Abstract: With the use of global coal resources distribution and coal resources data of China, the fractal character of the spatial distribution of coal resources was confirmed; Based on self similarity principle of coal depositing, 10 coal seam thickness data from 168 boreholes in a Huaibei coalfield were treated through normal transformation and Kriging interpolation. The contour map of coal seam thickness was divided into background map and anomaly map by multi fractal filtering with S-A method. The background map represents the trend of coal seam distribution, where the distribution rule indicates that the underlying sands have a good corresponding relationship with sedimentary facies, under the sedimentological laws. The anomaly map showed that the variation of thickness level of coal seam corresponded to the sedimentary environment. Compared with the trend graph and residual plots obtained by the trend surface analysis, the multifractal distribution method described seam thickness more clearly. It indicates that spacial distribution of the coal seam thickness conforms to the multifractal distribution law, also show that the multifractal distribution method is effective in treating and analyzing the geological data.

Key words: Coal thickness, Spatial distribution, Multi-fractal, S-A filter, Self-similarity