Congratulations to Dr. Jonathan Edwards who sucessfully defended his PhD on the 27^th of October 2017! You can have a look at the video (in French):

We thank the PhD committee for their stimulating comments: Emmanuelle Vennin and Jean Borgomano were reviewers, Cécile Robin  examiner and Brigitte Doligez is invited. Jonathan was advised by Guillaume Caumon, Florent Lallier from Total and Cédric Carpentier.

 Abstract:

All stratigraphic models building and analysis are based on stratigraphic correlations of sedimentary units observed on wells or outcrops. However, the geologist building these stratigraphic correlations faces two main problems. First, the data available are few and sparse. Second, the sedimentary processes leading to the deposition of the units are numerous, interdependent and poorly known. So, the construction of a stratigraphic correlation model might be seen as an under-constrained problem with several possible solutions.

The aim of this thesis is to create a numeric method to generate stochastic stratigraphic models that are locally constrained by observation data. Two steps are necessary :

1. The establishment of rules describing the spatial organization of sedimentary units observed on outcrops and wells. For these rules, two axis are explored :
   The formulation in equations of rules dened in the sequence stratigraphy framework. These rules, presented qualitatively in the literature are translated in quantitative terms to evaluate the probability of two sedimentary units to be correlated. The deduction of the probability of two sedimentary units to be correlated from stratigraphic models built from forward stratigraphic methods.
2. The development of an algorithm to build possible stochastic stratigraphic models from the rules cited above and observation data.