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South-Central Section - 43rd Annual Meeting (16-17 March 2009)

Paper No. 3
Presentation Time: 4:30 PM

ANALYSIS OF GEOLOGICAL OUTCROP VIRTUAL MODELS USING THE ArcGIS PLATFORM


WHITE, Lionel1, ALFARHAN, Mohammed1, CLINE, Jarvis1, ABDELSALAM, Mohamed2 and AIKEN, Carlos1, (1)Department of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Dallas, 800 W. Campbell Rd, Richardson, TX 75080, (2)Dept. of Geological Sciences & Engineering, Missouri University of Science and Technology, 129 McNutt Hall, 1400 N. Bishop Ave, Rolla, MO 65409, lwhite@utdallas.edu

The ArcGIS software platform is widely available in industry and academia. Photorealistic virtual models of geological outcrops created from LIDAR scans of the outcrops are loaded into the 3D ArcScene environment and software tools that we have developed are used to interactively analyze the orientation and structural characteristics of the outcrops. A 3D virtual outcrop model is constructed in commercially available software. The model is then converted to a multipatch 3D file and loaded into the ArcScene viewer. An innovative interface to ArcScene has been developed which allows for editing and extraction of data from the ArcScene viewer. This interface is used to implement a wide range of geological analysis techniques. Among the analysis which can be performed are strike-dip from surfaces or from points along a linear feature which has dimensional relief such as a bedding contact which has been incised by erosion. Trend-plunge can be determined from two selected points on a surface as well as the intersection of the strike-dip planes of the limbs of a fold. The balanced cross-section of a fold can be determined by tracing a bedding layer in the fold and projecting the tracing onto a plane that is perpendicular to the trend-plunge of the fold. The true cross-section can be displayed in the 2D viewer ArcMap and detailed measurements of the fold cross-section can be made. Various orientations of the surface can be rapidly identified based upon the surface normal vectors of the triangles which comprise the model and using the display symbology of the ArcGIS tool set to the set colors of the different surface orientations. The tools will enable the detailed analysis of geological outcrops that are inaccessible to the geologist but which can be captured by the LIDAR scanner. The tool set also enables the in-class study of a wide variety of outcrops prior to the student going to the field for the hands-on experience. Examples of analysis of outcrops in the Arbuckle Anticline along Interstate 35 in southern Oklahoma are shown.

Session No. 15

GIS and Geoscience Education
Tuesday, 17 March 2009: 4:00 PM-6:00 PM
Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 41, No. 2, p.34
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