Singularity-based geo-information extraction for characterizing mineralization-associated geological processes in Gejiu mineral district, China

Abstract

Singularity theory is an efficient way to quantify spatial variations of physical/chemical properties caused by geological processes. This study demonstrates several applications of singularity-based geo-information extraction. Choosing hydrothermal mineralization in Gejiu mineral district, China as an example, different singularity index estimation methods are employed to analyze controlling factors of the mineralization. At the end, this study introduces a fault-oriented singularity index estimation method. In comparison with the original singularity index, the new singularity index estimation method is able to describe anisotropy of geochemical/geophysical properties; meanwhile, controlling effects of fault activities on the hydrothermal mineralization can be quantified accordingly.