Usefulness of stream order to detect stream sediment geochemical

anomalies
Emmanuel John M. Carranza
Department of Earth Systems Analysis, International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation (ITC),
Hengelosestraat 99, PO Box 6, 7500AA Enschede, The Netherlands (e-mail: carranza@itc.nl)

ABSTRACT: Unlike drainage basin area, stream order has not been quantitatively
integrated in analysis of stream sediment geochemical data. It is hypothesized here
that stream order is a useful surrogate for drainage basin area in ‘correcting’ for
sediment dilution in order to detect stream sediment geochemical anomalies.
Geochemical residuals, derived from catchment-based background corrections, are
multiplied with respective sample site stream order to obtain stream-order-
‘corrected’ residuals, which are compared and contrasted with corresponding values
of productivity of a drainage basin. The validity of the hypothesis is tested and
demonstrated in a drainage basin in the Aroroy gold district in the Philippines. There
are strong and statistically significant correlations between stream-order-‘corrected’
residuals and values of productivity. Anomalous areas based on uni-element
stream-order-‘corrected’ residuals are spatially identical or strongly spatially similar to
anomalous areas based on uni-element values of productivity. Multi-element
associations extracted from stream-order-‘corrected’ residuals are identical or highly
similar to multi-element geochemical associations that can be extracted from values
of productivity. The results of the study demonstrate that routine calculations of
stream-order-‘corrected’ residuals would be particularly useful for interpretation of
reconnaissance stream sediment geochemical data derived by sampling low-order
streams.
KEYWORDS: anomaly recognition, productivity, stream order, map correlation, GIS

Stream sediment sampling is a well established geochemical tool due to mixing of sediments from various sources. Note that
for mineral exploration. It relies on the principle that stream Equation 1 can be rearranged as
sediments are representative of all materials in a catchment
basin. The element contents (Cm) of a stream sediment sample AaCa = Am(Cm
Cb) + AaCb. (2)
representing a catchment basin with area Am can thus be
modelled by the relation (Hawkes 1976):

AmCm = AaCa + (Am
Aa)Cb (1)

where Ca is element content due to an anomalous source with
exposed area Aa, Cb is element content due to background
sources with surface area Am
Aa. Hence, stream sediments
associated with a catchment basin containing exposed
mineralization would have higher concentrations of elements
(related to deposits) as compared to stream sediments
associated with non-mineralized catchment basins. The ultimate
goal of a stream sediment geochemical survey is thus to
distinguish anomalous catchment basins from background
catchment basins.
To distinguish between catchment basins that are back-
ground or anomalous, it is essential to determine and remove
from geochemical data background concentrations due to
factors unrelated to mineralization. Subtraction of background
element contents from measured element contents results in
residuals (i.e. Cm
Cb), which when positive could be con-
sidered as enrichment due to anomalous sources. The magni-
tude of geochemical residuals, however, is controlled by dilution Fig. 1. Location of study area.

Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis, Vol. 4 2004, pp. 341–352 1467-7873/04/$15.00  2004 AEG/ Geological Society of London
342 E.J.M. Carranza

Fig. 2. Aroroy gold district, Masbate,

Philippines: (a) simplified geological
map (curvi-linear features are
faults/fractures); (b) stream sediment
sample locations (small open diamonds)
and sample catchment polygons
overlaid on a shaded-relief digital
elevation model. The test drainage basin
(shown in Figs. 4 to 8) is represented
by streams in thick black lines and by
sample catchment polygons with thick
white boundaries.

Table 1. Elementary statistics of measured and loge-transformed geochemical data (ppm).

Measured data Loge-transformed data

Element Minimum Maximum Arithmetic mean Std. dev. Skewness Geometric mean Std. dev. Skewness
Cu 8 200 63.8 37.6 1.16 53.5 1.9
0.42
Pb 5 65 6.5 5.9 7.5 5.7 1.5 3.26
Zn 13 230 56.9 32.4 2.1 49.6 1.7 0.03
Ni 3 42 12.6 6.8 1.04 10.7 1.8
0.46
Co 3 42 17.3 7.3 0.56 15.7 1.6
0.67
Mn 260 1800 769.1 344.9 0.69 696.4 1.6 0.02
Mo 1 12 1.4 1.3 5.44 1.2 1.6 3.2
As 0.25 82.0 3.0 4.6 10.6 1.4 4.4 0.45

