Discrete multifractals

The concept of multifractal modeling has been used intensively in various fields of science for characterizing measures with self- similarity. It has been shown that multifractal modeling provides powerful tools for characterizing patterns in the spatial distribution of geological quantities and objects. Existing multifractal models were proposed for the purpose of handling spatially intertwined fractals with continuous fractal spectrum f(α) (or continuous codimension function C(γ)). In this paper, these conventional multifractals are termed “continuous multifractals” whereas multifractals with discrete fractal dimensions are termed “discrete multifractals.” The properties of discrete multifractals are investigated. It is shown by various artificial examples and a case study of stratigraphy of Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) site 645 that spatially intertwined fractals/multifractals indeed can have discrete fractal dimensions. Histogram-and moment-based techniques are proposed for discrete multifractal modeling and illustrated using the artificial examples. The new concept of discrete multifractals and associated multifractal modeling yields not only techniques for characterizing multifractals with discrete fractal dimensions but it also provides insight into the relationships between fractals, bifractals, and multifractals.