Turning Surface Structure Measurements into Structural Discs – Origin & Beyond Quick Articles

The article provides a guide on how to import GPS points with strike and dip measurements into Origin software for geological mapping. It explains the process of configuring data for visualization and converting it into .MMSTRUCT files to create 3D structural trends. The guide emphasizes the importance of converting strike/dip measurements to dip/dip direction for accurate representation and details the necessary steps. The example data is sourced from the British Columbia Geological Survey.

After a few days of mapping bedding structures on surface, you have a series of GPS points with strike and dip measurements. How can we bring these into Origin so they are useful?

Let's say our original GPS data looks like this:

Plotted as points in Origin, these look like:

We have this data configured with symbols and labels for easiest visual understanding like so:

It's useful to see these bedding measurements as generally accepted symbols with strike/dip labels, but what if we wanted to use the measurements to create structural trends or .MMSTRUCT files in Origin? If we make a new .MMSTRUCT file with an example disc, we can open the file and understand the required fields.

We notice that aside from XYZ coordinates and a dip/dip direction, each disc requires a TYPE and POLARITY. Test deleting values from the TYPE column. You'll find that if there is no value in TYPE, the disc will disappear from display. That tells us that we can simply copy and paste our original GPS/strike/dip measurements into a new MMSTRUCT file, include a TYPE and POLARITY, then be able to view these points as 3D discs.

Important Note: Remember that dip/dip direction is not the same as strike/dip. If your data is recorded as strike/dip, you'll have to make the appropriate conversion to dip/dip direction. See below for an example expression you could run on your data to do that conversion in bulk: