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IsoplotR

IsoplotR is a free and open-source substitute for Kenneth Ludwig's popular Isoplot add-in to Microsoft Excel. This Github repository contains the code for IsoplotR's core commands. A graphical user interface is provided in a separate repository at https://github.com/pvermees/IsoplotRgui.

Installation

You must have R installed on your system (see https://www.r-project.org/). The most recent stable version of IsoplotR is available from CRAN at https://cran.r-project.org/package=IsoplotR and can be installed on your system as follows:

install.packages('IsoplotR')

Alternatively, the current development version of IsoplotR can be installed from Github with the remotes package:

install.packages('remotes')
remotes::install_github('pvermees/IsoplotR')

Example

Once installed, IsoplotR can be loaded into memory by entering the following code at the R command prompt:

library(IsoplotR)

Now we can issue IsoplotR commands to R. For example:

setwd(system.file(package='IsoplotR')) # navigate to the built-in data files
RbSr <- read.data('RbSr1.csv',method='Rb-Sr',format=1)  
isochron(RbSr)

Further information

See https://isoplotr.es.ucl.ac.uk/home/index.html

Vermeesch, P., 2018, IsoplotR: a free and open toolbox for geochronology. Geoscience Frontiers, v.9, p.1479-1493, doi: 10.1016/j.gsf.2018.04.001.

Author

Pieter Vermeesch

License

This project is licensed under the GPL-3 License

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Install

install.packages('IsoplotR')

Monthly Downloads

1,238

Version

6.8

License

GPL-3

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Maintainer

Pieter Vermeesch

Last Published

October 27th, 2025

Functions in IsoplotR (6.8)

Pb0corr

Common Pb correction
classes

Geochronological data classes
age2ratio

Predict isotopic ratios from ages
IsoplotR

library(IsoplotR)
central

Fits random effects models to overdispersed datasets
agespectrum

Plot a (40Ar/39Ar) release spectrum
ci

Confidence intervals
age

Calculate isotopic ages
cad

Plot continuous data as cumulative age distributions
concordia

Concordia diagram
helioplot

Visualise U-Th-He data on a logratio plot or ternary diagram
data2york

Prepare geochronological data for York regression
discfilter

Set up a discordance filter
kde

Create (a) kernel density estimate(s)
ellipse

Get error ellipse coordinates for plotting
evolution

Th-U evolution diagram
diseq

Set up U-series disequilibrium correction for U-Pb geochronology
examples

Example datasets for testing IsoplotR
diss

Dissimilarity between detrital age distributions
isochron

Calculate and plot isochrons
settings

Retrieve and record global settings
scatterplot

Create a scatter plot with error ellipses or crosses
mclean

Predict disequilibrium concordia_compositions
mds

Multidimensional Scaling
set.zeta

Calculate the zeta calibration coefficient for fission track dating
ludwig

Linear regression of U-Pb data with correlated errors, taking into account decay constant uncertainties.
peakfit

Finite mixture modelling of geochronological datasets
ogls

Omnivariant Generalised Least-Squares Regression
read.data

Read geochronological data
radialplot

Visualise heteroscedastic data on a radial plot
titterington

Linear regression of X,Y,Z-variables with correlated errors
york

Linear regression of X,Y-variables with correlated errors
weightedmean

Calculate the weighted mean age