StratGen

Introduction

In 1996, the Indiana Geological Survey published for the Illinois Basin Consortium a Corebook of Pennsylvanian Rocks in the Illinois Basin (IBC Studies 3). This full-color book illustrates common lithologies found in coal-bearing rocks of the Illinois Basin and provides a standard terminology and coding for describing them. The goals of the Corebook are many fold, including:

• maximize information gathered from coring
• enhance communication between users
• predict coal quality
• improve correlation of key units
• calculate more accurate resource estimates
• plan for mining conditions
• facilitate mine permitting process

The Indiana Geological Survey is committed to these goals by integrating the Corebook terminology and coding into our research programs, teaching short-courses and workshops that present the usage and applications of the Corebook, and providing tools that compliment the Corebook. The Stratigraphic Column Generator (StratGen) is the first of several planned enhancement tools.

Corebook Stratigraphic Column Generator

Two common difficulties occur in describing core and outcrops:

standard column description and storage, and rapid, accurate, and attractive column display.

Both of these difficulties are not easy to address. There are numerous ways to describe rocks and just as many ways to store the descriptions (how many stratigraphic column description forms have you made or had given to you?). A quick scan through any sedimentology journal will show several different ways to present stratigraphic data in a columnar format. However, with the growth of the personal computer market over the last decade and the standardization of terminology and display from the Corebook, both problems can be tackled in a single computer program.

StratGen is user-friendly application for storage, retrieval, manipulation, and display of stratigraphic columns. The program provides functionality for the most common stratigraphic column tasks:

• input and retrieval of standard columnar data,
• interactive data entry and checking of input,
• WYSIWYG display of the column, and
• customizable column display.

In its current form StratGen is an "applet" that only focuses on these tasks. The program is not a high-end database or graphics application - many vendors exist that can provide more functional programs. The high-end programs can create columns, but often they require more effort on the part of the users or programming expertise to get the program structured in the right way. The output may be less than desired for the effort. We feel that you will like the ease of the StratGen, and its focus on the needs of a geologist.