Spatial interpolation applied a Crustal thickness in Brazil

The use of spatial interpolation methods of data is becoming increasingly common in geophysical analysis, for that reason, currently, several software already contain many of these methods, allowing more detailed studies. In the present work four interpolation methods are evaluated, for the crustal thickness data of Brazil tectonic provinces, with the goal intention of making Moho's map of the regions. The methods used were IDW, Natural Neighbor, Spline and Kriging. We compiled 261 data that constituted a geographic database implemented in the template Postgree PostGIS and were processed using the tools of interpolation located in the Spatial Analyst Tools program ArcGIS 9.3. Traditional methods, IDW, Natural Neighbor and Spline, generate artifacts in their results, the effects of aim, not consistent with the behavior of crust. Such anomalies are generated because of mathematical formulation method's added to data compiled gravimetry. The analysis results of geostatistical Kriging are more refined and consistent, showing no specific anormalities, i.e., the crustal thickness variation (thinning and thickening) is introduced gradually. With the approval of new networks (BRASIS, RSISNE and RSIS), the crustal thickness database for Brazil may be amended or supplemented so that new models may be generated more consistently, complementing studies regional tectonics evolution.