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Key technology for section analysis of 3D geological models based on the online virtual earth environment

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Abstract

Integrating a 3D geological model into the virtual Earth environment enables the display of the geological model on a larger scale, making the surrounding terrain and landform more intuitive, and improving the accuracy of geological research. Because the section analysis of 3D geological model can clearly show the geological structure and attribute information on a section, it is a popular analysis method for geologists. However, the existing methods based on Boolean operations have high requirements on the topological relationship of the model, and their efficiency and accuracy are not ideal when faced with complex 3D geological models. Meanwhile, traditional rendering-based methods can only obtain pixel-level sectional results, making measurement difficult. This paper proposes a cutting analysis algorithm for 3D geological model in virtual earth environment. This method utilizes hierarchical bounding volume (BVH) and ray intersection algorithm to extract formation boundary data, avoiding complex Boolean operations and improving the efficiency of section analysis. Furthermore, using these data to draw measurable geological section maps effectively solves the problem that the section results cannot be measured. This method can be used to quickly and effectively obtain a section diagram the conforms to the standard diagram legend, which can be directly used in the preparation of geological analysis reports. The feasibility of this method is verified by taking the section analysis of a complex 3D geological model in a certain area as an example.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due security and confidentiality concerns. However, it is possible to substitute the data used in this study with other 3D geological models.

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Acknowledgements

This research is funded by Guizhou Strategic Prospecting Program ([2022] ZD003), Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2020CFB507), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (CUGL180823), Open Research Project of The Hubei Key Laboratory of Intelligent Geo-Information Processing(KLIGIP-2022-B05). The authors thank the anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments.

Funding

This research is funded by Guizhou Strategic Prospecting Program ([2022] ZD003), Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province (2020CFB507), Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (CUGL180823), Open Research Project of The Hubei Key Laboratory of Intelligent Geo-Information Processing(KLIGIP-2022-B05).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computers Sciences, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan, 430074, China

    YongFeng Deng, Junqiang Zhang, Yongzheng Sun, Yiping Tian, Qiyu Chen & Bin Qiu

  2. Technology Innovation Center of Mineral Resources Explorations in Bedrock Zones, Ministry of Natural Resources, Guiyang, 550081, China

    Junqiang Zhang & Yiping Tian

Authors
  1. YongFeng Deng
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  2. Junqiang Zhang
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  3. Yongzheng Sun
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  4. Yiping Tian
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  5. Qiyu Chen
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  6. Bin Qiu
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by YongFeng Deng, Junqiang Zhang, Yongzheng Sun, Yiping Tian, Qiyu Chen and Bin Qiu. The first draft of the manuscript was written by YongFeng Deng and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Junqiang Zhang.

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Communicated by G. Liu

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Deng, Y., Zhang, J., Sun, Y. et al. Key technology for section analysis of 3D geological models based on the online virtual earth environment. Earth Sci Inform 17, 441–453 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-023-01180-8

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