Chapter 5 - Applications of Fuzzy Logic to Stratigraphic Modeling

Abstract

This chapter focuses on using fuzzy logic to simulate sediment erosion, sediment transportation, and sediment accumulation within a forward model. Two-dimensional and three-dimensional computer-generated forward models of sedimentary basin filling are increasingly important tools for research in applied and theoretical geological science. These models produce synthetic stratigraphic cross-sections that are important for two reasons. First, they give a predictive picture of the subsurface distribution of petrophysical properties (such as porosity, permeability, seismic velocity) that are useful in petroleum exploration. Second, synthetic stratigraphic models increase theoretical understanding of variation of sediment accumulation in time and space in response to external factors (such as eustasy and tectonics), and internal factors (such as compaction, iso-static adjustments, and crustal flexural adjustments made in response to tectonic loading and sedimentary accumulation) that are known, or suspected, to influence sedimentation patterns. Physically reasonable algorithms for eustasy, compaction, isostasy, and crustal flexure are common components of sedimentary models and can be modeled either deterministically or with fizzy logic. However, the