measurement conventions structural geology

GerhardBax
GerhardBax Posts: 1
in Visible Geology

First of all: THANKS for this really great visualisation tool!
I am a retired Earth Science Professor (Structural Geology & Geoinformatics), still teaching my subjects occasionally.
Trained in Germany, using a Clar Gefügekompass, I have always used "Dip Direction (Azimuth)" & "Dip" for my measurements, both planes and lines. Is there a way to directly use these values instead of Strike and Dip in Stereonet?

In case of interest I would glad to contribute with my professional experience in many orogens around the planet 😉 Could also assist with translation …..

Cheers
Gerhard

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Best Answer

  • RachelMurtagh
    RachelMurtagh Posts: 41 admin
    Answer ✓

    Hi Gerhard, thanks for your post and great question.

    Short answer is no, there's no way to input dip and dip direction as opposed to strike and dip. We kept the measurements as strike and dip for a few reasons but the easiest justification is that when the structural measurements are ported from the Geology Explorer to the stereonet it's a straight forward process with no overhead of recalculating things. I remember the programmers having to do this calculations and additional process when we introduced stereonets into Leapfrog. It's not to say it's difficult to do those sums it just introduces the necessity to do those calculations. Our aim was to deliver an impactful application that is as light as possible on our teams to maintain so we were quite strict with introducing additional flexibility.

    Having said this, we're always open to future possibilities, so I will add you idea to our feedback system!

    Thanks again and I hope you enjoy using the app 😁

    We would love to see any models you might create! (there's a thread for sharing work - I'm just about to post a couple of models to kick things off!!).

Answers

  • NickCook1
    NickCook1 Posts: 2
    edited July 14

    I really dislike this use of orientation data - so many people use dip and dip direction. And having to implement a "right hand rule" for the dip direction using strike and dip is painful and always has the potential to introduce errors. For the last 40 years we have always insisted on dip and dip direction and the use of two digits for inclinations and three digits compass bearings. Porting to a stereonet as the excuse for using this is weak given what you can do in Leapfrog. The whole idea of the Geology Explorer is a good one, and I was excited to trial it for teaching, but the orientations do my head in !!

  • IvanOrtiz
    IvanOrtiz Posts: 1
    edited December 3

    Dip direction is the easiest way to handle data. I can't believe the older version was better, the online version also permitted paste data which was very useful, now it is basically useless for real processing of data.

  • NickCook1
    NickCook1 Posts: 2

    And, the final test came to when set exams - and people messed it up - and I think it was because we introduced the extra element of complexity. So, we will not be using it next year as a practical exercise.

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