Journal of Geochemical Exploration 164 (2016) 1–2
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Journal of Geochemical Exploration
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/gexplo
Preface
Geoinformatics in Applied Geochemistry
The Journal of Geochemical Exploration (JGE) is “dedicated to the
publication of research studies that cover new developments in the ap-
plication of analytical geochemistry and geoinformatics” (http://
www.journals.elsevier.com/journal-of-geochemical-exploration). In
the field of applied geochemistry, geoinformatics is widely and various-
ly used to manage, visualize, analyze and interpret geographically-
referenced (or spatial) geochemical data in order to derive
geoinformation (i.e., geographic information) of interest; that is, to rec-
ognize and map geochemical anomalies to support mineral exploration
or monitoring environmental contamination. This special issue, a collec-
tion of two review papers and 12 research papers, documents current
progress and examples of the applications of geoinformatics to geo-
chemical exploration and environmental studies.
The first two papers are about analysis of different earth systems. The
first paper “Analysis of complex regional databases and their support in
the identification of background/baseline compositional facies in
groundwater investigation: developments and application examples”,
by Nisi et al., presents applications of (i) a repository where geochemical
data of natural media, including groundwater systems, collected in a re-
gional territory are stored and (ii) robust methods, linked to the compo-
sitional approach, as efficient ways to understand how natural and
anthropogenic processes operate on a regional scale. The next paper
“Acquisition of temporal-spatial geochemical information in ore-
forming and carbon-dioxide sequestration systems: computational sim-
ulation approach”, by Zhao et al., is relevant to understanding ore-
forming processes in hydrothermal systems, and the proposed compu-
tational simulation approach facilitates and guides the geoinformation
acquisition procedure.
The next two papers review the state-of-art of different fields of nu-
merical analysis that have become relevant to applied geochemistry in
the last three decades or so. The paper “Spatial analysis of compositional
data: a historical review”, by Pawlowsky-Glahn and Egozcue, empha-
sizes that compositional data should be transformed into a standard
geostatistical problem to which known procedures can be applied. The
next paper “Fractal/multifractal modeling of geochemical data: a re-
view”, by Zuo and Wang, emphasizes that future fractal/multifractal
studies should focus on how to distinguish between true anomalies as-
sociated with mineralization from false anomalies due to other factors.
The next two papers are fractal/multifractal studies focusing on as-
pects different from what Zuo and Wang pointed out. In the paper “Spa-
tial pattern and dynamic control for mineralization in the Pulang
porphyry copper deposit, Yunnan, SW China: perspective from fractal
analysis”, by Liu et al., various fractal indices, including the exponent
E-mail addresses: zrguang@cug.edu.cn (R. Zuo), ejmcarranza@gmail.com (J. Carranza).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gexplo.2016.03.003
0375-6742/© 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.
of lacunarity, multifractal spectrum, correlation dimension and Hurst
exponent, were applied to characterize the spatial distribution of a
metal of interest in drillcores from an ore deposit, with the aim of find-
ing correlations between spatial patterns of metals and their dynamic
drives. The other paper “Identifying geochemical anomalies associated
with Au–Cu mineralization using multifractal and artificial neural net-
work models in the Ningqiang district, Shaanxi, China”, by Zhao et al.,
shows that the integrated methods used (i.e., factor analysis, spec-
trum-area multifractal and artificial neural network) are efficient in
identifying targets for further exploration of mineral resources.
The following three papers describe novel methods of geochemical
anomaly mapping. The paper “Application of improved bi-dimensional
empirical mode decomposition (BEMD) based on Perona–Malik to
identify copper anomaly association in the southwestern Fujian
(China)”, by Xu et al., demonstrates that results obtained by the pro-
posed hybrid method are consistent with results obtained by the spec-
trum-area multifractal model, suggesting that the former is a powerful
tool for identifying geochemical anomalies. The next paper “Application
of ant colony algorithm to geochemical anomaly detection”, by Chen
and An, demonstrates that the proposed method does not require the
assumption that geochemical data satisfy a particular distribution but
it can properly identify geochemical anomalies. The next paper “An ex-
tended local gap statistic for identifying geochemical anomalies”, by
Wang and Zuo, demonstrates that the proposed hybrid method helps
not only identify local anomalies but also considers uncertainty of the
derived threshold, such that classification of some locations as anoma-
lous is rejected if the computed probability of being background is larger
than the predefined one.
