Modeling with no drillholes (Remote Roundup 2021)

Leapfrog Geo allows you to easily construct geological models from any input data. In this demo, we’ll build a model from a geological map, some mapped surface contacts, and surface structural measurements.

Overview

Video Transcript

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(upbeat music)

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<v Anne>Thank you everyone for joining me today</v>

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and taking time to join me for this webinar on creating

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a geological model without drill holes in Leapfrog Geo.

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My name is Anne Belanger

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and I’m a project geologist at Sequent.

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I’m based in Vancouver

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and I’ve been with this team since March 2019.

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We’re just going to get right into Leapfrog Geo.

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So we’re starting today’s demo with some pre-loaded data.

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I have my topography, which was created from a mesh surface.

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I have a geological map that was geo-referenced

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and is now draped on the topography.

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I have structural measurements that have been taken

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at each contact sort of point or points

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along each contact between these rock units.

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And I also have some GIS lines

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for my dark blue and light blue units.

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So we’re starting off as mentioned.

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We have no drill hole data, and we want to make a model

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from this map using this information.

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This scenario might arise maybe you’ve acquired a property

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from either prospector or looking at some public access

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geo-science data from local governments.

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And also obviously the opportunity for companies

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to do their own geological mapping campaigns.

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And you want to analyze your information in a 3D format.

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So I would like to start my model but first I do need

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to capture all the data.

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Or first I want to capture all the data

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that is displayed here.

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We have our contact information as mentioned,

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in structural disks but I don’t have any information

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for the fault yet.

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So I’d like to digitize my fault

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and then we can start our geological model.

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So it’s easy enough to digitize the fault.

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I’m just going to start by making a GIS line.

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As with Leapfrog Geo and most sort of activities new icons

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will appear in my toolbar that will allow me

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to create this GIS line.

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I can just trace it out to the best of my capabilities,

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and end it by right clicking.

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So easy enough I have my fault digitized

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and just click Save.

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This automatically creates a fault in my GIS data maps

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and photos folder and also my fault draped on topography.

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Next we can see that we have two structural measurements

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taken along the fault.

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They’re a little bit offset probably just because,

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otherwise I wouldn’t be able to see the actual measurement.

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So I would like to digitize these as well.

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So someone was in the field and took a strike

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for an azimuth strike dip of this fall.

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To digitize the fault, structural measurements I can just go

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to my structurally modeling folder and say new planar data

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and also make sure that it is for my fault.

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And to capture this information I just need

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to create a structural disk.

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I’ll make sure it’s on my fault.

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So I just click and drag and try and align my azimuth

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with the azimuth of the measurement on the map.

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And I can type in my dip.

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So 65, I could type in my azimuth if I knew

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the exact measurement there, but instead I’ll just try

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and match the alignment of my structural disk

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with the measurement on the map.

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I can type in 60, for my dip, and save.

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So just easy as that, you know, we don’t need drill holes

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we already have the information to build our fault

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with the GIS line and our structural disk.

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I can now create my geological model.

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So I can just go to my geological model folders,

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right click, a new geological model.

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Surface resolution can be 50.

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I want to make sure that my boundary

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for my model only extends to the map.

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Extends this way I’m not projecting my sort of calculations.

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That’s where the map is and just make it

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a little bit deeper at the end.

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I’m going to name this green fields project.

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And click okay.

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We can see a processing as well, so often with Leapfrog Geo

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when you are, when you create a new surface or add

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some new information you will see the processing panel go.

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For my geological model I have a boundary

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which is now clipped by my topography.

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And since we didn’t bring in drill holes I also,

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so I have the startings of a geological model

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but I don’t yet have my lithologies yet because

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I didn’t create a base table for my geological model.

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So I just in this particular case

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I can enter in my lithologies manually.

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We are going to just start by naming,

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we’re just going to name them by their color.

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Yellow, and I’m doing this in chronological order.

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So I’ve gone from youngest to oldest.

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Once again to help us model I am going to pick

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this corresponding color for my corresponding unit.

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I find it easiest at least in this particular case

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to just click pink color.

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And okay.

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So now we have our framework for the model.

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What we will be doing next is creating surfaces

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that will be cutting into our boundary unit.

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So we have this whole just massive volume per se

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and if you can imagine that it’s like clay

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and we’re going to just start cutting it up

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into different lithological units and boundaries.

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I’m going to start by actually splitting my model in two.

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So I’m going to actually cut it by the fault which will

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separate my models into an east and a west block.

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So I’m just going to right click on fault system

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and say new fault.

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I did create my fault with both a GIS line.

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I have information for both the GIS line

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and structural disks.

