UNSW offers first Leapfrog geological modelling course

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UNSW offers first Leapfrog geological modelling course

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, 1 October 2012 - The University of New South Wales is providing the first university course in 3D Geological Modelling for students majoring in environmental science, geology, hydrogeology, mining, and petroleum engineering. Leading geological modelling software suite Leapfrog will be used for the course to enable students to build 3D geological models for groundwater, mining, oil and gas.

University of New South Wales Associate Professor Bryce Kelly says the course was fully subscribed as students are becoming increasingly aware of the need to have skills relevant to the industry.

“It’s essential for our students to be skilled at using the latest software. We’ve been very pleased with Leapfrog because it is user friendly. Students can build complex geological models with just a couple of hours of training. Leapfrog is especially good for modelling intrusions and manipulating surfaces,” he says.

Leapfrog is established 3D geological modelling software for the mining, hydrogeology and geothermal industries developed by ARANZ Geo. Leapfrog’s innovative workflows enable multiple hypotheses to be investigated quickly and dynamically to allow users to maximise the value of their information and make better decisions, faster.

Richard Lane, Product Director for Leapfrog says, "We're delighted to support this initiative. As a former academic I know the importance of having software tools that are easy to learn and use, because it enables you to focus the limited available time on the core theoretical and practical concepts of the subject.

“From the outset we wanted Leapfrog to be a tool to aid the development of geological understanding, rather than simply provide another mechanistic method for model construction. This aim complements the role of universities to teach the underlying science of geology and make this knowledge accessible to the world as a whole.”

The UNSW course, which will run for a semester, will explore how to combine various 3D spatial data sets to solve problems in 3D geological settings and how to construct 3D geological conceptual site models for quantification and communication.

Professor Kelly continues, “Earth scientists will always be confronted with making decisions based on limited data sets. Therefore, it is important to understand how to maximise geological interpretations from sparse data sets, while understanding the limitations of what can be inferred.”

Course topics include an introduction to scripting, gridding algorithms, constructing 3D geological computer models of aquifers, mineral deposits and reservoirs, gridding of faulted and folded geological data, geostatistical simulation, facies modelling, and calculating the volume of a resource (water, ore, oil and gas). Case studies from regional hydrogeology, contaminated sites, mining, and petroleum will be presented.

This initiative is the first for Leapfrog, but it is hoped that other universities will soon offer similar courses.

Mr Lane says, “We’re committed to working closer with the academic world. It’s a key facet of our long term strategy to support the geologists of tomorrow with Leapfrog.”

The Leapfrog suite of products, include the flagship product Leapfrog Mining and the specialist solutions Leapfrog Hydro and Leapfrog Geothermal. For more information on the Leapfrog software suite visit www.leapfrog3d.com

ENDS

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