SINCLAS:: standard igneous norm and volcanic rock classification system

SINCLAS is an efficient CIPW norm and volcanic rock classification system written in MS-VisualBasic (R) . It reads input data from STATISTICA (R) or MS-Excel (R) files and returns the results to them for further use, As an important improvement. the system takes into account minor chemical constituents in the norm computation. Before computing the CIPW norms and final rock classification, this program handles the Fe(2)O(3)/FeO ratio according to three different options and recalculates the actual analyses to an anhydrous (volatile-free) 100% adjusted basis. Based on mass balance principles and variable atomic weights. SINCLAS achieves accurate and highly consistent CIPW norm results, generally better than 0.002%m/m. Furthermore, the program uses the latest IUGS recommendations for classification of volcanic rocks based on the total alkalis versus silica (TAS) diagram. Taking advantage of the MS-Windows (R) operating system, SINCLAS is simple to rum it generates a file with adjusted SiO(2) and Na(2)O + K(2)O values for a TAS diagram in any graphics package. and reports the results in ready-to-print tables in MS-Word (R) format. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.