GMS 7.

0 TUTORIALS
Stratigraphy Modeling – Horizon
Coverages

1 Introduction
This tutorial builds on the concepts taught in the tutorial entitled Stratigraphy Modeling –
Horizons and Solids. In that tutorial, you created solids using horizons and cross
sections. GMS uses 2D interpolation in the algorithm to define the solids. Sometimes
the 2D interpolation tends to continue trends in the data which causes the areal extent of
the solids to extend beyond where we would like them to. This tutorial illustrates a way
to constrain the areal extent of the solids created using the Horizons ´ Solids command.

You should have completed the Stratigraphy Modeling – Horizons and Solids tutorial
prior to this tutorial. You should also be familiar with how feature objects work. The
Feature Objects tutorial provides a good introduction to using the map tools.

1.1 Contents

1 Introduction..................................................................................................................... 1-1
1.1 Contents ................................................................................................................... 1-1
1.2 Outline...................................................................................................................... 1-2
1.3 Required Modules/Interfaces ................................................................................... 1-2
2 Getting Started ................................................................................................................ 2-2
3 Reading Borehole Data................................................................................................... 3-3
4 Horizons -> Solids ........................................................................................................... 4-3
4.1 View the Clean Sand Solid ...................................................................................... 4-4
5 Creating the Horizon Conceptual Model...................................................................... 5-5
5.1 Horizon Coverage 4 ................................................................................................. 5-5
5.2 Defining the polygon ............................................................................................... 5-6
5.3 Marking the outside-boundary arcs.......................................................................... 5-7

Page 1 of 13 © Aquaveo
GMS Tutorials Stratigraphy Modeling – Horizon Coverages

5.4 Build Polygons and Delete Polygons ....................................................................... 5-8

6 Horizons -> Solids ........................................................................................................... 6-9
6.1 Comparing the results ............................................................................................ 6-10
7 Automatically Create the Horizon Conceptual Model .............................................. 7-10
7.1 Build Horizon Coverages....................................................................................... 7-10
7.2 Examine the Horizon Coverages............................................................................ 7-11
8 Building Solids............................................................................................................... 8-11
8.1 Create Solids From the Horizon Coverage ............................................................ 8-11
8.2 Compare the results................................................................................................ 8-12
9 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................... 9-13

1.2 Outline
This is what you will do:

1. Create horizon coverages manually.

2. Create horizon coverages automatically.

3. Create solids from the horizon conceptual model.

4. Compare the solids made from a horizons conceptual to the solids created
without a horizons conceptual model.

1.3 Required Modules/Interfaces

You will need the following components enabled to complete this tutorial:

• Sub-surface characterization

• Geostatistics

• Map

You can see if these components are enabled by selecting the Help | Register. If you do
not have these components enabled, you can request a temporary password by contacting
sales@[Link].

2 Getting Started
Let’s get started.

1. If necessary, launch GMS. If GMS is already running, select the File | New
command to ensure that the program settings are restored to their default state.

Page 2 of 13 © Aquaveo
GMS Tutorials Stratigraphy Modeling – Horizon Coverages

3 Reading Borehole Data

We will start by reading in the same set of boreholes that are used in the Stratigraphy
Modeling – Horizons and Solids tutorial.

To read in the file:

1. Select the Open button .

2. Locate and open the directory entitled tutfiles\Stratigraphy

Modeling\horizons\.

3. Open the file named [Link].

4 Horizons -> Solids

Now we’ll create solids the way that was outlined in the Stratigraphy Modeling –
Horizons and Solids tutorial. The horizon IDs have already been assigned, and the cross
sections created, so all we have to do is run the Horizons ´ Solids command.

1. In the Project Explorer, click on the Borehole Data folder to switch to the
Borehole module.

2. Select the Boreholes | Horizons´ Solids menu command.

3. Accept the default settings and click Next.

4. In the second step, set the dialog options as shown in Figure 1 below and click
Finish.

Page 3 of 13 © Aquaveo
GMS Tutorials Stratigraphy Modeling – Horizon Coverages

Figure 1. Horizons to Solids Wizard, step 2.

GMS now creates the solids.

4.1 View the Clean Sand Solid

Let’s look at the Clean Sand layer (the green solid).

1. In the Project Explorer under the Solid Data folder , expand the solids
folder to see the solids that were just created.

2. Turn off all the solids except for the Clean_Sand 4 solid.

3. Select the Display Options button .

4. Turn on Hole names in the Stratigraphy section of the Borehole tab.

5. Select Solid Data in the list on the left.

6. Turn on the Solid faces and click OK.

7. Notice how the green solid intersects with cross section 5G-2G even though
there is no green material in that cross section.

