Cluster analysis in geology: metrics and measures

The article is devoted to cluster analysis, actively used in statistical data processing in geology, biology, and other natural sciences. Attention is drawn to the fact that the result of cluster analysis may significantly depend on the metric used, i.e . distances between points in multidimensional space. The distances between the point sets can be determined directly and by the measures of covering sets. The methodical resource of cluster analysis is seen in comparing the results when using different measures and metrics.