Quantitative discrimination between magmatic units of the singhbhum granite

Abstract

The weight-percent values of four mineralogic variables (quartz, K feldspar, color index, and muscovite) for 10 sets of granitic rocks (20–50 samples in each set) from magmatic units of the Singhbhum granite were used for (1) computation of the Mahalanobis' generalized distance functions (D²) between all pairs of the 10 sets, (2) testing significance of the difference between the multivariate means, and (3) computation of the linear discriminant functions between all possible pairs of the sets. The 10 data sets are for six magmatic units which belong to three successive but closely related phases of emplacement. The multivariate means for all sets are significantly different except for those between two of the sets of phase I. Cluster analysis on the basis of the D² values enables the 10 sets to be placed into four distinct groups. Group A includes two subgroups, one of which consists of two sets representing typical members of phase I; the other subgroup includes two sets which are typical of phase II. Group B includes two sets which are typical of phase III. The other four sets do not group with the typical representatives of the three phases, probably because of certain special conditions of their emplacement. A separate series of D² computation from the same data, but excluding the color index, was unsuccessful in making the four aberrant sets group with the typical members of the respective phases. Efficient LDF's could be determined for discrimination between most pairs of the 10 sets of granite rocks.