Towards Automatic and Topologically Consistent 3D Regional Geological Modeling from Boundaries and Attitudes

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) geological models are important representations of the results of regional geological surveys. However, the process of constructing 3D geological models from two-dimensional (2D) geological elements remains difficult and is not necessarily robust. This paper proposes a method of migrating from 2D elements to 3D models. First, the geological interfaces were constructed using the Hermite Radial Basis Function (HRBF) to interpolate the boundaries and attitude data. Then, the subsurface geological bodies were extracted from the spatial map area using the Boolean method between the HRBF surface and the fundamental body. Finally, the top surfaces of the geological bodies were constructed by coupling the geological boundaries to digital elevation models. Based on this workflow, a prototype system was developed, and typical geological structures (e.g., folds, faults, and strata) were simulated. Geological modes were constructed through this workflow based on realistic regional geological survey data. The model construction process was rapid, and the resulting models accorded with the constraints of the original data. This method could also be used in other fields of study, including mining geology and urban geotechnical investigations.

AdaHRBF v1.0: Gradient-Adaptive Hermite-Birkhoff Radial Basis Function Interpolants for Three-dimensional Stratigraphic Implicit Modeling

“…Zhong et al (2019); Zhong et al (2021) introduced combination constraints for modeling ore bodies based on multiple implicit fields interpolation through RBF methods, in which a multiply labeled implicit function was defined that combines different implicit sub-fields by the combination operations to construct constraints honoring geological relationships more flexibly. Guo et al (2016); Guo et al (2018); Guo et al (2020); Guo et al (2021) proposed an explicitimplicit-integrated 3D geological modelling approach for the geometric fusion of different types of complex geological structure models; therein, the HRBF-based implicit method was used to model general strata, faults, and folds, and the skinning method and the free-form surface were used to model local detailed structures. Wang et al (2018) proposed an implicit modeling approach to automatically build a 3D model for orebodies by means of spatial HRBF interpolation directly based on geological borehole data.…”

Parametric Modeling Method for 3D Symbols of Fold Structures

“…Furthermore, based on the application of knowledge in the modeling process, 3D geological modeling methods can be divided into explicit modeling methods [16,[30][31][32] and implicit modeling methods [17,[33][34][35]. All of the 3D geological modeling methods described above can be used to rapidly construct 3D geological symbols.…”

“…Directly applying the relevant 3D geological model to a 3D scene as a 3D symbol leads to low display efficiency, which contradicts the abstract principle of the symbol. Implicit modeling methods, which have developed rapidly in recent years, have dramatically reduced the dependence on modeling data by implicitly defining the geological interface as the isosurface of one or more scalar fields of 3D space [32,34,35]. However, owing to its refined modeling requirements, this method is unsuitable for creating many 3D geological symbols.…”

GIS Application to Regional Geological Structure Relationship Modelling Considering Semantics

“…This method employs the GIS modelling of the geometrical features of geological structures and their relationships to reveal and visualize the spatial locations and geometries of geological phenomena using dots, lines, planes and other geometric objects [4][5][6][7][8]. To further understand this process, many geologists have performed detailed research on models of geological geometric features [9,10]; these models can be divided into several types: wire-frame models, surface models, voxel models, constructive solid geometry (CSG) models, boundary representation (B-rep) models, and hybrid models. Triangular irregular networks (TIN) [11], Tetrahedral network (TEN) [12], B-rep [13], and Generalized tri-prism (GTP) [14] models are commonly used for the fast and accurate geometrical construction [15] of specialized geological phenomena, although difficulties still exist in building spatial relationships between geometric objects.…”