Programs

Earth Sciences Applications

Programs for Macintosh OS X 10.6 and above

OSXStereonet

OSXGeoCalc

SSPX

Trishear3D

OSXBackstrip

OSXFlex2D

OSXStereonet plots lines and planes in spherical, equal angle or equal area, projections. The program can produce various types of plots such as scatter plots, great circle plots, contour diagrams, rose diagrams, stereonets from any view direction, plots of latitude-longitude data (e.g. coastlines), and (NEW from v. 1.8) full screen 3D view of stereonet.

In addition, the program can perform various operations on data, including calculating poles to planes, rotating planes and lines, constraining lines to lie on respective planes, angle between lines or planes, cylindrical best fit, conical best fit, and mean vector.

OSXStereonet is a modern Cocoa version of "Stereonet" by Richard Allmendinger. The program has the same functionality as "Stereonet", but it has additional advantages such as a more intuitive interface to input and view the data, multiple lines and planes datasets, multiple stereonet documents, full screen 3D view of stereonet, and enhanced speed and graphics.

OSXStereonet is freeware for non-profit, academic purposes. To use the program for consulting, please contact Nestor Cardozo at nfcd@mac.com or Richard Allmendinger at rwa1@cornell.edu.

Download 2.2 MB

version 2.1, February 23, 2012

Structural geology deals to a great extent with the operation of vectors and tensors. OSXGeoCalc is a calculator for vectors (lines, planes, and oriented drillcore data), and tensors (strain and stress).

Lines and planes can be visualized in a stereonet, and strain and stress in a Mohr diagram. Multiple computations can be executed using text files. Besides being a great tool to learn the fundamental concepts of vectors and tensors and their application in structural geology, OSXGeoCalc is a powerful tool to perform batch operations on thousands of vectors or tensors.

OSXGeoCalc was made for structural geologists, but it can be used by anyone interested in vectors and tensors. OSXGeoCalc is freeware for non-profit, academic purposes. To use the program for consulting, please contact me at nfcd@mac.com.

Download 3.2 MB

version 3.4, November 6 2011

SSPX is a program to calculate strain/strain rate from displacement/velocity data in two and three dimensions. SSPX is a full fledged inverse modeling program to calculate best fitting deformation tensors given displacement or velocity vectors.

SSPX works equally well on small deformation problems such as computing strain rates from Global Positioning System (GPS) data, or large deformation problems such as computing finite strain in a highly deformed discrete element model (DEM). SSPX was made for geologists, but it can be used by anyone interested in computing strain/strain rate from displacement/velocity data.

SSPX is based on StrainSimPro, a program by Richard Allmendinger to compute strain rates from GPS data. More information about SSPX can be found in Cardozo and Allmendinger (2009). SSPX is freeware for non-profit, academic purposes. To use the program for consulting, please contact Nestor Cardozo at nfcd@mac.com or Richard Allmendinger at rwa1@cornell.edu.

Download 7.7 MB

version 3.7, March 5, 2012

Trishear3D is a program to run 3D, forward trishear models. The program is based on the pseudo-3D algorithm of Cristallini and Allmendinger (2001), and the true-3D algorithm of Cristallini et al. (2004). Trishear3D can model the geometry and finite strain of compressional and extensional fault propagation folds, fault bend folds, rollovers, and lateral fault propagation. More information about Trishear3D, its algorithms and implementation can be found in Cardozo (2008).

Geometry and strain data can be visualized in a 3D plot which can be sliced along any orientation and queried for strain. Geometry and strain are also displayed in tables which can be easily exported. Trishear3D is a great tool to investigate the effects of temporal and spatial variations of fault parameters on the geometry and strain field of fault-propagation folds.

Trishear3D is freeware for non-profit, academic purposes. To use the program for consulting, please contact me at nfcd@mac.com.

Download 3.1 MB

version 4.9, November 6 2011

The subsidence of a sedimentary basin can be attributed to three processes: tectonic subsidence, water and sediment loading, and sediment compaction. These three components of subsidence can be estimated from a stratigraphic section using a procedure called "backstripping" (Allen and Allen, 1990). Backstripping removes from each sedimentary layer the effects of sediment compaction, water and sediment loading; thus extracting from the section the tectonic subsidence curve.

OSXBackstrip is a program to perform "1D Airy backstripping with exponential reduction of porosity". Stratigraphic units can be easily input in a table, and backstripping and tectonic subsidence plots and tables can be rapidly produced. Plots can be edited or saved for publication. Multiple documents (stratigraphic sections) can be backstripped and compared.

OSXBackstrip is freeware for non-profit, academic purposes. To use the program for consulting, please contact me at nfcd@mac.com.

Download 1.2 MB

version 3.0, November 6 2011

The displacement profile of the surface of the earth under crustal loads (i.e. mountain chains) can be well reproduced by an "elastic" or "flexural" model. In this model, the uppermost layer of the earth (i.e. the elastic lithosphere) responds to crustal loads as an "elastic" beam, floating in a weaker, fluid-like foundation (i.e. the astenospheric mantle, Turcotte and Schubert, 1982).

OSXFlex2D is a program that implements the "elastic", "flexural" model. Crustal loads can be entered and plotted, the profile of deformation produced by these loads can be computed and visualized in plots and tables. Plots can be edited or saved for publications. Multiple load profiles can be computed and compared.

OSXFlex2D is freeware for non-profit, academic purposes. To use the program for consulting, please contact me at nfcd@mac.com.

Download 1.6 MB

version 3.1, November 6 2011