FRACTAL ANALYSIS OF FRACTURE PATTERNS USING THE STANDARD BOX-COUNTING TECHNIQUE - VALID AND INVALID METHODOLOGIES

On the basis of results of simple box-counting analysis, it has been suggested in several recent publications that natural fracture patterns are fractal. Fractal patterns are characterized by self-similarity of structure on a range of scales and provide straight-line distributions on box-counting plots. New analysis of a fracture pattern that provided the most convincing straight-line box-counting curve previously published, shows that the curve is non-linear and, therefore, that the fracture pattern is not fractal. Non-linear box-counting curves are also characteristic of other natural fracture patterns analysed but spurious linear curves can be obtained if the area analysed extends beyond the mapped area.