Automatic correction and simplification of geological maps and cross-sections for numerical simulations

International audience; Incorporating prior geological knowledge in geophysical process models often meetspractical meshing challenges and raises the question of how much detail is to be includedin the geometric model. We introduce a strategy to automatically repair and simplifygeological maps, geological cross-sections and the associated meshes while preservingelementary consistency rules. To identify features breaking validity and/or the thinfeatures potentially problematic when generating a mesh, we associate an exclusion zonewith each model feature (horizon, fault). When these zones overlap, both the connectivityand the geometry of the geological layers are automatically modified. The output modelenforces specific practical quality criteria on the model topology and geometry thatfacilitates the generation of a mesh with lower bounds on minimum angles and minimumlocal entity sizes. Our strategy is demonstrated on an invalid geological cross-section froma real-case study in the Lorraine coal basin. We further explore the impacts of the modelmodifications on wave propagation simulation. We show that the differences on theseismograms due to model simplifications are relatively small if the magnitude ofsimplifications is adapted to the physical problem parameters.C 2018 Published by Elsevier Masson SAS on behalf of Acade´mie des sciences. This is anopen access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).