Scanline surveys: correcting orientation bias by means of electronic spreadsheets

Abstract

Scanline surveying is a commonly adopted procedure to study fracture systems, both in Geology and Engineering. The data collected by scanlines must be corrected for orientation bias, and the correction proposed by Ruth Terzaghi is the most applied and widely recognized. Given that the correction was originally made manually by means of abacuses and that many pieces of software available nowadays for bias correction are not freeware, this paper proposes a method of correcting orientation bias in scanline data via electronic spreadsheets, in order to make the procedure more accessible and widespread amongst the Brazilian professionals.