Methods of constructing a 3D geological model from scatter data

Abstract

Most geoscience applications, such as assessment of an oil reservoir or hazardous waste site, require geological characterization of the site. Geological characterization involves analysis of spatial distributions of lithology, porosity, etc. Because of the complexity of the spatial relationships, the authors find that a 3-D model of geology is better suited for integration of many different types of data and provides a better representation of a site than a 2-D one. A 3-D model of geology is constructed from sample data obtained from field measurements, which are usually scattered. To create a volume model from scattered data, interpolation between points is required. The interpolation can be computed using one of several computational algorithms. Alternatively, a manual method may be employed, in which an interactive graphics device is used to input by hand the information that lies between the data points. For example, a mouse can be used to draw lines connecting data points with equal values. The combination of these two methods presents yet another approach. In this study, the authors will compare selected methods of 3-D geological modeling, They used a flow-based, modular visualization environment (AVS) to construct the geological models computationally. Within this system, they used three modules,more » scat{_}3d, trivar and scatter{_}to{_}ucd, as examples of computational methods. They compare these methods to the combined manual and computational approach. Because there are no tools readily available in AVS for this type of construction, they used a geological modeling system to demonstrate this method.« less