Abstract. In this contribution we introduce LoopStructural, a new open-source 3D
geological modelling Python package (http://www.github.com/Loop3d/LoopStructural, last access: 15 June 2021).
LoopStructural provides a generic API for 3D geological modelling applications harnessing
the core Python scientific libraries pandas, numpy and scipy. Six different interpolation
algorithms, including three discrete interpolators and 3 polynomial trend
interpolators, can be used from the same model design. This means that
different interpolation algorithms can be mixed and matched within a
geological model allowing for different geological objects, e.g. different
conformable foliations, fault surfaces and unconformities to be modelled using
different algorithms. Geological features are incorporated into the model
using a time-aware approach, where the most recent features are modelled
first and used to constrain the geometries of the older features. For
example, we use a fault frame for characterising the geometry of the fault
surface and apply each fault sequentially to the faulted surfaces. In this
contribution we use LoopStructural to produce synthetic proof of concepts models and a
86 km × 52 km model of the Flinders Ranges in South Australia using map2loop.