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I can start creating my folder with either option

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but for now I’ll start with my structural disks.

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Say okay.

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And I’m just going to turn off exactly band

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so we can see that fault a bit better.

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So now we do have a line for our fault.

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But as we can see it doesn’t quite follow the GIS line

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because I haven’t yet told it to follow the GIS line.

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So again, easy to create structural data

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but also pretty easy to edit and adjust it.

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So for this fault I can just right click on my fault line

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and say add information and I’ll add my GIS line.

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Make sure I pick my fault on topography,

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and we can see that fault adjusts to typography.

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So before it was just connecting the two structural disks

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and now it follows the line that I traced on the map.

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Again, as I mentioned we’re going to separate

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this one model into two.

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So I just want to activate my fault system.

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I click okay, and we’ll see

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in my project tree two fault blocks will appear.

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So it’s now been cut by the fault

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and we have two distinct blocks.

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I activated my fault.

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So my approach is to split this model.

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I’m going to start by modeling my west block first

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rather than my east block.

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We can see the mythologies are quite similar in both

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which will be beneficial for us and I can show.

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Even though I’m starting with my west block I have

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a little trick later on

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to easily get my east block up to date.

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I can figure out which block is which.

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So my west block is my fault block two and my east block

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is my fault block one.

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So I want to start my modeling in this west block

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which is my fault block two.

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We have these four units

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are green, pink, orange, and yellow.

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I’m going to start by creating surfaces

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for these four units.

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As I mentioned previously we’re going to use these surfaces

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to cut up this sort of boundary block.

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And with four units we need three surfaces.

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So I’m going to start with a deposit surface

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and say new deposit from structural data.

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I can tell Leapfrog Geo which unit is older

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or younger than the other.

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So in this particular case my pink is younger than my green.

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And I’d like to use the pink

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and green structural measurements

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that my geologist made in the field.

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So I dragged that surface in

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and it is now cutting through this volume.

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I can do this again for our orange to pink.

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So new deposit from structural data, orange

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is younger than pink.

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Make sure to pick the proper measurements.

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And once again we have a surface generated

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along that contact point that cuts through our volume.

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And so for the last one new deposit from structural data.

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I’m going to do my yellow to orange contact and surface.

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I can drag that in.

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Drag the surface in and now we have all three surfaces

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for all those units.

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We’ll start right now by activating these surfaces

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to create output volumes.

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So right now our output volumes are unknown.

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We don’t have any but once we activate

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these surfaces same as our fault.

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I just need to click the check mark and say okay

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and make sure they were in chronological order

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which they were.

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And now we will see four different output volumes generated.

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So to make it easier

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to view these I’ll just drag them all in.

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And there we go.

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We have a piece of our initial block model.

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And that looks pretty good to me.

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I guess the only thing that we have to do now is look

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at our blue units, so we have our blue on topography

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and our light blue GIS lines.

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We can see on the map there were no structural measurements

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made at these contact points.

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I guess also important

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to be aware of what’s going on geologically.

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So here we have a little bit of an angular unconformity.

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So it looks like we have an original surface

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maybe a little bit of geologically, you know,

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a transgression regression cycle going on.

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So in terms of this particular surface to create

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for my blue units I’m going to use an erosional surface.

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So I can start in my surface chronology

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and say new erosion from GIS vector data.

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And I can use just my GIS line that’s on the topography.

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And I’ll pick my dark blue is younger than unknown.

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For this particular case as well I’m going to stick

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with my psychomythology being unknown

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because my dark blue contacts multiple units I wanted

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to take into account all those units rather than just one.

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So I can say okay.

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And we can see our surface is generating.

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There we go.

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So next I’d like to do my light blue as well.

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So I’ll go with new erosion.

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From new erosion, from GIS vector data

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and I’ll pick that light blue.

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And in this case I can say my light blue is younger

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than my dark blue because my light blue unit

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only touches my dark blue.

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So I can say okay.

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And I can drag my new surface into the scene as well.

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So we can see we have these surfaces now

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but we haven’t again activated them.

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So Leapfrog Geo doesn’t know yet to create volumes

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from them where to cut or other volumes by these surfaces.

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Just need to double click on surface chronology and activate

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these two surfaces and we’ll see these volumes adjust.

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And we’ll also have two new volumes in our output volumes.

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So we’ll get a dark blue and light blue volumes

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and we’ll see the top of our other units disappear.

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So now they have a flat cut off.

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And if I just drag these two volumes in,

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we now have our dark and light blue units.

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Oh, if I look at my map again I can certainly see

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that my west block is quite accurate.

