LEAD STORY
USING PYTHON TO IMPROVE YOUR GEOLOGIC INTERPRETATIONS
A Bottom Hole Temperature Workflow BY MATTHEW W. BAUER, P.G.
How much does your team spend in time and money gathering datasets, fixing errors, and relating multiple data sources before you can interpret? Are there conventional workflows that are too time-intensive to use over regional areas? What about datasets where the variable and sample counts are so large it’s hard to wrap your mind around? Have you tried to understand the economics and risk of a project without having absolute inputs? Adding python programming to your workflows can help. It isn’t a magic bullet so understanding what it can and can’t do is important. Workflow automation and machine learning can’t replace the domain expertise, abstract thought, or creativity of a good geologist. That said, coding literacy provides large benefits to earth scientists by being able to acquire and utilize large datasets efficiently. I also argue that those benefits can start to be realized earlier in the learning process than the traditional “10,000-hour” learning threshold. Especially time savings in accessing and cleaning data. So, what packages should you start learning?
OUTCROP | December 2020
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Vol. 69, No. 12 | www.rmag.org