8. Switch to the rotate tool and rotate the view to get a feel for the extent of
the green solid. For example, notice how it passes through cross section 6G-
8G outside of the green area in the cross section.

Page 4 of 13 © Aquaveo
GMS Tutorials Stratigraphy Modeling – Horizon Coverages

What you are seeing is the result of the interpolation that is used by the Horizons ´
Solids command. The interpolation identifies the trends in the data and continues the
trends – sometimes further than we would like. Using horizon coverages allows us to
constrain the interpolation.

5 Creating the Horizon Conceptual Model

We will now manually create a horizon conceptual model.

1. In the Project Explorer, right-click on the Map Data folder and select the
New Conceptual Model command from the pop-up menu.

2. Change the Name of the conceptual model to Horizons.

3. Change the Type to Horizons.

4. Click OK to exit the dialog.

5.1 Horizon Coverage 4

Now we will create a new coverage and set up the attributes.

1. In the Project Explorer, right-click on the default coverage and select the
Duplicate command. This will create a new coverage called “Copy of default
coverage”.

2. Drag the new coverage so that it is under the Horizons conceptual model ,
as shown in Figure 2. GMS will give you a warning that moving the coverage
may change the attribute tables. Click Yes to dismiss the warning.

Figure 2. Project Explorer Showing Horizons Conceptual Model.

Page 5 of 13 © Aquaveo
GMS Tutorials Stratigraphy Modeling – Horizon Coverages

3. Right-click on the Copy of default coverage and select the Coverage

Setup command.

4. Change the Coverage name to 4. This is the horizon ID corresponding to the

green material.

5. Change the Horizon ID to 4.

6. Click OK to exit the dialog.

5.2 Defining the polygon

Now we need to create the polygon which will constrain the green material.

1. In the Project Explorer, turn off the Clean_Sand 4 solid.

2. Make sure that coverage 4 is the active coverage. (The icon in the Project
Explorer should be colored green, not grey. Select the icon to make it active if
necessary).

3. Select the Plan View button .

4. Notice how part of the cross section lines are highlighted in red. The red
portion represents the part of the cross sections where the green material exists.
This red highlighting only appears when you are in plan view and the active
coverage is a horizon coverage.

5. Switch between plan view and oblique view a few times, or rotate
the view to convince yourself that the red highlighting seen in plan view exists
where the green material is in the cross sections.

6. Switch back to Plan View if necessary.

7. Switch to the Create Arc tool .

8. Create 2 arcs similar to those identified by the arrows shown in Figure 3.

Notice that the arcs surround the red highlighting on the cross sections.

Each of the vertices on the arcs will be used when interpolating the horizon. So creating
an arc with more vertices will more strongly control the interpolation than an arc with
fewer vertices.

Page 6 of 13 © Aquaveo
GMS Tutorials Stratigraphy Modeling – Horizon Coverages

Figure 3. Arcs Created in the Horizon 4 Coverage (Identified by the Arrows).

5.3 Marking the outside-boundary arcs

Now we have to tell GMS which arcs are outside-boundary arcs. GMS uses this
information to decide where the solid should be pinched out and where it should be
allowed to continue until it hits the boundary and is cut off. The vertices on the outside-
boundary arcs are not used when interpolating the horizon.

1. Switch to the Select tool .

2. While holding down the shift key, select the 2 arcs identified by the arrows
shown in Figure 4.

Page 7 of 13 © Aquaveo
GMS Tutorials Stratigraphy Modeling – Horizon Coverages

Figure 4. Arcs to be Marked as on the Outside Boundary.

3. Right-click on one of the selected arcs and select the Attribute Table command
from the pop-up menu.

4. Turn on the Outside Boundary toggle for both arcs.

5. Click OK to exit the dialog.

6. Click anywhere in the background to unselect the arcs.

5.4 Build Polygons and Delete Polygons

Now we will build the polygons.

1. Select the Feature Objects | Build Polygons command.

2. Delete the two polygons on the left and right of the model identified by the
arrows in Figure 5 (click inside each polygon to select it and hit the delete
key). Solids will only be created where a polygon exists.

Page 8 of 13 © Aquaveo
GMS Tutorials Stratigraphy Modeling – Horizon Coverages

Figure 5. Polygons to be Deleted.

We are done creating the horizon coverage for the green material. At this point we could
define horizon coverages for the other horizons, but for the purposes of this tutorial, we
will just do horizon 4.

6 Horizons -> Solids

The horizons conceptual model is all set up now. We are ready to use it to create solids.

