Installing GCDkit

Two important point to note – the source of a great many complains :

1) You must install R before installing GCDkit. I repeat – you must install R before GCDkit.

You must install R before GCDkit.

(if you don’t, GCDkit will not start properly and complain about not finding the R Gui file etc.)

(in fact it is possible, but you then need to manually load GCDkit with library(GCDkit), but most regular users will not want to go that route).



2) With the current version of GCDkit (GCDkit 3.0), you must use R2.13.1. Again : you must use R 2.13.1

If you don’t, it’s very likely that GCDkit will not work. Also, note that the current version of R is 2.15.1 at the time of writing; so if you want version 2.13, you will need to look for it on CRAN website.

Sometimes, the simplest information is the most overlooked...

GCDkit workshop in India, January 2013

In the June issue of the Journal  of the Geological Society of India just appeared a short article by Sita Bora and Quazi A. Rasool on our workshop 'Geochemical Modelling in Igneous Petrogenesis: An Introduction to GCDkit' which was hosted by the National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad on January12–15, 2013.  It brings nice memories of a very lively meeting and spotless organization by a team led by dr. Vysetti Balaram (Hyderabad) and prof. Santosh Kumar (Nainital).

The workshop, led by Jean-Francois Moyen and myself, focussed initially on basic usage of the GCDkit system, then fundamentals of the R language and principles of geochemical modelling of the main processes in  igneous petrogenesis, such as fractional crystallization, partial melting and binary mixing, using the whole-rock major- and trace-element data and radiogenic isotopic compositions. The enjoyable and enlightening part of the meeting represented invited lectures by several leading  Indian specialists. See the original article for more details. Big thanks are due to all who made this great event to happen, as well as to participants for their eagerness and hard work!

Previous invited workshops on GCDkit (and often on geochemical modelling in the R language)

• Czech Geological Survey, Prague (11.6. 2004),
• TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany (16. 10. 2005),
• CGS/EOST, Université Louis Pasteur Strasbourg, France (23.–24. 10 2008),
• University of Tromso, Norway (16.–17. 6. 2010),
• Université Jean Monnet, Saint-Etienne, France (9.–11. 5. 2011),
• University of Helsinki, Finland (7.–11.11. 2011),
• University of Stelenbosch, South Africa (19–23 3. 2012)