This relation suggests that, to aid in anomaly detection, geo-
chemical residuals have to be ‘corrected’ for dilution by
considering drainage basin area Am (Hawkes 1976; Mackenzie
1977). For example, with assumption of a unit area of exposed
mineral deposits (i.e. Aa =1 km2) contributing to streams
sediments, the term Am(Cm
Cb)+Cb (by elimination of Aa in
Equation 2) can be used as an ‘anomaly rating’ (Hawkes 1976;
Bonham-Carter & Goodfellow 1984; 1986). Moon (1999) has
also shown that calculation of the term Am(Cm
Cb), the
‘productivity’ of a drainage basin (Polikarpochkin 1971), and
representation of maps of values of productivity as catchment
polygons are useful in delineating areas with known anomalous
sources.
Routine calculation of productivity, especially with the aid of
geographic information systems (GIS), would be valuable in
detecting anomalies particularly because mineralization and,
therefore, Aa are unknown in most cases. Maps of productivity,
however, could also produce spurious anomalous areas if there
are drainage basins that are statistically outliers in terms of size
(Moon 1999). In addition, for large regions covered with
reconnaissance surveys with sampling densities of 1–10 km
2,
calculation of Am (to derive productivity) can be cumbersome
even with the aid of a GIS. This is because Am is total area
upstream of a sample site and not merely the incremental area
between a sample site and the next sample site(s) upstream.
Hence, as number of samples becomes larger and as drainage
patterns become intricate, calculation of Am becomes unwieldy.
The latter problem was encountered by the present
author while re-interpreting a geochemical dataset (available in
JICA-MMAJ 1986) for more than 2200 stream sediment
samples representing an area of at least 3000 km2 in Masbate,
Philippines (Fig. 1). Though not questioning previous interpre-
tations of the geochemical data through statistical analyses of
sub-datasets based on type of lithology at sampling sites, it was
intended to re-interpret the geochemical data by first applying
sample catchment-based lithologic background corrections and
then calculating productivity. However, the procedure to
measure Am in order to calculate productivity was not straight-
forward even with the aid of a spreadsheet outside a GIS as the
drainage patterns are intricate and the number of sample
catchments is large. This led to a hypothesis that stream order
(based on Strahler 1957) at sample sites is a useful surrogate for
Am to detect stream sediment geochemical anomalies. That is,
background and anomalous areas based on stream-order-
‘corrected’ (SOC) residuals are similar, if not identical, to
background and anomalous areas based on values of produc-
tivity. The underlying principles behind this hypothesis are that
(a) stream order influences secondary geochemical dispersion,
and (b) along a downstream direction, stream order varies
directly with Am. This paper presents results of testing and
demonstrating the hypothesis in a particular drainage basin in
Aroroy gold district (Masbate, Philippines).
 Stream order in stream sediment geochemical analysis
343

Fig. 3. Spatial distributions of loge-transformed uni-element data in Aroroy district: (a) Cu; (b) Pb; (c) Zn; (d) Ni; (e) Co; (f) Mn; (g) Mo; (h) As. Sample catchment polygons in thick outlines
belong to test drainage basin.
344 E.J.M. Carranza

Table 2. Summary of results of regression analyses.

% variation due to independent variables (R2)

Contribution of Mn to variability of
Dependent variables Lithology Lithology+Mn data already explained by lithology (%)
Cu 98.1 98.4 0.3
Pb 95.4 95.6 0.2
Zn 98.9 99.4 0.5
As 50.5 60.1 9.6
Mn 99.7 99.8 0.1
Mo 16.5 17.0 0.5
Ni 95.1 95.9 0.8
Co 97.6 98.6 1.0

Fig. 4. Test drainage basin: (a) hierarchy of sample catchment polygons defined by ‘main’ stream (line from 1 to 43) and sub-hierarchies of sample
catchment polygons defined by tributaries of ‘main’ stream (e.g. line from 8 to 20); (b) scheme for calculation of Am based on hierarchy of sample
catchment polygons.

