INTEGRATING DIGITAL MAPPING WITH CONSTRAINED MODEL BUILDING AND STRUCTURAL VALIDATION - CASE STUDY FROM WREN'S NEST

As geological modelling and analysis move into 3D digital space, it becomes increasingly important to be able to rapidly integrate new data with existing databases, without the potential degradation caused by repeated manual transcription of numeric, graphical and meta-data. Digital field mapping offers significant benefits when compared with traditional paper mapping techniques, in that it can directly and interactively feed and be guided by downstream geological modelling and analysis.

For surface structural data, model-building often begins with collection during field mapping. When field mapping is done digitally, with the right software tools, the user benefits from all the advantages of working with geospatial data yet loses none of the benefits of traditional paper mapping.

Collection of field data in a geo-referenced digital environment allows the user to integrate multiple data types, which can then be quickly referred to in the field. The Petroleum Experts (Petex) FieldMove^TM and FieldMOVE Clino^TM apps replicate and enhance the traditional paper mapping experience. They provides the flexibility to work at multiple scales in one project. Digital mapping removes the potential for errors when generating a ‘fair copy’ map as there is no need to prepare it separately, allowing the user to directly start data analysis during the field campaign.

Core geological skills can be supplemented by integrated digital workflows which lead from mapping to rule-based model construction in 2D and 3D. The aim of structural modelling in a digital environment realises the potential of information technology to de-risk geological models used in surface exploration and evaluation. Learning basic mapping through field work gives no better introduction and exposure to some of the main concepts and challenges that geologists will encounter when entering exploration companies and modelling more fully their current or potential assets.

Here we present a digital field-mapping and 3D model building case study, using FieldMOVE, FieldMOVE Clino and MOVE^TM, from the Lower Palaeozoic Wren's Nest anticline in the West Midlands of the UK.

Petex (and previously Midland Valley) continues to pioneer phone- and tablet-based mapping, which is widely used by industrial and academic partners, and continues to integrate feedback in further developments of this technology.