WinCrtclas, a Windows program for cerite-supergroup minerals✝

Abstract

A Microsoft® Visual Basic software, WinCrtclas, has been developed to calculate the chemical formulas of cerite-supergroup minerals (CSM) based on data obtained from wet-chemical and electron-microprobe analyses. WinCrtclas currently evaluates 17 valid mineral species using the Commission on New Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification (CNMMC) of the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) nomenclature scheme in the general formula A9XM[T7O24Ø4]Z3. The program recalculates the compositional formulas of CSM based on 28 oxygen atoms with the T-site total of 7.00 normalization option. Mineral formulas of the CSM are calculated considering the valency-imposed double site occupancy and the site total charge approach, allowing a double suffix to state the essential A constituents in the general formula. WinCrtclas operates in four stages: (1) it estimates cation and anion contents provided by input chemical data; (2) it determines the dominant cation and anion at the A, X, M, T and Z sites; (3) it assigns the CSM based on the dominant cations and anions at these sites; and (4) it classifies the species into an appropriate groups. WinCrtclas allows users to: (1) enter up to 41 input variables for mineral-chemical analyses; (2) type and load multiple CSM compositions in the data entry section; (3) edit and load the Microsoft® Excel files used in calculating, classifying, and naming the CSM, and (4) store all the calculated parameters in the output of a Microsoft® Excel file for further data evaluations.