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So I’ve got my units all lining up and made

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from depositional surfaces and then also erosions

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for the blue units

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which are just lying on top of our other lithologies.

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So I’ve mapped the west side this west block now.

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For our fall block one or east block we still

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just have sort of blank data.

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If you remember I mentioned a trick though.

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So again, pretty lucky I can just go

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to my surface chronology in the block I already modeled

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and I can right click and say copy chronology two.

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And it knows my only other block in this model

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is my fault block one.

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So I’ll click okay.

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So what Leapfrog Geo doing now is it’s quickly

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taking all those roles I just applied in my west block

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and applying them to all those similar boundaries

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in the east block.

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So it’s going to take because we have

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our structural information in both sides of the fault.

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It can now create surfaces and output volumes

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for this east side without me having

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to go through and create all those rules again.

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And there we go.

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So it already brought it into the scene and if I just

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turn my map back on and toggle

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in between it looks pretty similar to me.

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So that looks great.

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We made our map, we made our model from our map.

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So didn’t have any drill holes, it was nice and quick.

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So I hope this helped provide some insight

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into Leapfrog Geo’s capabilities.

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Please feel free to ask questions now and type them

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now we’ll continue to take them,

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but that’s the end of the demo for now.

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So Sarah, do we have any questions that came out?

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<v Sarah>Hey, can you hear me okay?</v>

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<v Anne>Yep.</v>

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<v Sarah>Yeah, great thanks.</v>

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Thanks for that demo.

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I do have a few questions that popped up.

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So first one is, if I had some downhaul structural data

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obviously this was from some mapping but if I had some

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from my drill called can I use it in a model in Leapfrog?

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<v Anne>Yeah, yeah absolutely.</v>

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So obviously, we don’t have draw holes in this model

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to show but certainly when you have drill holes

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in a project structural data can easily be brought in.

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So added to the drill holes just by importing

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the structural information to the drill holes folder.

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These input like these inputs obviously need a depth.

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So a depth at which they were taken in the drill hole

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and then either a sorry, azimuth or dip or an alpha beta.

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And from there you can view them in the draw holes

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and also create syrinx from the information and obviously

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just use it further for any structural calculations.

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<v Sarah>Great, thanks for that.</v>

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Another question, can you draw cross-sections as inputs?

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So can you import cross-sections into Leapfrog and then use

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that to add to your geological model in your interpretation?

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<v Anne>Yeah and Sarah please feel free</v>

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to add anything here.

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So we can bring in import cross sections and view them

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in our scene

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when they’re sort of a geo-tiff and geo-referenced.

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And then we could also trace those contact lines

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within the sections to create those sort of GIS lines

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that we created these surfaces from.

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Sarah do you have anything to add for that?

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<v Sarah>No that’s definitely true the other thing,</v>

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the opposite of what you can do there

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is actually create the cross sections within Leapfrog.

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So if you’ve built a conceptual 3D model

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like this we can then use Leapfrog to cut this model up.

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Create the sections and then you can do

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further interpretation work on that on paper

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if you print them out or anything like that.

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So it’s really easy to move between 2D and 3D space

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in Leapfrog I suppose which is where I’m going with that.

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No question.

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Okay, one last question that’s popped up is,

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how does Leapfrog calculate the offset along that fault.

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<v Anne>Oh, that’s a good question.</v>

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Leapfrog does not calculate the offset along the fault.

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So when we activated the fault what we actually did

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was told Leapfrog to disassociate essentially one side

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from the other.

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So instead of actually taking into account the fault

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and instead just looks at the data on either side

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of the fault completely separate from the other.

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So I guess in this particular case

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we had some good data capture in the field.

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So we have some contact points, pretty close to our faults,

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showing the sort of dip

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or striking dip of those contact points as well.

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And all that geo does is it takes that information.

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So first on that west block it took all the information

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and created our surfaces only with the input

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in the west block, and then it did the same thing

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for only the input on our east block.

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So certainly, you know, it does our data capture

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in this particular case was great.

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So we are getting this sort of offshoot up top

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into our model.

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But yeah it actually doesn’t look at offset at all,

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I guess if you were looking to know how much offset

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there was in between the two fall blocks you could

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as a rough tool just use a ruler to drag it out.

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But yeah Leapfrog doesn’t actually look at that at all.

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<v Sarah>Great.</v>

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Okay and that’s all the questions that we’ve got for today.

[00:24:43.140]
So thanks for that.

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And unless you’ve got anything to add

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I think that’s it for this demonstration.

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<v Anne>Nope, that’s it I guess like my email</v>

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is just anne.belangerseequent.com.

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If you have any questions I hope to talk to everyone soon.

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Thanks for joining.

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