METHODOLOGY and plugs intrude into the volcano-sedimentary series. Dykes of

Aroroy district and test drainage basin
Aroroy district lies in the northwestern portion of Masbate
Island in the Philippines (Fig. 1). It is bounded by 1223 49
N (Mitchell & Leach 1991). Gold, as observed in at least 13
and 1231 26
N latitudes and 12323 00
E and 12328 33
E mineral occurrences in the district, is associated with sulphide
longitudes. Topographic relief in the district is moderate;
topographic elevations vary from zero to 630 m with an average
of c. 110 m. The district is covered mostly by grasses with
interspersed shrubs. Annual rainfall in Masbate is least
1500 mm.
The oldest rocks in the district are andesitic-dacitic agglom-
erates belonging to Eocene–Oligocene Mandaon Formation
(Fig. 2a; compiled from Baybayan & Matos (1986) and from
JICA-MMAJ (1986)). These rocks are intruded by dioritic rocks
(varying from quartz diorite to hornblende diorite) belonging to
the Miocene Aroroy Diorite. Unconformably overlying the
andesitic-dacitic agglomerates and dioritic-granodioritic rocks
are feldspathic wackes belonging to Early Miocene Sambulawan
Formation. Andesitic lithic tuffs (Late Miocene–Early Pliocene
Lanang Formation) disconformably overlie the andesitic-dacitic
agglomerates and the feldspathic wackes. Andesite porphyry
(Pliocene Nabongsoran Andesite) in the form of small stocks
andesite porphyry are also known to intrude into the Aroroy
Diorite. The andesite porphyry intrusions are associated with
low-sulphidation epithermal gold mineralization in the district
minerals (mainly pyrite) in wide-sheeted and manganese-stained
silicified veins in NW-trending faults/fractures that cut dacitic
and andesitic volcano-clastic rocks.
In the district, geochemical data were obtained from 135
stream sediment samples representing a total drainage basin
area of c. 101 km2 equivalent to a sampling density of one
sample per 1–2 km2. Of the different drainage basins sampled,
it was decided to test the above hypothesis in one drainage
basin of the district, in which 43 stream sediment samples have
been collected and in which eight gold occurrences are known
that could serve as control data in recognizing significant
anomalies (Fig. 2b). The known gold occurrences are found in
seven sample catchment polygons in the lower western half of
the test drainage basin and the NW-trending belt of gold
occurrences does not perfectly coincide with the test drainage
basin (Fig. 2). These observations indicate that the test drainage
basin contains anomalous as well as background zones, which
 Stream order in stream sediment geochemical analysis 345

Table 3. Pearson’s correlation coefficients between values of productivity and SOC

residuals per element.a

SOC residuals Productivity

Cu Pb Zn Ni Co Mn Mo As
All values
Cu 0.678
Pb 0.979
Zn 0.693
Ni 0.549
Co 0.545
Mn 0.731
Mo 0.990
As 0.897
N 43 43 43 43 43 43 43 43

