Page 11 - MATLAB Recipes for Earth Sciences

1 Data Analysis in Earth Sciences

1.1 Introduction

Earth sciences include all disciplines that are related to our planet Earth.
Earth scientists make observations and gather data, they formulate and test
hypotheses on the forces that have operated in a certain region in order to
create its structure. They also make predictions about future changes of the
planet. All these steps in exploring the system Earth include the acquisition
and analysis of numerical data. An earth scientist needs a solid knowledge in
statistical and numerical methods to analyze these data, as well as the ability
to use suitable software packages on a computer.
This book introduces some of the most important methods of data analy-
sis in earth sciences by means of MATLAB examples. The examples can
be used as recipes for the analysis of the reader·s real data after learn-
ing their application on synthetic data. The introductory Chapter 1 deals
with data acquisition (Chapter 1.2), the expected data types (Chapter 1.3)

and the suitable methods for analyzing data in the field of earth sciences

(Chapter 1.4). Therefore, we first explore the characteristics of a typical data
set. Subsequently, we proceed to investigate the various ways of analyzing
data with MATLAB.

1.2 Collecting Data

Data sets in earth sciences have a very limited sample size. They also con-
tain a significant amount of uncertainties. Such data sets are typically used

to describe rather large natural phenomena such as a granite body, a large
landslide or a widespread sedimentary unit. The methods described in this
book help in finding a way of predicting the characteristics of a larger pop-

ulation from the collected samples (Fig 1.1). In this context, a proper sam-

pling strategy is the first step towards obtaining a good data set. The devel-

opment of a successful strategy for field sampling includes decisions on