Using GEOrient: an example

Contents
1. The synthetic dataset ............................................................................................................................................ 2
2. Open the data for plotting .................................................................................................................................... 2
3. Changing the type of plot...................................................................................................................................... 3
4. Stereonet plots...................................................................................................................................................... 3
5. Analysing the stereonet data ................................................................................................................................ 4
6. Manually inserting great circles ............................................................................................................................ 4
7. Annotations: adding user-defined symbols or beta axes ..................................................................................... 4
8. Changing symbols, line styles or colours: Preferences dialog .............................................................................. 5
9. Classified Stereonet Plots...................................................................................................................................... 5
10. Numeric Stereonet Plots ................................................................................................................................... 6
11. Rose Plots .......................................................................................................................................................... 7
12. Classified Rose Plots .......................................................................................................................................... 8

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1. The synthetic dataset
Consider the following set of dummy data. It is shown here in an Excel spreadsheet format, but could equally be in a
textfile (.TXT; .CSV, etc) or in any other data table in almost any type of application (e.g. ArcGIS; MapInfo; Microsoft
Access; Micromine; Oracle;….). Only the first 10 rows of data are shown.

In this dataset, there are some primary orientation data

in columns 2 & 3 and some associated data in columns 5
& 6. All other columns contain data we are not
interested in.

The primary orientation data might represent planes, or

lines, or we might just be interested in plotting the
directions as rose diagrams.

In this instance, the Conventions I have used are dip and

dip direction for planes (or plunge and plunge direction
for lines). Your data conventions might be different and
can be set in the Conventions Tab after you open the data.

2. Open the data for plotting

If the data already exist in a text file, then open it using the File.. Open
menu, or the Open file button. This action will open the File Formatting
dialog.

More commonly, it is easier to just copy the data block from the source
table and paste it into GEOrient. To do this:

1) Select and copy the data block in the spreadsheet

2) Open GEOrient and select Blank Plot (either from the icon button or
from the File menu). The plot will open initially as a blank stereonet
circle, even if you only want to plot the directions as a rose diagram.
3) Select Paste External Data, either from the Edit menu or by hovering
over the blank plot and pressing the right mouse button.

Initially the File Formatting dialog will open on the first tab as
in the figure above, but to ensure that we indicate the correct
structure of our data, open the DataFormats tab.

1. Check that the data columns are displayed separately. If

they aren't in separately numbered columns, then you
may need to change the Delimiter character. Since I have
copied these data from an Excel spreadsheet they are in
Tab-delimited form. But if your data is from a CSV file, for
example, you would need to indicate the delimiter as a
comma.
2. Check the type of Primary data. Initially here, I will treat
the data as Planes in the first example.
3. Now indicate which columns the different parts of your data are in. The default will be to show columns 1
and 2 as the dip and direction columns, but here I need to set the dip in column 2 and the direction in
column 3. [These column numbers can be set manually but can also be quickly set by first clicking on the
Column dropdown combo and then by clicking on the column heading in the data table below].
4. Check the box indicating that the first column contains the column headings. It doesn't matter whether or
not you do this. As that headings row is non-data, GEOrient will not plot it anyway.

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 If we are going to use the alphanumeric data in the Bed lith column or the numeric data in the Bed thickness
column then we need to indicate these columns as Appended Data. Open the Appended Data tab.

1. Check the numeric value checkbox and give a name to

the numeric value if you wish and indicate which
column it is in (here it is 6).
2. Do the same for the Lith column. Here that data is in
column 5

We now have fully described the structure of our data so return to

the first 'Plot as:' tab. In this instance we have indicated that our
data are planes, so we will plot them as planes using the button
with the strike/dip symbol. [Note that it is quite possible to choose
to plot the data as lines. In this instance the dip and dip direction
will be plotted as lines].

The data will now display in the stereo circle as points. These will be
poles if you have chosen to plot the data as planes or will be lines if you
have chosen either the Line button or the Polar Line button. Lines are
for axial data, where the sense of direction of the line is immaterial (for
example, fold axes). Polar Lines are where the sense of the line is
important (such as current directions, or sense of slip vectors in fault
data).

3. Changing the type of plot

We can choose to display these plane data as different types of plot
display using the buttons in the toolbar. It is at this point that I would
select the Rose Diagram button to plot circular histograms of the
direction data. I will describe that in another section.

