RTG Student Work Group

Using Classification Trees and Bootstrap Aggregation
to Identify Compositions of Tourmaline

Lucas Beverlin
Abstract • September 10, 2007

Tourmaline is a mineral found in many places on Earth. It has several compositions, each of which can yield information on how rocks have formed in the area over the past several thousand years. However, determining which composition is present usually requires a laboratory analysis, which is time consuming and expensive. Instead, classification trees and bootstrap aggregation will be used to build a number of models, which offers improved classification ability over a single model. An overview of these concepts will be illustrated through an application using a real geological data set.