Research on practical 3D geological modeling and visualization

In this paper, we do a research on 3D modeling and visualization. Meanwhile, a practical approach is proposed. A smooth terrain surface is built using multiquadric interpolation and a stratum model is created based on tri-prism volume elements. A system is built to visualize the model with OpenGL graphics library. Although our method has some limitations, for example, it can not process some special geological structures, it does not need complex algorithm and expensive hardware. The successful application indicates that our approach is practical enough to be used widely.