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A software tool to plot frequency and cumulative frequency curves automatically for grain size analysis of sediments

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Abstract

It is a good method to utilize the grain size distribution curves and cumulative frequency curves of marine or river sediments to estimate the hydrodynamic conditions, transportation processes and sedimentary environment. However, researchers can only rely on Excel or Grapher to plot the curves one by one at the present day. The manual plotting procedures are complicated, and calculating the truncation points is time-consuming. To solve the aforementioned problems, we have developed a software tool to plot cumulative frequency curves and calculate the values of truncation points automatically. The software has the ability to plot curves of hundreds of samples accurately and rapidly, promoting researchers to analyze transport mechanisms and hydrodynamic environments. And it is convenient to apply the software to compare the processes of transportation and deposition between different samples.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant NOs.: 41976065, 41676056 and 41376057). We are grateful to P.F. Xiang for many significant suggestions. All source codes of GrainsizeAnalysis are available on GitHub at https://github.com/LogicHoo/GrainsizeAnalysis.

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Correspondence to Zhong Chen.

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Communicated by: H. Babaie

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Appendix: The steps of the algorithm

Appendix: The steps of the algorithm

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Xu, A., Hu, P., Chen, Z. et al. A software tool to plot frequency and cumulative frequency curves automatically for grain size analysis of sediments. Earth Sci Inform 13, 565–571 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-019-00440-w

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