Digital Outcrop Modeling of The Eocene Rus Formation; Implications to Sedimentology and Structural Geology, Saudi Arabia

The King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM) campus features good exposure of the Eocene Rus Formation. This region, which is referred to as the Dammam Dome's apex, is what caused the Rus Formation's primary and secondary deformations. Despite the fact that these structures attracted numerous researchers and produced high-quality documentation and published work, a variety of data covering all the outcrops on the KFUPM campus is still lacking. In this study, 10 outcrops were used, and for each outcrop, high-resolution 3D photographs were captured together with sedimentological and structural data. The outcrops range in height from 5 to 7 meters, in width from 200 to 400 meters, and most of them include at least three distinct sets of fractures. The bed-by-bed sedimentological information includes lithology, grain size, texture, sedimentary structures, and fossils. The structural data also includes the thickness of the beds as well as the strike and dip of a representative number of fractures. To be used in the digital models, the images and all of the obtained data were geo-referenced. A new 3D outcrop model visualization and analysis tool has been created in-house, by the remote sensing team in KFUPM, with a focus on the ability to load and show massive outcrop model datasets in fully georeferenced coordinates (either in colored point cloud or textured TIN-mesh formats). Sedimentological and structural analysis tools have been created to do interactive study & annotation of the outcrop. All of the data from each outcrop were combined to form the results of this study, and the structural measurements were validated with an accuracy of +/- 5 degrees only for the measures of strike and dip. The Rus Formation digital models were also used to teach undergraduate students cutting-edge technologies and to bring the field into their desktops. Future plans and proposals call for integrating digital models with geophysical data such as seismic and GPR to increase value and benefits.