Down the borehole but outside the box: innovative approaches to wireline log data interpretation

Many innovative approaches to using data to make inferences about aspects of the natural world necessitate the calculation and appraisal of large numbers of alternative models or the repeated sampling of a multi-parameter solution space. While this is not new to science, it has hitherto been restricted to either very simple models, or to institutions with powerful computing infrastructure. Such institutions include large commercial companies and publicly funded computing initiatives, generally housed at universities or government research establishments. Advances in desktop and notebook computer processing and data storage capabilities now enable a variety of multiple-model approaches to geophysical data inference to be carried out on personal computers. It is therefore timely reconsider such approaches as innovative in recognition of their newly increased potential for widespread use. We also illustrate an innovative algorithm that is highly applicable to many aspects of geoscience. SUMMARY