1. In the Project Explorer, click on the Borehole Data folder to switch to the
borehole module.

2. Select the Boreholes | Horizons´ Solids menu command.

3. Turn on the option to Use horizons conceptual model.

4. Click Finish.

GMS now creates the solids.

Page 9 of 13 © Aquaveo
GMS Tutorials Stratigraphy Modeling – Horizon Coverages

6.1 Comparing the results

The newly created solids were added to the Project Explorer in a new folder that should
be called solids (2).

1. Expand the solids (2) folder and turn off all the new solids except for the
Clean_Sand 4 solid. Notice that the boundary of the new solid is almost
entirely inside the polygon we defined in the horizons coverage.

The boundary of the new solid won’t exactly match the polygon boundary, and some
triangles around the edges may overlap the polygon, but otherwise the solid is confined to
the polygonal boundary.

2. Turn off and on the original Clean_Sand 4 solid (in the folder called solids) to
see how the new solid differs from the original.

The boundaries of the other new solids are identical to the other old solids because we
only defined 1 horizon coverage (for horizon 4). You may want to verify that the
boundaries for the other solids are indeed the same as before.

7 Automatically Create the Horizon Conceptual Model

Now that you’ve done it by hand, we will show you how you can create the horizon
conceptual model much faster by letting GMS do it for you. When automatically
building the coverages, you can choose whether or not to include cross sections.
Typically, if you have cross sections, you’ll want to use them.

7.1 Build Horizon Coverages

1. In the Project Explorer, right-click on the Horizons conceptual model and
select the Duplicate command.

2. Rename the new conceptual model “Horizons Auto”.

3. Delete coverage 4 under the Horizons Auto conceptual model.

4. Turn off the other coverage and conceptual model.

5. Right-click on the Horizons Auto conceptual model and select the Build
Horizon Coverages command.

6. Make sure Use all boreholes is selected and click Next.

7. In the next step, select the default coverage as shown in Figure 6. Click Next.

Page 10 of 13 © Aquaveo
GMS Tutorials Stratigraphy Modeling – Horizon Coverages

Figure 6. Selecting the Starting Coverage.

8. In the next step, no changes should need to be made. Make sure the options to
Use cross sections and Generate for each horizon are selected and click
Finish.

7.2 Examine the Horizon Coverages

Notice that 5 new coverages were created – one for each horizon. Let’s look at them.

1. Switch to Plan View if necessary.

2. Examine the new coverages by selecting them in the Project Explorer.

Compare the location of the polygons in each coverage with the red
highlighting on the cross sections.

8 Building Solids
Now we will build solids with the conceptual model and compare the results with our
previously constructed solids.

8.1 Create Solids From the Horizon Coverage

1. Click on the Borehole Data folder in the Project Explorer to switch to the
borehole module.

2. Select the Boreholes | Horizons´ Solids menu command.

3. Select the options as shown in Figure 7 and click Finish.

Page 11 of 13 © Aquaveo
GMS Tutorials Stratigraphy Modeling – Horizon Coverages

Figure 7. Horizons -> Solids, Using a Horizon Conceptual Model.

GMS now creates a whole new set of solids and puts them in a folder called solids (3) in
the Project Explorer.

8.2 Compare the results

Let’s compare the results.

1. Turn off all the solids.

2. In the solids (2) folder, turn on the Silty_Clay 1 solid. Notice the area that it
covers.

3. Turn off the solid you just turned on.

4. Turn on the corresponding solid (Silty_Clay 1) in the solids (3) folder. Notice
the area that the solid covers.

5. Repeat steps 2 – 4 until you get a feel for the differences between the two
solids.

6. Repeat steps 2 – 4 for the other solids.

You should notice how the solids created using the horizon conceptual model are
constrained by the polygons in the horizon coverages.

Page 12 of 13 © Aquaveo
GMS Tutorials Stratigraphy Modeling – Horizon Coverages

9 Conclusion
This concludes the tutorial. Here are some of the key concepts in this tutorial:

• You can create a horizon conceptual model containing horizon coverages that
constrain the areal extent of the solids.

• There is one horizon coverage per horizon ID.

• In a horizon coverage, you must identify which arcs are outside-boundary arcs.

• In a horizon coverage, you must only have polygons defined for the areas where
you want the solids to be.

• When you select a horizon coverage and are in plan view, GMS highlights in red
parts of the cross sections to show where on the cross sections the soil layer with
the same horizon ID as the coverage exists.

• Horizon coverages can be created automatically.

• You can choose to use the borehole cross sections or not when you automatically
create horizon coverages.

Page 13 of 13 © Aquaveo