Abstract
The purpose of this study is to develop geostatistical methods for selection of prospective areas of polymetallic nodule deposits in KODOS (Korea Deep Ocean Study) area of the North-East Pacific Ocean. In this study $110{\times}165$ grid system was used, and each node represents the center of an estimated block of $1km{\times}1km$. The ordinary kriging was applied to SeaBeam2000 data in order to evaluate the bathymetry. A structural analysis (variogram) of the bathymetry data was carried out for constructing digital terrain model (DTM) and the maximum slopes of the bathymetry were calculated by DTM data. The above method can be used to solve the problem that is resulted from the lack of theory of a change of support model for the maximum slope of the bathymetry. The ordinary kriging and the indicator kriging were used to evaluate the nodule abundance, and the different two kriging methods were compared to evaluate the accuracy for the estimation of the nodule abundance. It has been shown that indicator kriging was better estimation tool than the ordinary kriging. The overlay map is presented for the selection of potentially minable sites by combining the two indicator maps of the nodule abundance and the maximum slope of bathymetry. This overlay map could be utilized to establish follow-up survey and to investigate the potentially minable sites in the KODOS area.