Tag Archives: Rockworks
New Video: How To Specify EarthApps DataSheet Input Coordinates
Bertha!
Master Directory of RockWare YouTube Videos
The YouTube playlists have proven to be somewhat cumbersome, so we have created a hyper-linked master index that makes it easier to find content. Check it out …
RockWare YouTube Video Index URL: http://www.rockware.com/rockworks/revisions/rockware_videos.htm
Layering Profiles and Cross-Sections in RockWorks
RockWorks allows you to create cross-section and profile diagrams of a variety of types of data – such as modeled lithology, stratigraphy, aquifer, geochemical or geophysical data, fractures, etc. It can be very helpful to layer these profiles to determine, for example, the spatial relationship between a contaminant hotspot and the stratigraphic layers, or your water levels and the lithologic environment.
I’ll describe here an easy way to pop one profile onto another – in this example overlaying a benzene profile on top of a stratigraphy profile.
1. Create your two profile diagrams using the same annotation settings and the same profile slice. This assures that the profile panels will have the same coordinate range. I find it helpful to arrange the two profile windows on my screen, one above the other, so that they are both accessible.

Arrange both profiles on your screen so they're both visible.
2. With the RockPlot Edit Arrow tool activated, click on the I-Data profile contours to select them. (Note the red selection handles in the panel corners in the upper image.) Type Ctrl+C to copy this layer into memory.

Click on the I-Data profile color contours to select that layer, and copy it to the clipboard.
3. Click in the Stratigraphy profile window and type Ctrl+V to paste the I-Data profile into this diagram.

Paste the I-Data panel onto the Stratigraphy profile
4. Double-click on the I-Data layer you just pasted into the combined diagram to adjust the minimum contour level and transparency, so that the stratigraphic layers will be visible in the background.

Adjust the minimum contour level and/or transparency.
5. Click OK to close the Colorfill Attributes window.

Now you can see the stratigraphic profile in the background.
6. If you like, you can copy /paste the I-Data color legend in to the combined diagram. Use your mouse to resize/rearrange the legends as desired.

Combined Stratigraphy and Benzene Profiles
Working with Faulted Surfaces
Here are some suggestions for possible workflows in applying faults to surfaces in RockWorks. These instructions assume you don’t have the coordinates for your faults already defined in an external spreadsheet or in the RockWorks project database; you can draw the fault lines on a map and then use them to fault a surface.
1. Create your contour map in RockWorks without faulting turned on.
- Use the Utilities Map | Grid-Based Map if your XYZ data is entered into the Utilities datasheet.
- Use any of the Borehole Manager contour mapping options (Map | Borehole Locations for ground surface contours, Stratigraphy | Structural Elevations for stratigraphic structure maps, etc.) if your data is entered into the borehole database.
2. In the displayed map, use the Draw | Line Types | Polyline to draw a fault polyline on your map. Double-click to terminate the polyline. You can repeat this if you have multiple faults.
3. Choose the arrow-shaped Edit tool from the RockPlot2D toolbar, and click on the polyline you drew, to select it. (If selected, you’ll see square icons on the vertices.) If you have multiple polylines drawn, hold down the Shift key on your keyboard to click on the next polyline to select it as well. Continue in this manner for as many polylines as you drew so that all are selected.
4. Right-click on any of the selected polylines in the map window and choose Save to Faults Table.
Enter a name to assign to the Faults Table and click OK. This will be saved to the project database.
5. Return to the options along the left side of the map window, and click on the Gridding Options button. Here, turn on the Faulting option (which is available under Inverse-Distance). Enter the “distance multiplier” (usually 10) and browse for the name of the Fault Table that you just created.
Click OK to close this window. Click on the Grid Name prompt and enter a new name for the faulted grid model (such as “Potosi_faulted.grd”).
6. Click Process to recreate the grid model and map, now applying faulting.
Here are three-dimensional views of these surfaces:
RockWorks applies faulting by creating an interpolation barrier on either side of the polyline(s) – as it’s interpolating a grid node, any control points on the other side of the fault are now considered to be 10 times further away than they actually are, thus having no influence on that node.
Exporting Lithologic Surfaces to DXF
As RockWorks view the world, lithology materials are not necessarily layered – they can repeat within a single borehole and may be inconsistent in sequence across the project area. As such, RockWorks uses a solid modeling process, rather than surface-modeling, to create lithology models, with the 3D nodes or voxels assigned a material type and represented in the 3D viewer as color-coded blocks.
This presents a challenge, then, for users who wish to view lithologic SURFACES as plan-view contour maps, or in 3D, or exported to CAD.
In RockPlot3D you can access the lithology model’s Options window and filter the display for the desired material type, or range of types. Here is the above model filtered to display the Soil voxels only.
This can be exported to DXF, but note that you’ll be getting all of the blocks representing that material. (Shown here in black and white for contrast purposes.)
If you need a surface rather than blocks, RockWorks also has tools which will fit a surface to the uppermost elevations or the lowermost elevations of a rock type in a lithology model. These are in the Lithology | Superface (Top) and Subface (Base) menus. Here is an example of the same soil lithotype extracted as a surface (upper elevations), and displayed in RockPlot3D and then exported to DXF.
Earthquakes 5+ Magnitude Worldwide Jan 2012
We used RockWorks15 and Google Earth (TM) to create a map of all of the 5+ magnitude earthquakes across the world in January 2012. You can visit our RockWorks data page to download the Google Earth KMZ file and the RockWorks data file:
http://www.rockware.com/assets/products/165/downloads/data/36/usgsworldquakes5+jan2012.zip
Earthquakes 5+ Magnitude Worldwide Dec 2011
We used RockWorks15 and Google Earth (TM) to create a map of all of the 5+ magnitude earthquakes across the world in December 2011. You can visit our RockWorks data page to download the Google Earth KMZ file and the RockWorks data file.
http://www.rockware.com/assets/products/165/downloads/data/35/usgsworldquakes5+dec2011.zip
Once you load the KMZ file into Google Earth, more information about each quake is available by clicking on the symbols.
Earthquakes 5+ Magnitude Worldwide Nov 2011
We used RockWorks15 and Google Earth (TM) to create a map of all of the 5+ magnitude earthquakes across the world in November 2011. You can visit our RockWorks data page to download the Google Earth KMZ file and the RockWorks data file.
http://www.rockware.com/assets/products/165/downloads/data/34/usgsworldquakes5+nov2011.zip
Once you load the KMZ file into Google Earth, more information about each quake is available by clicking on the symbols.