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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 2007; v. 292; p. 89-101;
DOI: 10.1144/SP292.5
© 2007 Geological Society of London

Articles

Editing faults within tetrahedral volume models in real time

A. L. Tertois & J. L. Mallet

Gocad Research Group, ASGA ENSG-INPL/CRPG-CNRS, Rue du Doyen Marcel Roubault - BP 40, 54501 Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France (e-mail: tertois{at}gocad.org)

Accurately positioning faults in a geological model is a major concern because they are responsible for offsets of geological sequences. In the tetrahedral models studied in this paper, faults are discontinuities: faces of tetrahedra on either side of a fault are disconnected. Building tetrahedral models can require a large amount of time, especially when there are many faults. We present a tool for making small, real-time, modifications of faults in tetrahedral models arising from geometrical changes required either by new subsurface data or by new interpretations of existing subsurface data. Fault editing is achieved by moving control points on the fault in the tetrahedral grid and by computing a distortion property over an editable volume relative to the control point and spreading this distortion to neighbouring points using the Discrete Smooth Interpolation technique. The editable volume in which tetrahedron vertices are allowed to move is defined by a given distance to the fault. This approach provides a means of editing faults and fault-related features, such as branch-lines.