Structural geology taxonomy of outcrop deformation developed for oil and gas industry
Authors:
Lydia Harmon, Peter HenningsMentor:
Peter Hennings, Manager, Structure and Geomechanics Group, ConocoPhillipsA structural geology taxonomy strives to educate and enhance communications between geologists and non-geologists at ConocoPhillips about outcrop deformation at key field sites in North America. Compilation and evaluation of structural data of well-known geologic field sites into a Wiki format increases communication within ConocoPhillips. I collected and organized the information for each page from published literature and ConocoPhillips field-trip guides during my summer internship. The data was synthesized into a taxonomy-like assemblage, and is populated by strategically chosen field-areas in North America to best demonstrate the relationships among deformational regime, general deformational behavior, and lithology. The field sites are geologically relevant to the oil and gas industry. Pictures from the outcrops and GoogleEarth links add to the visual aspect of each page and highlight the general deformational behavior of the outcrops, geographical, and other geologic information. This project is the first attempt to populate a structural geology taxonomy, with particular attention to encompass both general and specific information, including a repository for processed data, e.g. 3D models. The Structure and Geomechanics group of ConocoPhillips will continue to populate the taxonomy and add links to each page, to complete the taxonomy. With the growing internal OneWiki network, as the taxonomy page and the outcrop pages are linked to other pages, the popularity and usefulness of the taxonomy will expand. Future analysis of communications and a record of page views will assess the success of the taxonomy.