Document Type
Article
Department or Administrative Unit
Geological Sciences
Publication Date
11-16-2007
Abstract
Volcanic and plutonic rocks provide abundant evidence for complex processes that occur in magma storage and transport systems. The fingerprint of these processes, which include fractional crystallization, assimilation, and magma recharge, is captured in petrologic and geochemical characteristics of suites of cogenetic rocks. Quantitatively evaluating the relative contributions of each process requires integration of mass, species, and energy constraints, applied in a self-consistent way. The energy-constrained model Energy-Constrained Recharge, Assimilation, and Fractional Crystallization (EC-RaxFC) tracks the trace element and isotopic evolution of a magmatic system (melt + solids) undergoing simultaneous fractional crystallization, recharge, and assimilation. Mass, thermal, and compositional (trace element and isotope) output is provided for melt in the magma body, cumulates, enclaves, and anatectic (i.e., country rock) melt. Theory of the EC computational method has been presented by Spera and Bohrson (2001, 2002, 2004), and applications to natural systems have been elucidated by Bohrson and Spera (2001, 2003) and Fowler et al. (2004). The purpose of this contribution is to make the final version of the EC-RAxFC computer code available and to provide instructions for code implementation, description of input and output parameters, and estimates of typical values for some input parameters. A brief discussion highlights measures by which the user may evaluate the quality of the output and also provides some guidelines for implementing nonlinear productivity functions. The EC-RAxFC computer code is written in Visual Basic, the programming language of Excel. The code therefore launches in Excel and is compatible with both PC and MAC platforms. The code is available on the authors’ Web sites http://magma.geol.ucsb.edu/and http://www.geology.cwu.edu/ecrafc) as well as in the auxiliary material.
Recommended Citation
Bohrson, W. A., and Spera, F. J. (2007), Energy‐Constrained Recharge, Assimilation, and Fractional Crystallization (EC‐RAχFC): A Visual Basic computer code for calculating trace element and isotope variations of open‐system magmatic systems, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 8, Q11003, doi:10.1029/2007GC001781.
Journal
Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems
Rights
Copyright 2007 by the American Geophysical Union.
Comments
This article was originally published in Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems. The full-text article from the publisher can be found here.