Paper No. 113-3 ROTATION STATISTICS FOR GEOLOGIC DATA



Paper No. 113-3
Authors will be present from: 9:00 to 11:00 AM, and 5:00 to 6:30 PM

ROTATION STATISTICS FOR GEOLOGIC DATA


DAVIS, Joshua R., Dept. of Mathematics, Carleton College, Northfield, MN 55057, jdavis@carleton.edu, TITUS, Sarah, Dept. of Geology, Carleton College, 1 North College St, Northfield, MN 55057, and TIKOFF, Basil, Department of Geoscience, University of Wisconsin, 1215 W Dayton St, Madison, WI 53706
Geologic data -- directions, orientations, ellipsoids, tensors, etc. -- are often geometric in nature. Analysis of such data requires methods beyond those taught in elementary statistics courses. In particular, rotation statistics is required for the analysis of three-dimensional orientational data such as foliation-lineation pairs, slickensides, and paleomagnetic rotations. In this presentation, we survey a variety of rotation statistics techniques and apply them to geological problems.

We describe a novel system for visualizing rotational data in three dimensions. In contrast to two-dimensional plots, which necessarily obscure relationships among rotational data, our plot has a better chance of revealing important trends such as clusters and outliers. The plot has an equal-volume property and thus represents densities accurately. We demonstrate Kamb contouring of rotational data.

We compare several methods for quantifying the mean, spread, and anisotropy of spread of a set of rotational data. We also summarize techniques for regression and cluster analysis. These tools are applied to paleomagnetic data from the Troodos ophiolite, Cyprus.

Finally, we describe hypothesis testing and the construction of confidence/credible regions. We compare bootstrapping and Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) approaches. These techniques are applied to a foliation-lineation dataset from the western Idaho shear zone, USA.

Session No. 113--Booth# DP3

T57. Digital Geology Sandpit II (Digital Posters)
Monday, 20 October 2014: 9:00 AM-6:30 PM
Vancouver Convention Centre-West Exhibition Hall C
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 46, No. 6, p.289
© Copyright 2014 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.
See more of: Digital Geology Sandpit II (Digital Posters)
See more of: Topical Sessions
<< Previous Abstract | Next Abstract >>