4. Stereonet plots
I most commonly choose to show
plots as contoured gridded density
plots (using the button with the
red arrow). When you first plot
the data with this button it will
show a sparse density grid. To get
the type of display shown here I
increase the grid density to a high
number using the textbox with the
blue arrow and its associated
slider bar.

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5. Analysing the stereonet data
The bedding data here show a great circle spread of poles, which
would indicate a cylindrical fold. To quantify that we can overlay a
calculated great circle, a calculated beta axis, or our own manual
great circle overlays.

1) Use the girdle button (red circle) to open the girdles panel.
2) Check the [Link] and Beta axis checkboxes to add the
calculated features.

The beta axis is the calculated orientation of the fold axis, which here
plunges shallowly to the southeast (9-132). The girdle contains two
distinct point maxima of unequal size. These maxima would be the
orientation of the fold limbs, with the larger maxima being a longer
limb. Thus, we have an inclined asymmetric fold plunging shallowly southeast. The longer limb dips shallowly to
the southwest and the shorter limb steeply to the northeast. That is, these folds verge to the northeast.

I'd like to add manual great circles to represent the orientation of the fold limbs and an estimate of the
orientation of the axial plane, which will pass through the fold axis (the beta) and lie a little closer to the longer
limb than the shorter limb. I'd like these manual great circles to have a different style to the default dashed lines,
so I change these in the Preferences dialog (see section below).

6. Manually inserting great circles

User-defined great circle girdles can be plotted either by manually
filling in the orientation text boxes or by pointing and clicking. It is
generally easier to point and click.

1) Double-click in one of the Girdle textboxes (e.g Girdle 2 - blue

circle); hold down the shift key and using the right mouse
button click in the centre of the larger central point maximum
(blue arrow). This will insert a great circle whose pole is the
point you just clicked on. [Read the help file for the various
point and click options, or just experiment].
2) Do the same for the smaller southern maximum (red arrow).
Double click on the Girdle 3 textbox, and Shift-Right-click on
the centre of the maximum (red arrow).
3) We can only estimate the orientation of the axial plane, but we add a third great circle by Shift-Right-
clicking at an appropriate point on the calculated best-fit girdle (green arrow) such that it adds a great
circle that lies somewhat closer in orientation to the shallow limb than to the steep limb (green).

7. Annotations: adding user-defined symbols or beta axes

If you wish to ignore the calculated girdles and the beta axis, then
uncheck those checkboxes and add them manually. To use your own
beta axis, you need to add it as an annotation. Annotations are point
symbols that are added in their own layer.

· Open the annotation tab on the plot itself. New points are added
by using the Alt key with either the left or right mouse button.
Be careful to make sure that you have the Annotation tab
selected as else you will be adding points to the dataset itself.
When selected, the annotation tab has a red line beneath the
word 'Annotation'. Here I have added a cross, perhaps to represent the orientation of a horizontal
trench from which the data were derived.

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8. Changing symbols, line styles or colours: Preferences dialog
In the figures above, I have changed the weight and colour of lines
and symbols. To do this I have changed their values in the
Preferences dialog. To access this dialog, hover over the plot, right
click the mouse button and select Preferences… from the drop-down
menu. The Preferences option is also available from the Edit menu.

To change lines on the plot:

· Open the Lines tab in the preferences dialog and change the
style, colour, and weight of the girdles you wish to modify.
Here I will set girdle 2, 3, and 4 to blue, red, green solid lines
with a thickness of 2 pixels. Click inside each of the
textboxes in turn, then select the solid line style, then adjust
the Width slider to the second tickmark, then click on the
desired colour. Then repeat for any other lines you wish to
change. Press OK when done.

To change symbols on the plot:

· On the first Symbols tab, follow a similar procedure to

change the symbols you want to use. Note that the symbol
labelled Beta axis refers to the calculated beta axis. Here I
have added a second, differently coloured beta axis as a
Right-click annotation symbol so that I can use it as a
manually-added beta if I don't agree with the location of the
calculated axis. [Note that the beta symbol character does
not display on many computers. It is the symbol in the lower
right cell of the set of available symbols (circled in red).
· In this same Symbols tab, I have reset the colours of some of the point symbols that I want to use. Other
tabs in this Preferences dialog allow a large amount of flexibility in how your plots look.