Only positive values

Cu 0.637
Pb 0.993
Zn 0.744
Fig. 5. Graph of stream order versus catchment area of samples Ni 0.193
along ‘main’ stream of test drainage basin. Co 0.563
Mn 0.521
Mo 0.997
would allow proper testing of the above hypothesis. It is not As 0.896
assumed, however, that background zones do not contain N 26 14 23 25 14 25 12 25
undiscovered occurrences because these may be unexposed. a
Coefficients in bold and italics are, depending on number (N) of samples,
Initially, local background was estimated and removed from
statistically significant at 0.99 and 0.95 probability levels, respectively.
geochemical data to derive geochemical residuals. Geochemical Coefficients not in bold or italics are statistically non-significant.
residuals were then ‘corrected’ for dilution using Am (to derive
productivity) and stream order (to derive SOC residuals).
Geochemical anomalies in the test drainage basin, based on
either set of dilution-‘corrected’ residuals, were then compared using a 10 m  10 m pixel size. The choice of pixel size was
and contrasted to test and demonstrate the hypothesis. Finally, dictated by the minimum distance between contour lines used
geochemical anomalies in the Aroroy district are mapped using in creating a digital elevation model (DEM) needed in automatic
SOC residuals. extraction of boundaries of sample catchment polygons.
Digitized sample points were labelled according to sample
number while digitized contour lines were labelled according to
Spatial database generation their elevation. Two sets of drainage lines were digitized.
Sources of spatial data are 1:50 000 scale analogue maps, which Digitized drainage lines in the first set, derived from sample
were digitally scanned and georeferenced to a common coor- location maps (JICA-MMAJ 1986), were labelled according to
dinate system using a UTM projection. Stream sediment sample their stream order. In the second set, digitized drainage lines,
points, drainage lines, elevation contours of 20-m interval, which were labelled according to sample number, are either
boundaries of lithologic units and locations of gold occurrences those appearing on the topographic maps (and corresponding
were the spatial data digitally captured. Spatial data capture and mostly to those appearing on the sample location maps) or
subsequent spatial analyses were carried out using ILWIS those interpreted from the maps as gullies. Digitization of
(Integrated Land and Water Information Systems) GIS software interpreted drainage lines other than those appearing on the
developed by the International Institute for Geo-Information topographic maps was necessary because the DEM resulting
Science and Earth Observation (ITC). In ILWIS, spatial data from digitized contour lines has low vertical accuracy and is
analysis is mainly in raster mode (i.e. pixel-based). Thus, all therefore inadequate for accurate automatic extraction of drain-
digitally captured spatial data used in the analyses, which were age lines needed to automatically generate sample catchment
initially in vector (segment/polygon) format, were rasterized polygons. Thus, sample catchment polygons (Fig. 2b) were

