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Estimation of fracture zone geometry from steady‐state hydraulic head data using iterative sequential cokriging
Author(s) -
Renshaw Carl E.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/96gl02415
Subject(s) - geology , hydrogeology , geometry , fracture (geology) , fluid dynamics , electrical conductor , flow (mathematics) , complex geometry , geotechnical engineering , mechanics , mathematics , materials science , physics , composite material
The hydrogeology of fractured crystalline rock is often controlled by a few highly conductive features such as faults and/or fractures zones. Accurate modeling of fluid flow and transport in these systems requires that the geometry of these conductive features be characterized explicitly. A new method for estimating the geometry of these features is presented. The method is an extension of the recently developed geostatistical technique of sequential cokriging. In this extension, the geometry of the fracture zone is iteratively updated until an update increases the discrepancy between the estimated and observed hydraulic heads. Results from two hypothetical examples demonstrate that the method can accurately estimate the geometry of highly conductive fracture zones.