Classification Study, Based On The Variogram Of Geostatistics Theory Of Seafloor Topography

Ocean is an important place for human activity, the seafloor morphology is meaningful to oceanic scientific research and development of economy, such as marine geology, marine biology, oil and gas development and utilization, but also vital to marine military. Seafloor classification is the process that describing the complexity of marine relief development, analyzing and expressing the information of seafloor topography, getting the seafloor divided into different morphologic units finally. Currently, the seafloor classification is still limited to the descriptive manual classification, which means personal factors would have different influences on the accuracy and reduce the reliability of the terrain information. Therefore, how to understand and achieve the seafloor classification scientifically and exactly is one of the important researches in hydrographic and geographic information technology.Starting from geostatistics, this paper studies the characterization of the seafloor structure and randomness of variograms, and explores the analytic process of different topographies of seafloor with variograms. Integrated with bathymetric data in part of Bohai, the relations between feature parameters extracted from variograms and the main real terrains is quantitatively described and established in this paper, and the classification is achieved.The study shows that seafloor classification based on variograms of geostatistics is scientific and feasible. Comparing with other available data, the classification is valid. The classification method and result can provide accurate informations for the research of landform, geological structural study and the establishment of the marine geographic information system in this area, can also provide practical basis and theoretical foundation for the automated seafloor classification system of large area and even the global oceans.