ONLINE CREATION OF TERNARY DIAGRAMS USING THE JAVA^TM PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

Ternary diagrams are used for a wide variety of applications in the Geosciences and provide a powerful way to visualize and convey information. Some of these applications include illustrating rock classification schemes as well as discrimination and phase diagrams. We present an open-source Applet writing in the Java programming language that allows users to plot their geological data on a ternary diagram via a web page. While commercial petrologic software usually contains the capability to create ternary diagrams, we believe our product to be the first freely available application of its kind. The work was done as part of a summer undergraduate project at Bryn Mawr College as part of the GEOscience Network (GEON) research initiative.

The Applet consists of two parts: the graph and a data entry field. Once data are entered, they are renormalized if necessary and then plotted on the graph. Up to 10 datasets with any number of records may be plotted. Once plotted, the results can be exported as a text file to any other application.

As this work continues, we plan to add features to the Applet to increase its functionality. As an example, dealing with more complicated phase diagrams such as AFM, ACF, and AKF by doing ‘on-the-fly' calculations within the Applet. Additionally, we are working with our GEON partners at San Diego Supercomputing Center (SDSC) to integrate and render data directly from GEON databases into the Applet.

The Applet may be accessed at: http://www.brynmawr.edu/geology/MLC/GeonPages/TriangularDiagram/TriangleCoords4.html