A method of predicting a location of one or more features of an earth formation during a downhole drilling operation, the method comprising: acquiring reference data and identifying one or more reference data sections, each reference data section corresponding to a feature of interest and having an associated depth or depth interval, wherein the reference data includes measurements taken from a reference borehole (40, 92); and deploying a drilling assembly and drilling a target borehole (12, 94) in the earth formation offset from the reference borehole (40, 92), and obtaining measurements during the downhole drilling operation using a downhole measurement device to generate measurement data; characterized by: generating a depth shift function from correlation of one or more measurement data sections with one or more reference data sections, wherein the depth shift function is at least one of a linear function, an exponential function, and/or a polynomial function; predicting in the target borehole (12, 94) a location of one of the features of interest, corresponding to the identified reference data sections, that has not yet been encountered at the actual borehole drilling depth by applying the depth shift function; continuously updating the depth shift function and the predicted location as additional measurement data are generated during the downhole drilling operation; and at least one of automatically adjusting and changing operational parameters of the downhole drilling operation in response to the predicted location of the features of interest. acquiring reference data and identifying one or more reference data sections, each reference data section corresponding to a feature of interest and having an associated depth or depth interval, wherein the reference data includes measurements taken from a reference borehole (40, 92); and deploying a drilling assembly and drilling a target borehole (12, 94) in the earth formation offset from the reference borehole (40, 92), and obtaining measurements during the downhole drilling operation using a downhole measurement device to generate measurement data; characterized by: generating a depth shift function from correlation of one or more measurement data sections with one or more reference data sections, wherein the depth shift function is at least one of a linear function, an exponential function, and/or a polynomial function; predicting in the target borehole (12, 94) a location of one of the features of interest, corresponding to the identified reference data sections, that has not yet been encountered at the actual borehole drilling depth by applying the depth shift function; continuously updating the depth shift function and the predicted location as additional measurement data are generated during the downhole drilling operation; and at least one of automatically adjusting and changing operational parameters of the downhole drilling operation in response to the predicted location of the features of interest. generating a depth shift function from correlation of one or more measurement data sections with one or more reference data sections, wherein the depth shift function is at least one of a linear function, an exponential function, and/or a polynomial function; predicting in the target borehole (12, 94) a location of one of the features of interest, corresponding to the identified reference data sections, that has not yet been encountered at the actual borehole drilling depth by applying the depth shift function; continuously updating the depth shift function and the predicted location as additional measurement data are generated during the downhole drilling operation; and at least one of automatically adjusting and changing operational parameters of the downhole drilling operation in response to the predicted location of the features of interest.