Patent Document ID: 4638254
Application ID: 06490919
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. The method of producing a plot of preferred geological orientation of a subsurface formation comprising: (a) repeatedly measuring said geological orientation; (b) generating original vectors representing the azimuth and dip of the measurements; (c) converting said original vectors into lineations representing the extension of each vector to its intersection with a unit sphere; (d) designating one of said original vectors as a reference vector; (e) selecting the half axes of all lineations within 90.degree. of the reference vector and transforming them into unit vectors; (f) vector averaging the selected unit vectors to produce a resultant vector; (g) determining the magnitude of said resultant vector; (h) repeating steps (c)-(f) for each of said original vectors; (i) selecting the resultant vector having the maximum magnitude as the preferred orientation of said formation; (j) repeating steps (b)-(i) for a plurality of measurements; and (k) plotting the resultant vectors having maximum magnitudes.