Geostatistical analysis of Palmerton soil survey data

This paper describes statistical and geostatistical analyses of data from a soil sampling survey. Soil sampling was performed, in October and November of 1985, to obtain information on the level, extent, and spatial structure of metal pollution of the soil in and around the Palmerton, Pennsylvania, NPL Superfund site. Measurements of the concentrations of cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc in the soil samples were obtained. An appropriate variance stabilizing transformation was determined. Estimation of variance components was performed. Generalized convariance functions for log-transformed concentrations were estimated for each metal. Block kriging was employed using the estimated spatial structure models to obtain estimated metal concentration distributions over the central part of Palmerton.