PTQuick

PTQuick logoPTQuick: the program for estimation of equilibrium parameters for mineral assemblages using methods of classical geothermobarometry

PTQuick is a handy ©MS Windows program for estimation of equilibrium parameters (temperatures, pressures, oxygen fugacities) for mineral parageneses using methods of classical geothermobarometry, i.e. by independent expressions and algorithms ("tools") developed by different authors.
 A special attention is paid to convenience and efficiency of working, that makes obtaining final results easy and fast:


  • simultaneous work with large sets of samples;
  • fast "intelligent" import of tabulated data on mineral compositions from ©MS Excel or text ASCII-files with immediate calculation of formulae coefficients (by two methods);
  • automatic selection of available tools based on full set of imported compositional data and on data present for separate samples;
  • automatic recalculation and plotting of mineral equilibrium curves while a user navigates the table of analyses (at changes of samples) or the diagram window;
  • estimation and plotting of intersection points for selected equilibria (geothermometers and geobarometers, geothermometers and oxybarometers, etc.) for all imported samples, as well as performing of "chain" calculations (estimation of P-T parameters from intersection of geothermometer and geobarometer with their following use in the expression of oxybarometer);
  • plotting of different reference curves on diagrams (e.g. lines of transitions between polymorphs, conductive geotherms, etc.);
  • two variants for user-specified sets of selected tools and reference lines;
  • fast copy of diagrams, tables with calculated mineral analyses and tabulated results of parameters' calculations to the Windows clipboard for the following use in other programs (e.g. in ©MS Word, ©MS Excel, ©Corel Draw, etc.);
  • opportunities for the program customization and more...

 All the thermodynamic calculations (sensors' procedures, or tools' database) in PTQuick are implemented as a separate open-source module, so that you can investigate and modify their actually working algorithms: I think this idea is very important for such scientific programs.
 The database of tools is implemented as a dynamically linked library (PTools.dll), i.e. correction or addition of new tools involves editing of its source text by the programmer with following compilation and linking in the ©Borland Delphi programming environment (instructions about these operations are provided in supplied sources of the library, where you can also check how all the tools are implemented).
 Moreover, there is an opportunity in PTQuick for use of additional external tools implemented as separate small programs (executable exe-files) that communicate with the host program via small text files having very simple format.
 While the current set of tools (near 150) is focused mostly on HP and UHP rocks (lower crust and upper mantle conditions) and some of them are only of historical interest, a wider range of conditions and mineral associations can be easily covered. However, addition of all known tools is not planned: I'll add new tools on your requests only.
PTQuick was developed in close cooperation with Sergey K. Simakov who is the author of several geothermometers, geobarometers and oxybarometers. As for the tool set and some ideas, PTQuick is a descendant of the >15-years old DOS-program GEOTHERM that was developed by Mikhail V. Ivanov and Sergey K. Simakov for geothermobarometric investigations of high-pressure and ultra-high-pressure rocks.

List of sensors implemented in PTQuick can be viewed on (and downloaded from) Google Drive or Yandex Disk

How to work with PTQuick (basic operations demo, program version 1.0):