Correlation of Boreholes through Well Logs: Application to the Western Sector of Madrid

Abstract

This study correlates the results obtained from the resistivity and spontaneous potential well logs in six boreholes for water extraction, located in the multilayer siliciclastic basin in the Madrid region, in the center of the Iberian Peninsula. Given the small lateral continuity that the layers considered in isolation show in this type of multilayer aquifer, geophysical stretches, with their corresponding average lithological assignments, have been established to achieve this objective from the well logs. These stretches allow for mapping the internal lithology in the studied area, obtaining a correlation of greater geological scope than that provided by the correlation between layers. Subsequently, the possible correlation of the lithological stretches selected in each of the boreholes was analyzed, verifying their lateral continuity and establishing an NNW-SSE section in the study area. In this work, the transcendence of the correlation of wells up to great distances (about 8 km in total, and average distance of 1.5 km between wells) is focused on the fact that, if there is a presence of pollutant in certain aquifer stretches in a part of the studied area, overexploitation in the Madrid basin will cause the mobilization of this pollutant to the whole basin, with a possible impact on non-polluted areas.