Unfaulting
Arches National Park, Utah (photograph Marleen Rutten).
Rocks are moved to match layers on either side of the faults.
Original
Unfaulted
Unfolding
Wadi Hawasina, Oman (photograph Inger Domingo).
Rocks are rotated and shifted to make layers horizontal.
Original
Unfolded
Unconformity
Grand Canyon, Arizona (photograph Anne Rutten).
Rocks above the unconformity are unfolded for shallow horizons and rock below the unconformity are unfolded for deep horizons. The unconformity gap results from the difference between above-movement and below-movement.
Original
Unconformity
ezValidator Software
Slokkert Consultancy develops the ezValidator™ unfaulting, unfolding and unconformity software for use in the geological evaluation of oil and gas fields.
The ezValidator™ software can help you to validate interpretation of simple and complex geological structures. Early on in an interpretation it assists you to get the correlation across faulted structures right. Later on it gives you a view of the detailed stratigraphic variation across the unbroken flat-lying sediments in their original depositional setting, honouring unconformity gaps at angular discordances.
The software can handle complex fault patterns such as branching and crossing faults.
The ezValidator™ software is released in Landmark’s DecisionSpace® Geosciences software environment. The software is interactive, intuitive and very fast. It can be used by mainstream seismic interpreters (expert structural-geological knowledge is not required).
Slokkert Consultancy provides an unfaulting/unfolding/unconformity service to oil and gas E&P companies. This can be based on screen dumps of sections or on projects stored in an OpenWorks™ database. This service is free for the first section in a new area.
Examples for this website are greatly appreciated (outcrop photos, seismic).
Links:
ezValidator Case Study
Champion Field offshore Brunei (courtesy Brunei Shell Petroleum).
Example of unravelling a horrendously complex structure with many crossing faults and several unconformities.