AAPG Methods in Exploration No. 13, Chapter 9: The
Geological Application of Wireline Logs: A Keynote Perspective, by John H. Doveton, Pages 115
- 122
from:
AAPG Methods in Exploration No. 13: Geological Applications of Well Logs, Edited
by M. Lovell and N. Parkinson
Copyright © 2002 by The American Association of Petroleum Geologists. All rights
reserved.
Chapter 9
The Geological Application of Wireline Logs: A Keynote Perspective
John H. Doveton
Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas
Lawrence, Kansas
ABSTRACT
Wireline logs have served generations of geologists as the principal medium for
lithostratigraphic correlation in the subsurface. However, the expanding range of logging
measurements, novel techniques of analysis and display, and integrated geological studies
have dramatically broadened the scope of geological applications of wireline logs.
Subsurface investigations can gain major new insights into geology from these measurements
that supplement traditional geological methods. Modern astronomy has benefited enormously
from the expansion of observation beyond the narrow bounds of the visible spectrum to the
range from gamma-ray to radio wavelengths. To some extent, our studies of geology in the
subsurface may progress in an analogous manner, but they will require innovative methods
of database creation and data display that map raw digits into imagery at all scales, with
immediate geologic impact.