The next two papers involve integration of geochemical and other
types of spatial data for mineral potential mapping. The paper “Data-
driven logistic-based weighting of geochemical and geological evidence
layers in mineral prospectivity mapping”, by Yousefi and Nykänen,
demonstrates the assignment of continuous weights to geochemical
and geological evidence layers without discretization of spatial evidence
values and without using the locations of known mineral occurrences.
The next paper “Mapping of Fe mineral potential by spatially weighted
principal component analysis in the eastern Tianshan mineral district,
China”, by Zhao et al., demonstrates that using a geographically based
spatially weighting factor enhances low-variance geoinformation and
improves the interpretability of individual geo-processes.
The last three papers are concerned with 3D analysis geochemical
and other types of spatial data for subsurface mineral exploration. In
the paper “Three-dimensional geochemical patterns of regolith over a
concealed gold deposit revealed by overburden drilling in desert ter-
rains of northwestern China”, by Zhang et al., geochemical data collect-
ed by air reverse circulation drilling were used to construct 3D
distribution patterns of ore elements in the regolith in order to
2 Preface
investigate geochemical migration mechanisms. The paper
“Typomorphic characteristics of pyrite: criteria for 3D exploration
targeting in the Xishan gold deposit, China”, by Wang et al., shows
that (i) a 3D trend model of pyrite typomorphic characteristics is consis-
tent with a 3D model of gold orebody, (ii) 3D modeling of pyrite
typomorphic characteristics using discrete smooth interpolation is use-
ful for exploration targeting in the subsurface, and (iii) the
concentration-volume fractal model is useful for deriving 3D thermo-
electric and temperature models, from which orebody volumes can be
obtained although these volumes cannot be used to estimate metal re-
sources because of the use of sparse data in discrete smooth interpola-
tion. The last paper “3D modeling of the porphyry-related
Dawangding gold deposit in south China: implications for ore genesis
and resources evaluation”, by Liu et al., demonstrates that 3D modeling
of the shape of orebodies and their grade distribution is important for
understanding and evaluating ore deposits.
We thank B. De Vivo and R.A. Ayuso (Editors-in-Chief of JGE) for
accepting to publish this collection of papers in a special issue of JGE.
We also thank journal manager Arnold Justus Stanly and special issue
manager Yanpin Hou for assistance in various aspects of this special
issue publication. We thank all the authors for their contributions,
even to those whose manuscripts were not acceptable. We are extreme-
ly grateful to the following individuals, some of who have reviewed
more than one paper (as indicated below by numbers in parenthesis),
for their unselfish time and effort to check quality of the papers submit-
ted and finally included this special issue: Peyman Afzal, Laurent
Ailleres (2), Khaled Ali, Emmanuel Arhin, Pouran Behnia, Deon de
Bruin, Antonella Buccianti (3), Yongqing Chen, Guoxiang Chi, David
Cohen, Alecos Demetriades, Xavier Emery, Mark Gettings, Reza
Ghavami-Riabi, Mario Goncalves (2), Eric Grunsky (2), Pablo Gumiel,
Simon Harder Holm Nielsen, Jeff Harris, Paul Harris, Karel Hron (3),
Michel Jébrak, Liangming Liu, Gregor Alan Partington, Vera
Pawlowsky-Glahn, Andrew Rate, A Jorge Sousa, Wenlei Wang (2), Fan
Xiao (2), Deyi Xu, Seong-Taek Yun, Chongbin Zhao, Mansour Ziaii (2).
Renguang Zuo
State Key Laboratory of Geological Processes and Mineral Resources, China
University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
E-mail address: zrguang@cug.edu.cn
John Carranza
James Cook University, Townsville, Queensland, Australia
State University of Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
E-mail address: ejmcarranza@gmail.com