Fig. 6. Attributes of sample sites in test

drainage basin: (a) catchment area; (b)
stream order.
346 E.J.M. Carranza
generated automatically using the DEM and raster map of the
second set of digitized drainage lines. Each sample catchment
polygon, labelled according to sample number, corresponds to
area upstream/upslope of a sample site and terminates at the
next sample site and at the top of drainage divides. Boundaries
of mapped lithologic units were digitally captured and were then
polygonized and rasterized. Finally, a spatial database was
produced containing, for each sample catchment polygon,
Fig. 7. Binary uni-element anomaly
maps of test drainage basin based on
values of productivity (left panel) and
SOC residuals (right panel).
(a) measured stream sediment element concentrations,
(b) stream order, (c) area and (d) areal proportions of lithologic
units.
Pre-analysis of geochemical data
The stream sediment geochemical data pertain to ten elements
(Cu, Pb, Zn, Ni, Co, Mn, Mo, As, Ag, Hg). The quality of
 Stream order in stream sediment geochemical analysis
geochemical data was determined in terms of their capability to
reveal patterns related to geochemical variance rather than
procedural (sampling and analytical) variance. This was carried
out using robust analysis of variance (Ramsey et al. 1992) of
analytical results for 57 samples and their field duplicates
(JICA-MMAJ 1986). Data for Hg and Ag were found to have
procedural variances exceeding 20% of total variance and were
not used further in the analyses.
347
Fig. 7. Binary uni-element anomaly
maps of test drainage basin based on
values of productivity (left panel) and
SOC residuals (right panel).
Table 1 contains the summary statistics of analytical data for
eight elements under study. Frequency distributions of all
measured elemental data are positively skewed. Maximum
values are large, over five standard deviations from the
arithmetic mean, and such maximum values could have a
dominant effect on statistical analysis. Loge-transformation
effectively reduces asymmetry in most elemental data. For
uniformity, loge-transforms of all uni-element data were used in
348 E.J.M. Carranza
the analyses. This transformation is used simply to alleviate
effects of large values on statistical analyses but not because of
judgment of a possible log-normal distribution of the data
(Miesch 1977; Garrett et al. 1980).
To portray spatial distributions of uni-element data, they
were divided into four classes based on geometric mean plus
multiples of standard deviation (Fig. 3). The loge-transformed
data were used instead of the raw data because uni-element
thresholds based on arithmetic mean plus multiples of standard
deviation could be high enough that subtle anomalies are not
recognized. The lowest class represents values less than or equal
to a threshold derived as geometric mean plus two standard
deviations. The second class represents values greater than
those in the lowest class but less than or equal to threshold plus
one standard deviation. The third class represents values greater
than those in the second class but less than or equal to
threshold plus two standard deviations. The fourth class
represents values greater than threshold plus two standard
deviations. The lowest class is considered non-anomalous, the
second class is weakly anomalous, the third class is moderately
anomalous and the fourth class is strongly anomalous.
Zones in the northeastern to northern portions underlain
mostly by Aroroy Diorite are consistently non-anomalous for all
elements. Zones in the southeastern portions underlain mostly
by Lanang Formation have weakly to moderately anomalous
values for most elements. Zones in the northwestern and
southwestern portions underlain mostly by Mandaon
Formation have weakly to strongly anomalous values for Zn,
Co and Mn. The sample catchment polygons in the test
drainage basin are mostly non-anomalous for Pb, Ni, Co, Mo
and As but most are weakly to moderately anomalous for Cu,
Zn and Mn, especially near the cluster of gold occurrences in
the west-central portions. These observations suggest that (a)
variations in the raw geochemical data are largely controlled by
lithology and (b) uni-element threshold values based on only
(loge-transforms of) the raw data are usually inadequate to
detect geochemical anomalies.
Catchment-based local background corrections
Given stream sediment element contents (Yi) and areal propor-
tions (Xij) of jth rock unit in sample catchment basin i as
dependent and independent variables, respectively, background
due to lithology (Y i) was estimated as (Bonham-Carter &
Goodfellow 1984; 1986; Bonham-Carter et al. 1987; Carranza &
