Original paper

TriAngle: A Microsoft Excel™ spreadsheet template for the generation of triangular plots

Warnsloh, Jens M.

Neues Jahrbuch für Mineralogie - Abhandlungen Band 192 Heft 1 (2015), p. 101 - 105

published: Jan 1, 2015

DOI: 10.1127/0077-7757/2014/0267

BibTeX file

ArtNo. ESP154019201006, Price: 29.00 €

Download preview PDF Buy as PDF

Abstract

Triangular plots are widely used in geosciences and material sciences to show the relation of components (e.g. rocks, minerals, inorganic and organic phases) as well as chemical elements. Unfortunately, Microsoft Excel™ – the spreadsheet program used most by geoscientists – as well as other spreadsheet programs like LibreOffice Calc do not provide the generation of triangular plots by default. This text describes the use of TriAngle, a Microsoft Excel™ spreadsheet template to create triangular plots in an easy way. By inserting the values, the spreadsheet normalises them to a sum of 1 and calculates the coordinates for the XY-scatter chart. The resulting chart shows the triangle outline, the apexes names, and a legend. Using check boxes, different masks and grids can be chosen, e.g. a 10 %-grid, classification and nomenclature of tuffs and ashes based on their fragmental composition, etc. TriAngle is highly flexible and provides an easy way to the user to create individual masks and grids.

Keywords

spreadsheet • microsoft excel™ • trilinear plot • geochemistry • mineralogy • petrology