llnderstanding of spatiotemporal samples: a practical view for geologists

Abstract

One of the most fundamental concept of statístics is the (random) sample. Our experience - acquired
during the years of undergraduate education - showed that prior to industrial practice, the students in
geology (a most probably in many other non-mathematics oriented disciplines as well) are often
confused by the possible multiple interpretation of the sample. The confusion increases even further,
when samples from stationary temporal, spatial or spatio-temporal phenomena are considered. Our goal
in the present paper is to give a viable alternative to this overly mathematical approach, which is proven
to be far too demanding for geological students.
Using the results of an environmental pollution analysis we tried to show the notion of the
spatiotemporal sample and somé of its basic characteristics. On the basis of these considerations we give
the definition of the spatiotemporal sample in order to be satisfactory from both the theoretical and the
practical points of view.