The Department of Geography has obtained 10 MOVE Suite licenses.

The structural geology and petroleum engineering software company Petroleum Experts Ltd (PetEx) has donated 10 MOVE suite software academic licences to the Geography Department of Liege University, valued £1,601,839. MOVE suite is the leading software used for 3D geology modelling.  It provides a powerful stand-alone environment for data integration, cross-section construction and 3D model building, and forms the base for the specialist structural add-on.

The MOVE application provides a platform which integrates geo-referenced 2D and 3D views, allowing over 100 different data formats to be combined, including digital field data, digital elevation models, seismic data, well and borehole data, geological maps, annotated field images, scanned cross-sections, ASCII, and GIS shapefile files. Moreover, the MOVE suite supports the photogrammetry models including the projection and draping of photographic outcrop images on an existing mesh. The integrated data allow to quickly create maps and cross-sections, and 3D models in fully geo-referenced space, using automated and manual digitization tools. Cross plots, stereonet plots, rose diagrams and object property tables can then be used to thoroughly investigate and analyse the model and construction process.

The MOVE core is completed by specialist structural geology add-ons to perform: 2D and 3D Kinematic Modelling, Geomechanical Modelling, Fracture Modelling, Fault Response Modelling, as well as Fault Analysis and Stress Analysis. Moreover a Sediment modeling add-on is provided to carry out a simulation of 3D turbidity flows on present-day and palaeobathymetric surfaces. The 2D/3D space provides a best-practice environment to develop models, which can then be directly tested and validated using the kinematic modules.

The MOVE suite will be used by ULiege graduate students, as well as lecturers and researchers of the laboratory, for academic research projects relative to active rift and strike-slip fault basins in the Mediterranean region based on seismic, borehole, oceanographic, DEM and field data integration. The MOVE suite will be mainly supporting the FNRS project leads by Pr. Aurélia Hubert-Ferrari in collaboration with Pr George Papatheodorou from the Patras University, Greece. Indeed, this research project focus on the frontier between the Rift of Corinth, one of the most active in the world, and the Patras sedimentary basin with an unclear structural evolution. This frontier area localized most of the seismic activity highlighted the activity of strike-slip and normal faults. Thanks to the MOVE suite, we can perform a 3D structural analysis based on the published and original data to bridge the gap between Patras and Corinth tectonics.

The geography department of Liege University gratefully thanks Petroleum Experts Ltd (PetEx) to provide this academic grant that offers new scope for students and researchers.