GEOMAPSEC: A MATLAB TOOLBOX FOR GEOLOGIC MAPS AND CROSS SECTIONS

GeoMapSec is a toolbox we have developed for manipulating digital geologic maps, and constructing near-surface geologic cross sections. The toolbox is written in The Mathworks’ Matlab programming environment. GeoMapSec is a series of subroutines that allow for the automation of many of the common steps in the construction of geologic maps and sections. Functionality exists for the conversion of existing geologic maps to digital maps, such as the extraction of strike and dip data from scanned paper maps. Incorporation of digital elevation models with surface contacts allows for projection of map data into vertical sections, along with 3-D visualization. A novel averaging routine enables posted stratigraphic contacts in cross-sectional views to inherit near-surface orientation from nearby computed apparent dips. In addition, interactive editing capability is available in map and cross-sectional view. The use of Matlab allows for robust data structures, makes manipulation of geologic data types, such as stratigraphic information, straightforward, and provides easy utilization with other code written in Matlab, as well as other software programs. We present examples of integration with a kink-method constructor toolbox and forward and inverse modeling toolboxes for fault-related folding. GeoMapSec is compatible with, and a complement to, The Mathworks’ own Mapping Toolbox. For most subroutines GeoMapSec does not require the Mapping Toolbox, but rather only an installation of Matlab.