Creating GM with both surficial lithologic map and borehole lithology
An ongoing problem that I am trying to solve is: how can I create a geological model (GM) that uses borehole lithologic and also uses an existing surficial lithologic map (vector polygons; e.g., shapefile)? I want the resulting GM to be informed by the surficial map in areas where boreholes are sparse, and also accurately represent the surficial geology (i.e., the surface of the GM should match the surficial lithologic map). As yet, I cannot find a tidy way to do this. For example, the red unit in the attached screenshot is the bedrock unit in a model with 6 layers. In some broad areas, however, it is exposed at the surface continually and I cannot force my model to honor this. Ideally, an approach would be systemic and would also work for complex surfaces, like those in the screenshot.
So far, the workarounds I've tried include adding the following data to the models contact surfaces:
- Creating a set of 3D points assigned to the geologic unit surface, equally spaced within each surficial geologic unit's polygons
- Creating polylines along the unit contacts that match the surficial map
- Creating equally spaced points along the unit contacts that match the surficial map
No matter what I've tried, the GM's surface fails to match the surficial map. Conceptually, it seems like this functionality should be possible, given that the surficial map and boreholes should complement each other. Yes, I have watched and tried the lesson "Building a Model from a Map."
I'm open to trying anything. Thanks for any ideas.
