A parametric method to model 3D displacements around faults with volumetric vector fields

International audienceThis paper presents a 3D parametric fault representation for modeling the displacement field associated with faults in accordance with their geometry. The displacements are modeled in a canonical fault space where the near-field displacement is defined by a small set of parameters consisting of the maximum displacement amplitude and the profiles of attenuation in the surrounding space. The particular geometry and the orientation of the slip of each fault are then taken into account by mapping the actual fault onto its canonical representation. This mapping is obtained with the help of a curvilinear frame aligned both on the fault surface and slip direction. This formulation helps us to include more geological concepts in quantitative subsurface models during 3D structural modeling tasks. Its applicability is demonstrated in the framework of forward modeling and stochastic sequential fault simulations, and the results of our model are compared to observations of natural objects described in the literature