A Fast Independent Component Analysis Algorithm for Geochemical Anomaly Detection and Its Application to Soil Geochemistry Data Processing

A fast independent component analysis algorithm (FICAA) is introduced to process geochemical data for anomaly detection. In geochemical data processing, the geological significance of separated geochemical elements must be explicit. This requires that correlation coefficients be used to overcome the limitation of indeterminacy for the sequences of decomposed signals by the FICAA, so that the sequences of the decomposed signals can be correctly reflected. Meanwhile, the problem of indeterminacy in the scaling of the decomposed signals by the FICAA can be solved by the cumulative frequency method (CFM). To classify surface geochemical samples into true anomalies and false anomalies, assays of the 1 : 10 000 soil geochemical data in the area of Dachaidan in the Qinghai province of China are processed. The CFM and FICAA are used to detect the anomalies of Cu and Au. The results of this research demonstrate that the FICAA can demultiplex the mixed signals and achieve results similar to actual mineralization when 85%, 95%, and 98% are chosen as three levels of anomaly delineation. However, the traditional CFM failed to produce realistic results and has no significant use for prospecting indication. It is shown that application of the FICAA to geochemical data processing is effective.