Hale 1997):
Y i = bo + &jm= 1bijXij (3)
where &j=1m
Xij=1.0 for j= 1,2,{,m rock units in sample catchment
basin i, bo and bj are regression coefficients. Estimation of Y i
was accomplished by reducing &j=1 n
(Yi
Y i), for all n samples,
via least-squares regression. Two sets of analyses were made: (I)
using areal proportions of rock units in sample catchment
basins as independent variables; and (II) using areal proportions
of rock units and Mn contents in sample catchment basins as
independent variables. In both analyses, bo = 0, all values of Xij
were forced into the regression, and loge-transforms of values
of Yi were used so that values of bj are usually positive and easy
to interpret. In regression analysis (I), variability of Yi is
attributed to lithologic controls. In regression analysis (II),
contributions of Mn to explained variability of Yi are attributed
to scavenging by Mn-oxides. Effectiveness of the independent
variables in accounting for variability of Yi was characterized by
R2 (expressed as percentage), ratio of sum of squares explained
by regression to total sum of squares. For statistically sound
background corrections by regression analysis, geochemical data
for all 135 samples in the district were used. Statistical tests of
significance of regression, however, were not made as the
sampling density is quite high and geochemical data exhibit
autocorrelation and thus are not independent.
In the district, lithologic controls explain at least 95% of
variations in all elements except As and Mo (Table 2). For all
elements except As, scavenging by Mn-oxides accounts for at
most 1% in explained variation over that already explained by
the lithologic controls. These suggest that geochemical residuals
of As and Mo could be related to anomalous sources. The
results of regression analysis (II) were used to estimate local
background values in each sample catchment basin. Estimated
local background values were then removed from the measured
element contents and uni-element geochemical residuals were
corrected for effects of dilution.
Calculation and comparisons of productivity and SOC
residuals
The value of Amfor each stream sediment sample site was
determined by first establishing a hierarchy of sample catch-
ment polygons starting from the river heads going downstream.
The order in this hierarchy was defined by the highest number
of polygons that are interconnected by a ‘main’ drainage line
(Fig. 4a). Sub-hierarchies were then defined by determining
tributaries of the ‘main’ drainage line. With a hierarchy of
sample catchment polygons defined, a scheme to properly
calculate Am for each sample site was devised and implemented
in a spreadsheet (Fig. 4b).
Stream orders of sample sites were compared with sample
catchment areas (Am) to demonstrate the second underlying
principle behind the hypothesis of this study. For sample sites
along the ‘main’ drainage line (Fig. 4a), stream order increases
logarithmically with catchment area (Fig. 5). In addition, there is
an apparent good similarity between spatial patterns of the
maps of catchment area and stream order of sample sites in the
test drainage basin (Fig. 6). These observations indicate that
SOC residuals vary directly with values of productivity.
The uni-element geochemical residuals were multiplied with
corresponding Am and with corresponding stream order to
obtain, respectively, values of productivity and SOC residuals.
Correlation analysis was then performed to compare values of
productivity and SOC residuals. Table 3 shows that linear
correlation coefficients between all values of productivity and
SOC residuals are statistically significant and vary, depending on
which element, from moderate to strong. In addition, for all
elements except Ni, linear correlation coefficients between only
positive values of productivity and SOC residuals remain
moderate to strong and statistically significant. Thus, SOC
residuals are well correlated with values of productivity.
Anomalies based on productivity and SOC residuals
The 60th percentile (representing mostly positive) values of
productivity and SOC residuals were considered threshold
values to distinguish between anomalous and non-anomalous
catchment polygons for each element and to create binary
anomaly maps for each element in the test drainage basin
(Fig. 7). These uni-element binary anomaly maps were then
compared using a similarity measure known in the geographic
literature as the coefficient of areal association, AAc (Taylor
1977), which is calculated as
Aaa + Ann
AAc = (4)
Aaa + Ann + Aan + Ana
 Stream order in stream sediment geochemical analysis 349

