Realistic modelling of faults in LoopStructural 1.0

Abstract

Abstract. Without properly accounting for both fault kinematics and faulted surface observations, it is challenging to create 3D geological models of faulted geological units that are seen in all tectonic settings. Geometries where multiple faults interact, where the faulted surface geometry significantly deviate from a flat plane and where the geological interfaces are poorly characterised by sparse data sets are particular challenges. There are two existing approaches for incorporating faults into geological surface modelling: one approach incorporates the fault displacement into the surface description but does not incorporate fault kinematics and in most cases will produce geologically unexpected results such as shrinking intrusions, fold hinges without offset and layer thickness growth in flat oblique faults. Another approach builds a continuous surface without faulting and then applies a kinematic fault operator to the continuous surface to create the displacement. Both approaches have their strengths, however neither approach can capture the interaction of faults within complicated fault networks e.g fault duplexes, flower structures and listric faults because they either \\begin{inparaenum}[(1)] \\item impose an incorrect (not defined by data) fault slip direction; or \\item require an over sampled data set that describes the faulted surface location\\end{inparaenum}. In this study we integrate the fault kinematics into the implicit surface by using the fault kinematic model to restore observations and the model domain prior to interpolating the faulted surface. This approach can build models that are consistent with observations of the faulted surface and fault kinematics. Integrating fault kinematics directly into the implicit surface description allows for complex fault stratigraphy and fault-fault interactions to be modelled. Our approaches show significant improvement in capturing faulted surface geometries especially where the intersection angle between the faulted surface geometry and the fault surface varies (e.g. intrusions, fold series) and when modelling interacting faults (fault duplex).