Abstract
Pinch-outs refers to the gradual thinning of the thickness of the sedimentary layer laterally until there is no deposition and are a major topic of modern research on the automated drawing of geological profiles. The rapid development of smart geological systems imposed an urgent need for high-speed, accurate methods to plot pinch-outs. However, because of their complexity, excessive number of branch paths, low rendering speed, and poor reliability in the case of large-scale data, the existing pinch-out drawing methods are inadequate and cannot satisfy the modeling needs of large-scale geological projects. To resolve these problems, based on unified stratigraphic sequences, this paper proposes a unique path method for drawing pinch-out profiles by converting the principle of plotting of pinch-outs into controlling the appearance of stratigraphic boundaries, and a high-speed and reliable method for drawing pinch-out in digital profiles is also proposed. The proposed method is successfully applied to drawing geological profiles for an urban geological project in East China, and greatly reduces the complexity of the method without reducing the drawing accuracy. Compared with those of other methods, the speed and reliability are significantly improved. Therefore, the unique path method for drawing pinch-out profiles based on a unified stratigraphic sequence proposed in the writers’ previous paper effectively avoids the excessive branch paths, slow speed, and insufficient reliability of the existing methods and provides effective and reliable support for the rapid drawing of profiles in smart geological systems.
Highlights
Pinch-out geometries, which define the geometry whereby a geological body ends laterally, closing and disappearing against another surface in geology, are common geological structures [1,2,3] that may cause the stress in the crust to become concentrated [4]
Research on the mapping of pinch-outs on digital geological profiles focuses mainly on methods involving pinch-out line structures method, including the finite inference method, the average pinch-out angle method, and the infinite inference method [24]; the only information expressed by these techniques is the location of the pinch-out point, which is directly correlated with the thickness of the rock layer
In the abovementioned research on drawing geological profiles, pinch-outs needs to be positioned by calculating control points and projection points; this approach produces an excessive number of branch paths, the corresponding method is complex, the profile drawing speed is slow, and the stability and reliability are too poor to meet practical demands
Summary
Pinch-out geometries, which define the geometry whereby a geological body ends laterally, closing and disappearing against another surface in geology, are common geological structures [1,2,3] that may cause the stress in the crust to become concentrated [4]. In the abovementioned research on drawing geological profiles, pinch-outs needs to be positioned by calculating control points and projection points; this approach produces an excessive number of branch paths, the corresponding method is complex, the profile drawing speed is slow, and the stability and reliability are too poor to meet practical demands To solve these problems, based on the unified stratigraphic sequence method, a method of unifying different drilling sequences into the same sequence was developed, and this paper proposes a unique path method for drawing pinch-out profiles by converting pinch-out profiles into controlling the appearance of stratigraphic boundaries; this approach resolves the abovementioned problems, namely the excessive number branch paths and low speed and reliability of existing methods. The validity and reliability of the proposed method were tested by drawing geological profiles for a project in a city in East China, and it was proved that this method has great advantages regarding simplicity and speed compared with that of traditional methods
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