INFOREX-3.0: A database on experimental studies of phase equilibria in igneous rocks and synthetic systems: I. Datafile and management system structure

INFOREX-3.0 is a sophisticated database manager for igneous petrologists and geochemists. It is designed as an aid in searching the published experimental database, and extracting specific subsets of that data. In addition, the program allows the user to derive numerical mineral-melt expressions based on any dataset. Its major function is as a computerized melting-experiment reference manual that presents data in a fixed format, with key word search functions and flags as an integral part of the program. At present, the system accesses information on 162 experimental studies carried out from 1962 to 1994. The database includes 6174 individual runs with more than 8300 coexisting phase compositions for 30 minerals plus melt. Most of the data are “dry”, but about 2200 include volatile components, such as H₂O and CO₂. INFOREX is hot-key driven, allowing users to sort easily and quickly through the data using any set of experimental conditions or rock type parameters. The main options include: (1) configuration of INFOREX; (2) extraction of general information on the current state of the system; (3) updating and editing the database files; (4) selection of run conditions of interest (setting rock types plus a range of pressures, temperatures, oxygen fugacities, run duration as well as types of containers and resultant phase assemblages); (5) setting phase assemblages (e.g., olivine-melt or garnet-spinel) for the selected set of experiments; (6) export/import operations; and (7) calculation of mineralmelt geothermometers. The INFOREX database is a powerful tool for the use in the development of petrogenetic models by providing the ability to manipulate easily accessed mineral-melt equilibria data.