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.