The effect of estimation methods on fractal modeling for anomalies’ detection in the Irankuh area, Central Iran

This study aims to recognize effect of Ordinary Kriging (OK) and Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) estimation methods for separation of geochemical anomalies based on soil samples using Concentration-Area (C-A) fractal model in Irankuh area, central Iran. Variograms and anisotropic ellipsoid were generated for the Pb and Zn distribution. Thresholds values from the C-A log-log plots based on the estimation methods revealed the presence of various geochemical anomalies within estimation variances which were compared in both methods. The comparison among the estimation variances for different geochemical anomalies based on the C-A fractal model indicated that the estimation variance is less in the OK method especially for extremely and highly Zn-Pb anomalies. The estimated variances for different Zn anomalies via OK and C-A fractal method are lower than fractal modeling obtained by IDW estimation. However, extremely and highly Pb anomalies due to OK method have estimation variances lower than IDW method. Based on the results, main Zn and Pb anomalies are situated in the NW part of the area.