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The AAPG/Datapages Combined Publications Database
AAPG Bulletin
Abstract
DOI:10.1306/11051010026
Quantification of fold curvature and fracturing using terrestrial laser scanning
Mark A. Pearce,1 Richard R. Jones,2 Steven A. F. Smith,3 Kenneth J. W. McCaffrey4
1Geospatial Research Ltd., Department of Earth Sciences, University of Durham, Durham, DH1 3LE, United Kingdom; mark@geospatial-research.co.uk
2Geospatial Research Ltd., Department of Earth Sciences, University of Durham, Durham, DH1 3LE, United Kingdom; richard@geospatial-research.co.uk
3Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia (INGV), Via di Vigna Murata, 605, 00143 Roma, Italy; steven.smith@ingv.it
4Geospatial Research Ltd., Department of Earth Sciences, University of Durham, Durham, DH1 3LE, United Kingdom; present address: Department of Earth Sciences, University of Durham, Durham, DH1 3LE, United Kingdom; k.j.w.mccaffrey@dur.ac.uk
ABSTRACT
Terrestrial laser scanning is used to capture the geometry of three single folded bedding surfaces. The resulting light detection and ranging (LIDAR) point clouds are filtered and smoothed to enable meshing and calculation of principal curvatures. Fracture
traces, picked from the LIDAR data, are used to calculate
fracture
densities. The rich data sets produced by this method provide statistically robust estimates of spatial variations in
fracture
density across the fold surface. The digital nature of the data also allows resampling to derive
fracture
parameters that are more traditionally measured manually from outcrops (e.g., one-dimensional line transects of
fracture
spacing). The
fracture
statistics derived from the LIDAR data are compared with the calculated principal and Gaussian curvatures of the surface to assess whether areas of extreme curvature correlate with high-
fracture
density. For the folds studied, all the
fracture
spacing distributions showed an exponential distribution, and no significant correlation between
fracture
density and surface curvature was observed. This questions the validity of using curvature as a proxy for high brittle strains and highlights the need for a complete understanding of fold and
fracture
mechanics that include considerations of other factors including lithology, strain rate, and confining pressure, not just finite strain. The three case studies also illustrate how terrestrial laser scanning can be used to gather detailed quantitative data sets on
fracture
and fold distributions from outcrop analogs.
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