NELSON, H. ROICE, JR., JOHNNY M. AMASON, ROGER N. ANDERSON, JEFFREY M. HUME, ROBERT J. MARS, DAVID J. MONK, DAVID RIDYARD, and RICHARD C. UDEN
Continuum Resources Corporation, Houston, TX

Abstract: Immersive Environments: A New Type of Geotechnical Map

Mapping is a key component of geologic interpretation. Maps remain the fundamental means of spatial reference, even as the geotechnical sciences expand with new geophysical, geological, and engineering tools and techniques. Geoscientists have been constrained to reference their logs, cross-sections and simulations with maps, whether they are working in data acquisition, processing, or interpretation. Recent computer science developments, in what is popularly referred to as Virtual Reality, allow users to immerse themselves in the data describing their reservoirs, prospects, play fairways, or basins. Immersive Environments create a new type of geotechnical map.

Traditionally maps are presented flat and two-dimensional, whether they are depicted on a piece of paper placed on a table or an image on a screen. Immersive Environments, by comparison, present map information in at least three-dimensions, which can be evaluated from various perspectives to naturally utilize the human cognitive capacity. Within a single Immersive Environment, the topography of several surfaces can have attributes (like extracted seismic amplitude) texture mapped on the surfaces and these attributes can be simultaneously evaluated with the structure. Immersive Environments enhance boundaries, allowing automatic perception of the way we represent the division between two parts, making it possible to reconstruct, with uncanny accuracy, the basic forms underlying data, while map boundaries are simply an interpretation. Immersive Environments integrate dynamic and scaleable data, and maps are static, often at fixed hardcopy scales.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90928©1999 AAPG Annual Convention, San Antonio, Texas