TA3201 Geostatistics for Resources Modeling

Concept and Calculation of

Experimental Variogram
Experimental variogram is calculated using a simple formula, i.e.
the difference of average between two sample points with a certain
distance.

The difference might be either <0 or >0, in order to situate that the
difference of average always be >0, then the calculation is based
on quadratic difference.

Delfiner defined that: the quadratic difference is assummed as

mathematical expectation of [Z(xi) – Z(xi+h)], then the variogram is
defined as:
(h) = ½ E[{Z(xi) – Z(xi+h)}2]
= ½ Var[Z(xi) – Z(xi+h)]

where: (h) = variogram

Var = variance
From the previous function, practically the experimental variogram is
calculated using formula: h

x1 x2 x3 x4 x5
N

 i
z  x   z  x ih 2

 h  
2h
i 1
Searching on pairs of data in experimental variogram
2N( h ) calculation

where: (h) = variogram for particular direction of distance h

h = 1d, 2d, 3d, 4d (d = average spacing of data points)
z(xi) = data value on point xi
z(xi+h) = data value on point separated by h from xi
N(h) = number of data pairs
As for example, Au grade (ppm) is known along the quartz vein with
sampling spacing (d) of 2 m in regular:

grade: 7 9 8 10 9 11 11 13 11 12 16 12 10 11 10 12 15 ppm
                
location: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Variogram values in each lag distance:
(2) 
7  9   9  8   8  10   10  9   ......  10  12  12  15
2 2 2 2 2 2
ppm
2

2 x16
= (4+1+4+1+4+0+4+4+1+16+16+4+1+1+4+9) / 216 = 74/32 = 2.31 ppm2
(4) = (1+1+1+1+4+4+0+1+25+0+36+1+0+1+25) / 215 = 101/30 = 3.36 ppm2
(6) = (9+0+9+1+16+0+1+9+1+4+25+4+4+16) / 214 = 99/28 = 3.54 ppm2
(8) = (4+4+9+9+4+1+25+1+1+1+25+0+16) / 213 = 100/26 = 3.85 ppm2
(10) = (16+4+25+1+9+25+1+9+0+4+16+9) / 212 = 119/24 = 4.96 ppm2
(12) = (16+16+9+4+49+1+1+4+1+0+1) / 211 = 102/22 = 4.64 ppm2
(14) = (25+4+16+25+9+1+0+9+1+9) / 210 = 99/20 = 4.95 ppm2
(16) = (16+9+64+4+1+0+1+1+16) / 29 = 112/18 = 6.22 ppm2
(18) = (25+49+16+0+4+1+1+4) / 28 = 100/16 = 6.25 ppm2
(20) = (81+9+4+1+1+1+16) / 27 = 113/14 = 8.07 ppm2
(22) = (25+1+9+0+9+16) / 26 = 60/12 = 5.00 ppm2
(24) = (9+4+4+4+36) / 25 = 57/10 = 5.70 ppm2
 Experimental variogram
8 Population variance Search Area

4 h
α/2
2 α/2
Δh

0 θ
0 4 8 12 16 20 24
x0
Distance, h (m)

Experimental variogram and population Direction of variogram (), searching

variance (horizontal dotted line shows area with angle tolerance (  /2) and
value of 5,25 ppm2) distance tolerance (h  ∆h), modified
(h)
from David (1977)

1h 2h 3h 4h 5h 6h 7h h