Creating a stratigraphic model

The prepare > Stratigraphy strip allows you to create a stratigraphic model that can be useful when developing 3D structures and 3D grids.

The stratigraphic model forms the basis for the next modeling steps where the actual horizon and marker data is assigned and modeled in the 3D structure and 3D grid creation. In the stratigraphic model you do not only define the zones, but also the order in which the zones will be generated using a hierarchical approach based on the stratigraphy.

A single stratigraphic table is used to define a structural model realization. The table, therefore, needs to be carefully constructed and flexible enough to cater for all needs. As such, it should also be constructed early in the modeling process, even in project framing, as a collaborative tool to ensure all disciplines are aligned on how their data will be incorporated into the geological model and indeed the mapping between their data and that of other disciplines.

The stratigraphic model you create in the Data Preparation step will later return in the 3D structure workflow and 3D grid workflow where you can set the zone construction and k-layer modeling.

The hierarchical concept of the stratigraphic model is clearly beneficial, allowing for the highest quality, laterally continuous surfaces to be created first. These surfaces constrain successive levels of data, where there is likely a decreasing amount of lateral data control, right down to well markers that are not linked to seismically resolvable surfaces (see also The stratigraphic model).