Chemometrics-enhanced Classification of Source Rock Samples Using their Bulk Geochemical Data: Southern Persian Gulf Basin

Abstract

Chemometric methods can enhance geochemical interpretations, especially when working with large datasets. With this aim, exploratory hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) methods are used herein to study the bulk pyrolysis parameters of 534 samples from the Persian Gulf basin. These methods are powerful techniques for identifying the patterns of variations in multivariate datasets and reducing their dimensionality. By adopting a “divide-and-conquer” approach, the existing dataset could be separated into sample groupings at family and subfamily levels. The geochemical characteristics of each category were defined based on loadings and scores plots. This procedure greatly assisted the identification of key source rock levels in the stratigraphic column of the study area and highlighted the future research needs for source rock analysis in the Persian Gulf basin.