e.g., Au, Ag and Cu), where β measures the strength of persistence (or the degree of roughness) of geochemical landscapes. Furthermore, fractal mapping of geochemical patterns (W and Sn element) is undertaken to reveal the spatial association between local fractal dimension and mineralization. The finding is that most of the W and Sn deposits in study area exhibit rough geochemical patterns with fractal dimension ranging from 2.3 and 2.7 (2.6 ≤ β ≤ 3.4). We proposed to recognize the complex geochemical anomalies containing both stochastic (irregular) and deterministic (regular) components from fractal noise perspective.