Table 4. Coefficients of areal association between binary uni-element anomaly maps based
on values of productivity and on SOC residuals.
SOC residuals Productivity
Cu Pb Zn Ni Co
Cu 1.000
Pb 0.895
Zn 0.919
Ni 0.874
Co 0.975
Mn
Mo
As
where, for a pair of binary anomaly maps, Aaa is area of overlap
of anomalous catchment polygons, Ann is area of overlap of
non-anomalous catchment polygons, Aan is area of overlap
between anomalous catchment polygons in one map and non-
anomalous catchment polygons in the other map and Ana is area
of overlap between non-anomalous catchment polygons in one
map and anomalous catchment polygons in the other map.
The coefficient or areal association was used instead of
another map similarity measure known as Jaccard’s coefficient,
which is calculated exclusive of Ann in Equation 4. The former
compares both background and anomalous patterns in a pair of
binary anomaly maps while the latter compares only anomalous
patterns. Values of AAc range between zero (complete dissimi-
larity or spatial non-coincidence) and one (complete similarity
or spatial coincidence), the same range as Pearson’s correlation
coefficient. Note that values of AAc are dimensionless and
therefore independent of units of areal measurements. Table 4
and Figure 7 illustrate that binary uni-element anomaly maps
based on SOC residuals are strongly similar to corresponding
binary uni-element anomaly maps based on values of produc-
tivity. Thus, anomalous areas detected based on uni-element
SOC residuals are strongly similar to anomalous areas detected
based on uni-element values of productivity.
To further compare anomalies based on values of
productivity and anomalies based on SOC residuals, an
anomalous geochemical signature reflecting presence of the
gold occurrences in the test drainage basin was extracted based
on each set of variables by way of principal components (PC)
analysis. Each of the first three PCs (cumulatively explaining at
Mn Mo As least 78% of the variability) of the SOC residuals is similar or
identical to the respective first three PCs (cumulatively explain-
ing at least 93% of the variability) of values of productivity
(Table 5). Based on SOC residuals, PC1 portrays a Mo–Pb–
As–Mn–Zn association, PC2 portrays a Ni–Co–Zn association
and PC3 portrays a Cu association. Based on values of
0.849 productivity, PC1 depicts a Pb–Mo–As–Mn–Zn association,
0.914 PC2 depicts a Ni–Co–Zn association and PC3 depicts a Cu
0.977 association These indicate that SOC residuals are capable of
revealing geochemical associations that are highly similar to
geochemical associations that can be revealed by values of
productivity.
The multi-element association based on PC1 of values of
productivity or on PC1 of SOC residuals was considered an
anomalous geochemical signature reflecting presence of the
gold occurrences in the test drainage basin. This geochemical
signature contains Mo and As, variations of measured concen-
trations of which are found not largely due to lithologic nor to
chemical controls (Table 2); As, which is a known pathfinder
for gold, and Mo are known components of geochemical
associations characteristic of epithermal gold mineralization in
the Philippines (UNDP 1987). Binary multi-element anomaly
maps based on PC1 of values of productivity and based on PC1
of SOC residuals, both thresholded at 60th percentile PC1
scores (Fig. 8), have a coefficient of areal association of 0.823.
Thus, anomalous areas detected based on multivariate analysis
(such as PC analysis) of SOC residuals are strongly similar to
anomalous areas detected based on the same multivariate
analysis of values of productivity.
Geochemical anomalies in Aroroy district based on SOC
residuals
To further determine usefulness of stream order to delineate
anomalous areas, comparisons were made between uni-element
geochemical anomalies based on SOC residuals (Fig. 9) and

Table 5. Principal components analysis of values of productivity and of SOC residuals in test drainage basin.

