Abstract: Animated Axial Surface Mapping: The Multimedia Companion

Stephen C. Hook, John H. Shaw, John Suppe

This newly expanded version of AAPG's first DataShare Disk brings to life the concepts and applications of a new method of structural trend analysis. Through the dynamic use of color, sound, animation, and humor, this multimedia companion to the May 1994 article on Axial Surface Mapping introduces the reader (or viewer) to the concepts of rigid-block translation, fault-bend folding, and axial surface mapping. Animated models of growing fault-bend folds allow the viewer to see in four dimensions. The axial surface map shows the horizontal plane; the folding lines show depth planes; and the animations show the structure and its two-dimensional map changing with time and increasing slip. The animations create theoretical map patterns under varying, but controlled conditions hat can be compared to axial surface maps from real data. The model patterns are then used to interpret seismic data and axial surface maps from a producing gas field in offshore California and from an exploration play in Pennsylvania.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #90957©1995 AAPG Mid-Continent Section Meeting, Tulsa, Oklahoma