Utilización de programas computacionales en el entendimiento del metamorfismo y las rocas metamórficas.

Abstract

Thermodynamic modeling is an indispensable tool for understanding metamorphic rocks. In this work, I compare four software (THERMOCALC, Perple_X, Theriak-Domino and GeoPS) that are widely used in the determination of equilibrium phases, principally in the generation of pseudosections. I discuss the pros and cons of four software based on: their usage frequency by the scientific community, the time duration for pseudosection calculation, and the ease of installation and for the presentation of results. A review of scientific papers published in 2020 and 2021 shows that the scientific community prefers THERMOCALC and Perple_X. In this work, I concluded that Perple_X is a better option than THERMOCALC due to its automated calculation and results visualization. On the opposite, THERMOCALC requires the user to have an extensive knowledge of metamorphic petrology. Perple_X, similarly to GeoPS (launched in 2021), allows the usage of different thermodynamic databases, mineral activity models which makes it a better option for pseudosections calculation. The programs package Theriak-Domino have a bright future because of their open-source code. Nevertheless, at the time of writing this report Theriak-Domino shows errors during pseudosection calculation due to its incompatibility with more recent thermodynamic databases. Furthermore, in this work, I used Perple_X to calculate a pseudosection for an eclogite from the Raspas metamorphic complex using geochemical data from John et al. (2010). The pressure and temperature obtained for the metamorphism, after the pseudosection analysis, coincides with those obtained by traditional geothermobarometry and corresponds to 13.5 ± 5.5 kbar and 550 ± 50 °C.