PC1 PC2 PC3 PC4 PC5 PC6 PC7 PC8

Values of productivity
Cu 0.372 0.067 0.911
0.160 0.020 0.034 0.000 0.011
Pb 0.975 0.162 0.097 0.105 0.007 0.045
0.010
0.053
Zn 0.650 0.716
0.177 0.065
0.137 0.079
0.063 0.019
Ni
0.096 0.969 0.059
0.157
0.103
0.102 0.047
0.005
Co
0.556 0.751 0.078 0.311 0.131 0.055 0.060 0.002
Mn 0.809
0.414 0.140 0.373
0.101
0.052 0.054 0.017
Mo 0.926 0.285
0.110 0.006 0.201
0.075
0.049 0.017
As 0.904
0.074
0.310
0.259 0.036 0.058 0.099 0.007
Variance (%) 51.98 28.81 12.60 4.60 1.24 0.41 0.31 0.05
Cum. var. (%) 51.98 80.79 93.39 97.99 99.23 99.64 99.95 100.00

SOC residuals
Cu 0.163
0.096 0.969
0.073 0.102 0.027 0.096
0.022
Pb 0.941 0.057 0.150
0.005
0.021
0.104 0.218 0.174
Zn 0.514 0.683 0.015
0.284
0.377 0.180 0.115 0.002
Ni
0.073 0.903 0.031 0.106 0.068
0.396 0.073
0.023
Co
0.366 0.716 0.092 0.480 0.137 0.295
0.081 0.037
Mn 0.580
0.374 0.020 0.672
0.231
0.063 0.121
0.019
Mo 0.947 0.142
0.042
0.000 0.099 0.041
0.176
0.194
As 0.857 0.024
0.283
0.051 0.340 0.091 0.237 0.053
Variance (%) 41.04 24.60 13.15 9.77 4.44 3.78 2.30 0.92
Cum. var. (%) 41.04 65.64 78.79 88.56 93.00 96.78 99.08 100.00
350 E.J.M. Carranza
based on loge-transforms of the raw data (Fig. 3) in Aroroy
district. Zones in the northeastern to northern sections, shown
initially to be consistently non-anomalous for all elements, are
now shown to have local enrichments particularly in Ni and Co,
which could be due to variations in mafic mineral compositions
of the Aroroy Diorite. Zones in the southeastern portions,
shown initially to be weakly to moderately anomalous for all
elements, are now shown to have moderate to strong enrich-
ments in Cu and As, which are due to the gold occurrences
there. Zones in the northwestern portions, shown initially to be
weakly to strongly anomalous for Cu, Zn, Co, Mn and As, are
now shown to also have strong local enrichment in Mo. For
zones in the southwestern portions, there are no remarkable
differences between geochemical anomalies based on loge-
transformed data and geochemical anomalies based on SOC
residuals. A most remarkable improvement of the application of
stream order to ‘correct’ for dilution is the enhancement of a
NW-trending belt characterized by strongly anomalous SOC
residuals of As (Fig. 9h). This geochemically anomalous belt,
which is not obvious in the spatial distributions of the loge-
transformed data, clearly delineates and follows the trend of the
known gold occurrences.
An anomalous geochemical signature reflecting the presence
of the gold occurrences in Aroroy district was also extracted
based on SOC residuals through PC analysis. For the test
drainage basin, this type of analysis was performed on all 43
samples because each has an anomalous (i.e. >60th percentile)
value of productivity and SOC residual for at least one element.
For the Aroroy district, however, this type of analysis was
performed on a subset of 70 samples (out of 135), which have
anomalous (i.e. >75th percentile) positive SOC residuals for at
least one element. The rationale behind this is that PC analysis
tends to be dominated by non-anomalous associations, so
excluding samples mostly with negative SOC residuals and
non-anomalous positive SOC residuals (Fig. 10) would enable
enhancement of anomalous multi-element associations. Table 6
shows that results of this procedure are similar to the results for
the test drainage basin (Table 5). Thus, the Pb–Mo–Mn–As
association depicted by PC1 was considered to represent an
anomalous geochemical signature reflecting the gold occur-
rences. The spatial distribution of PC1 scores clearly indicates a
NW-trending geochemically anomalous belt that delineates and
follows the trend of the gold occurrences (Fig. 10). The spatial
distribution of PC1 scores also indicates in the test drainage
basin the anomalous sample catchment polygons based on
values of productivity and on SOC residuals.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Secondary geochemical dispersion is influenced by stream order
in the sense that rates of erosion and rates of deposition of
Fig. 8. Binary multi-element anomaly
maps of test drainage basin based on
PC1 scores of values of productivity
(left panel) and PC1 scores of SOC
residuals (right panel).
weathered materials differ along stream channels of different
orders. In low-order streams, erosion usually predominates
deposition; thus, stream order is a factor in stream sediment
sampling (Ottesen & Theobald 1994). Despite this fact, it is
drainage basin area that has been used quantitatively in analysis
of drainage geochemical data (e.g. Polikarpochkin 1971;
Hawkes 1976; Mackenzie 1977; Bonham-Carter & Goodfellow
1984; 1986; Bonham-Carter et al. 1987; Carranza & Hale 1997;
Moon 1999). This is because it has been established that stream
sediment chemical content due to a given anomaly source is
known to decrease as downstream distance and, therefore,
drainage basin area increase.
Stream order increases directly with downstream distance
and, therefore, with catchment basin area (Figs. 5 and 6).
However, it is theoretically difficult, if not impossible, to use
stream order as a variable in a mathematical model that relates,
in a drainage basin, element content of a stream sediment
sample to element content of an anomaly source. On one
hand, a stream sediment sample can have as spatial attributes
(among other properties) areal extent (i.e. its catchment area),
element content and stream order. On the other hand, an
anomaly source in the same drainage basin of stream sediment
sample can also have as spatial attributes areal extent and
element content but not stream order. Perhaps, if an anomaly
source cuts across a stream, then stream order can be used
as a spatial attribute of that anomaly source and then formula-
tion of a model in question may be feasible. Even in such a
situation, however, realization of a model in question would
be sensitive to the variability of stream order. On a drainage
basin scale and along a downstream direction from a given
anomaly source, variability of stream order can be much
lower (i.e. streams can have the same order or can have a
difference in order by only one over long distances, as indi-
cated in Fig. 5) than variability of stream sediment element
content.
Despite low variability of stream order, it has been demon-
strated here that SOC residuals are well correlated with values
of productivity and that anomalies based on SOC residuals are
geochemically similar to and have strong spatial similarity with
anomalies based on values of productivity. Because of this
finding and because calculation of productivity only requires
drainage basin area and residuals [i.e. Am(Cm
Cb)], stream
order is a useful surrogate for drainage basin area to ‘correct’ for
dilution in order to detect geochemical anomalies. The results
suggest that SOC residuals (and, thus, stream order) can be
useful in ranking anomalies according to the ‘anomaly rating’
term Am(Cm
Cb)+Cb (see Equation 2), in cases where miner-
alization is unknown, by assuming an arbitrary areal extent (Aa)
of exposed mineralization that contributes to stream sedi-
ments particularly in sample catchment polygons with positive
residuals.
 Stream order in stream sediment geochemical analysis
351

Fig. 9. Spatial distributions of uni-element SOC residuals in Aroroy district: (a) Cu; (b) Pb; (c) Zn; (d) Ni; (e) Co; (f) Mn; (g) Mo; (h) As.
352 E.J.M. Carranza

residuals would thus be particularly useful for interpretation of

exploration drainage geochemical data from reconnaissance
surveys with various density of sampling of low-order streams.
However, its further utility for analysis of geochemical data
from stream sediment sampling of medium- to high-order
needs further study.

The author would like to thank C.J. Moon and G. Bonham-Carter for
valuable comments on an early version of the paper.

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