In most instances the stereonet at this point is all you want. But we have Appended data that we can use to
delve deeper plotting either simple classified stereonets, or
numeric stereonets. The use of these options is described more
fully in the Help dialog.

9. Classified Stereonet Plots

Classified stereonet plots allow you to modify the plots by
including the Appended data. In its simplest form we will simply
colour the plotted poles by the Lithology column, or even by
ranges in the numeric data.

1) Select the Data Classification button in the toolbar (or the

Show Data Classification dialog item under the View
menu).
2) Set the number of base classes you want to use. GEorient
will attempt to prepopulate the textboxes. Here I have set
4 base classes for the Appended alphanumeric data in the
Lith column. I have set 5 base classes for the numeric data
and manually reset the data ranges for each.
3) Click the Classification that you want. Here I have selected
'Classify by lithology'. Press GO.

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 If I selected' Classify by thickness' I would be presented with a dialog extension that allows me to select
'Classified data points'. This option will treat the numeric ranges as coloured points in the same way as the
lithology above.

10. Numeric Stereonet Plots

When I choose 'Classify by thickness', which is a numeric value, I am
presented with an expanded Classification dialog that provides me
with options to plot or contour the actual numeric data. In some
situations, this provides a powerful tool, such as when the orientation
of veins also includes their thickness and assay values.

Numeric Stereonet plots are a variant of Gridded Density plots. At

each grid point, the values associated with any vectors (lines or
normals) that lie within the counting cone are plotted.

1) Choose whether the grid values are to be the 'Cumulative'

sum of all vectors lying within the counting cone, or the
'Mean' value of those vectors
2) Reset the Numeric ranges as these will be different for Means
or Cumulative totals. In this instance, the Cumulative values
are chosen, and the range of values is 1-109.
3) Select how to display the data. In the first plot (right) I have
chosen 'Gridded values'. The density of the grid is still set from
the previous stereonet plot.

In this instance, the cumulative thickness of the beds

at each grid point is not particularly surprising. The
point maxima in the plot coincide with the point
maxima in the frequency plot, so the maximum
cumulative thickness simply corresponds to the
maximum frequency.

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 4) But it is a little more meaningful, in this instance, to
look at the mean thickness by orientation. In this
plot I have chosen 'Mean thickness', and have reset
the ranges from 0-19 accordingly.

In this instance, there is a clear relationship between the

Mean thickness of the beds and the position in the fold. The
yellow maximum corresponds to the hinge area of the
folds. [This would be a clear indication of non-parallel folds
and a component of flattening].

11. Rose Plots

Any stereoplot can be shown as a Rose Plot of the directions by selecting
the Rose button in the toolbar (red circle). Here we have indicated that our
data were planes when we loaded them, so the Rose plot shows a histogram
of the strikes, not a terribly useful way to look at this 3D data.

In order to demonstrate rose plots, I will reload the same data, but this time
I will indicate that they are directions only, and will plot them as Polar Lines
(i.e as vectors). The Appended data will remain the same.

The first time you plot these data they will be displayed
around the edges of a stereonet circle. Select the Rose plot
button to display them as a rose diagram. The initial Rose
plot will be a simple Frequency-Azimuth plot. An additional
Rose Diagram dialog will be displayed that allows you to
reset the rose parameters and style, and to select other
plotting options.

Because we have additional appended numeric data (the

bedding thickness), this dialog will display additional
options for plotting various thickness parameters. Below I have
chosen (red circle) to overlay the Mean thickness plot over the
Frequency azimuth plot.

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12. Classified Rose Plots
Any data that has either appended associated numeric or alphanumeric (text) data can be shown as classified rose
plots. That is, a plot in which the rose sectors are equivalent to stacked histograms.

3) At the bottom of the Rose Plot dialog is a section labelled Classified Rose. It will initially be set at No
Classification. But by selecting either the numeric data button (thickness in this example) or the
alphanumeric data button (lithology in this example) and pressing the GO button, the data will display as a
Classified Rose. Here, I have a Frequency-azimuth plot classified first by thickness, then by lithology. In this
instance of synthetic bedding data, this type of plot does not tell you much. But, for example, if the
directions were strikes of veins, and the alphanumeric data were vein types, then Classified Rose plots are
very useful.