An application of cluster analysis as a method of determining biofacies

Abstract

Data on 44 species of Recent Foraminifera in 99 samples collected from three traverses off the central Texas coast are re-examined using the Jaccard Coefficient for data comparison and the weighted pair group method with simple arithmetic averages for cluster- ing of coefficients. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the utility of the method and to compare the results obtained with other appraisals of the same data. The technique considers only presence or absence and is simple to understand. The analyses show good agreement of station (sample to sample) distribution compared with the results of previous investiga- tions, and interspecies relationships are meaningful. The method, although not statistical, is a useful, rapid, and inexpensive empirical tool for analysis of data.