Data Collection in StereoCore™ PhotoLog: The Template System

The primary purpose of StereoCore™ PhotoLog is to allow the user to collect core logging data digitally in a straight-forward manner. As such, if you’re contemplating using the program, probably your first question is going to be “Can this thing actually replace my manual logs?” The aim of this blog post is to show you how we can do this, at least for structure and lithology logging (we plan to extend the StereoCore™ PhotoLog logging system significantly with Version 3.0 which is currently in development, to allow us to handle most conceivable core logging requirements).

So let’s say we have a mine, Mine A. At Mine A they are doing very simple structure logging and they’re collecting the following statistics for each structure logged:
·         Depth.
·         Alpha Angle.
·         Beta Angle.
·         Core stick – can be TopStick or BottomStick, coded as Top or Bot in Mine A’s database.
·         Structure type – can be Joint or Vein, coded as J or V in the mine database.
·         Infill – can be Calcite or Quartz, coded as Cal or Qua in the mine database.
·         Roughness – represented by codes from 1-5 where 1 is smooth and 5 is rough.
Note a few things about the statistics. Every structure logged must have a structure type recorded. Filling in some columns is optional. Some columns (such as Roughness) hold numeric data. Furthermore if we’re logging with StereoCore™ PhotoLog then some columns are already tabulated, like depth, alpha and beta angle.

Incidentally there are three columns dealing with angle measurements above, the exact number would of course depend on the goniometer being used. In this case the geologists at Mine A are using a “rat trap” type goniometer, which means they have to record at which end of the core fragment in question they make the measurement – either “TopStick” for the end nearest the borehole collar or “BottomStick” for the other end.

Let’s pull up our template editor and see about translating this into a structure logging template.

First we add columns to the template. You can either add the required number of columns all at once or one at a time, we’ll add them one at a time.

You can see that we now have a column description box which has popped up. We fill this in to describe the sort of data that is supposed to be contained in this column. The first thing to do is to name the column, so since our first column of the logging sheet is for the structure type, let’s call the column “Structure Type”.

Next, there are only certain accepted values in the Structure Type column. That means it is a list column. Once we’ve identified it as a list column, we can fill in the list of allowed values. When we add a column value we can supply either a code and descriptor, or just a code. The code is the actual value that will be recorded against e.g. the structure. The descriptor is there for the user’s benefit, so that they know what the code means when filling in the column values.

The Structure Type column is required to have a value for each structure, so we mark the corresponding checkbox (see above). We can give the column a default value too, if we so desire. Let’s set the default value for the Structure Type column to be ‘J’ for ‘Joint’.

Now I’m going to add the other columns. Note that you can specify if a column should contain numeric data.

Some things to notice:
·         Manual depth, manual alpha and beta, and manual corestick have been added as columns. One might do this so that a space is allocated for a geologist who wants to take goniometer measurements to cross-check against the StereoCore™ PhotoLog measurements, maybe only taking a few such readings per core tray as quality control.
·         The “Roughness” column must have a value assigned to it (i.e. when the logger logs a structure with a roughness he must enter a value in that column), but no default value is specified. That’s why the default value box is red.
·         “Structure Type” on the other hand, does have a default value, this value will be filled in for the logger automatically when he/she places a structure in the core tray image, although the logger can edit the value.

In the next blog post, I will show you how to use the template with either Structure Markers or directly with Structures, in order to log data at the drill rig and in the core shed.