Geostatistics is a branch of statistics focusing on spatial or spatiotemporal datasets. Developed originally to predict probability distributions of ore grades for mining operations, it is currently applied in diverse disciplines including petroleum geology, hydrogeology, hydrology, meteorology, oceanography, geochemistry, geometallurgy, geography, forestry, environmental control, landscape ecology, soil science, and agriculture. Geostatistics is applied in varied branches of geography, particularly those involving the spread of diseases (epidemiology), the practice of commerce and military planning (logistics), and the development of efficient spatial networks. Geostatistical algorithms are incorporated in many places, including geographic information systems (GIS).
Petroleum geology is the study of origin, occurrence, movement, accumulation, and exploration of hydrocarbon fuels. It refers to the specific set of geological disciplines that are applied to the search for hydrocarbons.
Hydrogeology is the area of geology that deals with the distribution and movement of groundwater in the soil and rocks of the Earth's crust. The terms groundwater hydrology, geohydrology, and hydrogeology are often used interchangeably.
Exploration geophysics is an applied branch of geophysics and economic geology, which uses physical methods at the surface of the Earth, such as seismic, gravitational, magnetic, electrical and electromagnetic, to measure the physical properties of the subsurface, along with the anomalies in those properties. It is most often used to detect or infer the presence and position of economically useful geological deposits, such as ore minerals; fossil fuels and other hydrocarbons; geothermal reservoirs; and groundwater reservoirs. It can also be used to detect the presence of unexploded ordnance.
Magnetotellurics (MT) is an electromagnetic geophysical method for inferring the earth's subsurface electrical conductivity from measurements of natural geomagnetic and geoelectric field variation at the Earth's surface.
Petrel is a software platform used in the exploration and production sector of the petroleum industry. It enables the user to interpret seismic data, perform well correlation, build reservoir models, visualize reservoir simulation results, calculate volumes, produce maps and design development strategies to maximize reservoir exploitation. Risk and uncertainty can be assessed throughout the life of the reservoir. Although some other oil servicing companies hire the services of this software, Petrel is developed and built by Schlumberger.
Groundwater models are computer models of groundwater flow systems, and are used by hydrologists and hydrogeologists. Groundwater models are used to simulate and predict aquifer conditions.
In geophysics, seismic inversion is the process of transforming seismic reflection data into a quantitative rock-property description of a reservoir. Seismic inversion may be pre- or post-stack, deterministic, random or geostatistical; it typically includes other reservoir measurements such as well logs and cores.
A synthetic seismogram is the result of forward modelling the seismic response of an input earth model, which is defined in terms of 1D, 2D or 3D variations in physical properties. In hydrocarbon exploration this is used to provide a 'tie' between changes in rock properties in a borehole and seismic reflection data at the same location. It can also be used either to test possible interpretation models for 2D and 3D seismic data or to model the response of the predicted geology as an aid to planning a seismic reflection survey. In the processing of wide-angle reflection and refraction (WARR) data, synthetic seismograms are used to further constrain the results of seismic tomography. In earthquake seismology, synthetic seismograms are used either to match the predicted effects of a particular earthquake source fault model with observed seismometer records or to help constrain the Earth's velocity structure. Synthetic seismograms are generated using specialized geophysical software.
In the oil and gas industry, reservoir modeling involves the construction of a computer model of a petroleum reservoir, for the purposes of improving estimation of reserves and making decisions regarding the development of the field, predicting future production, placing additional wells and evaluating alternative reservoir management scenarios.
Geomathematics is the application of mathematical methods to solve problems in geosciences, including geology and geophysics, and particularly geodynamics and seismology.
The European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE) is a professional organization for geoscientists and engineers, established in 1951 with a worldwide membership. The association provides a platform for professionals in geophysics, petroleum exploration, geology, reservoir engineering, mining, civil engineering, digitalization and energy transition to exchange ideas and information. EAGE operates two divisions: the Oil & Gas Geoscience Division and the Near Surface Geoscience Division.
Geothermal exploration is the exploration of the subsurface in search of viable active geothermal regions with the goal of building a geothermal power plant, where hot fluids drive turbines to create electricity. Exploration methods include a broad range of disciplines including geology, geophysics, geochemistry and engineering.
A digital outcrop model (DOM), also called a virtual outcrop model, is a digital 3D representation of the outcrop surface, mostly in a form of textured polygon mesh.
Ricardo Antonio Olea is a Chilean American who was a research mathematical statistician with the United States Geological Survey (2006–21). Previously, he spent most of his career with the National Oil Company of Chile (ENAP) in Punta Arenas and Santiago, and with the Kansas Geological Survey in Lawrence. He received the William Christian Krumbein Medal in 2004 from the International Association for Mathematical Geosciences. He served as Secretary-General (1992−1996) and President (1996–2000) for the International Association for Mathematical Geosciences; and Secretary General (2019–21) of the Compositional Data Association.
André Georges Journel is a French American engineer who excelled in formulating and promoting geostatistics in the earth sciences and engineering, first from the Centre of Mathematical Morphology in Fontainebleau, France and later from Stanford University.
SGS Genesis is the fruit of more than 30 years of expertise in software development for the modelling of mineral resources. Indeed, in 1981, SGS S.A., formerly Gamma Geostat International Inc. was among the pioneers in computer based geostatistical methods and had created one of the first geological modeling software for the first generation of supercomputers. This software is used by SGS Canada Inc., among other things, for the production of National Instrument 43-101 reports in requirement with the Canadian securities regulation. Genesis offers all the tools necessary so that mineral resources are estimated in accordance with the rules of art in conformity with generally accepted CIM Estimation of Mineral Resource and Mineral Reserve Best Practices Guidelines.
EMIGMA is a geophysics interpretation software platform developed by Petros Eikon Incorporated for data processing, simulation, inversion and imaging as well as other associated tasks. The software focuses on non-seismic applications and operates only on the Windows operating system. It supports files standard to the industry, instrument native formats as well as files used by other software in the industry such as AutoCAD, Google Earth and Oasis montaj. There is a free version of EMIGMA called EMIGMA Basic developed to allow viewing of databases created by licensed users. It does not allow data simulation nor modeling nor data import. The software is utilized by geoscientists for exploration and delineating purposes in mining, oil and gas and groundwater as well as hydrologists, environmental engineers, archaeologists and academic institutions for research purposes. Principal contributors to the software are R. W. Groom, H. Wu, E. Vassilenko, R. Jia, C. Ottay and C. Alvarez.
J. Jaime Gómez-Hernández is a Spanish civil engineer specialized in geostatistics and hydrogeology. He is a full professor of hydraulic engineering at the School of Civil Engineering of the Technical University of Valencia. He was conferred the William Christian Krumbein Medal in 2020 from the International Association for Mathematical Geosciences. He also received the 2020 Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water in the field of groundwater.
Fault zone hydrogeology is the study of how brittlely deformed rocks alter fluid flows in different lithological settings, such as clastic, igneous and carbonate rocks. Fluid movements, that can be quantified as permeability, can be facilitated or impeded due to the existence of a fault zone. This is because different mechanisms that deform rocks can alter porosity and permeability within a fault zone. Fluids involved in a fault system generally are groundwater and hydrocarbons.
