Patent ID: 8050892

Claim:
A method for creating a three-dimensional model defined in geometrical coordinates of an earth subsurface having a geological structure including discontinuities in the geological structure due to geological faults, erosional events, and layers in the geological structure, the method using a digital processing unit, the method for capturing said layering and discontinuities in said geological structure comprising: dividing said earth subsurface into a grid of stacks, each stack comprising a volume of said geological structure and having vertical sides with respect to said earth subsurface; storing a composition of each stack, and a position of each said stack in the grid in a memory; dividing at least one stack into a plurality of substacks, each of the plurality of substack comprising a volume of said geological structure and separated from another substack in the respective stack by a separating surface, each separating surface aligned with, and parallel to, a discontinuity due to a geological fault or an erosion event in the geological structure of said earth structure, at least one of the plurality of substacks having a geometric shape that is different from a shape of the at least one stack; and wherein a substack is divided into further substacks; wherein the division into substacks takes place in a longitudinal direction of a stack or substack; storing a composition and a position of each substack in each respective stack in the memory; wherein each stack and substack comprises at least one three-dimensional geometric cell, each three-dimensional geometric cell comprising a volume of said geological structure and bounded by layer boundaries in said earth subsurface, and wherein a cell comprises at least one property of said earth subsurface, and wherein at least a first three-dimensional cell and a second three dimensional cell are adjacent to at least one side of each separating surface; and storing a composition, position and at least one property of each cell in a respective stack and substack in the memory; and conducting drilling operations using the model.