GRADISTAT: a grain size distribution and statistics package for the analysis of unconsolidated sediments
Open accessAbstract
Grain size analysis is an essential tool for classifying sedimentary environments. The calculation of statistics for many samples can, however, be a laborious process. A computer program called GRADISTAT has been written for the rapid analysis of grain size statistics from any of the standard measuring techniques, such as sieving and laser granulometry. Mean, mode, sorting, skewness and other statistics are calculated arithmetically and geometrically (in metric units) and logarithmically (in phi units) using moment and Folk and Ward graphical methods. Method comparison has allowed Folk and Ward descriptive terms to be assigned to moments statistics. Results indicate that Folk and Ward measures, expressed in metric units, appear to provide the most robust basis for routine comparisons of compositionally variable sediments. The program runs within the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet package and is extremely versatile, accepting standard and non‐standard size data, and producing a range of graphical outputs including frequency and ternary plots. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
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- Authors
- Blott, S. J., & Pye, K.
- Affiliations
- Royal Holloway University of London (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Blott, Simon J.
- Venue
- Earth Surface Processes and Landforms
- Publisher
- Wiley
- Published
- 2001-09-28
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 11
- Pages
- 1237-1248
- ISSN
- 0197-9337 (ISSN-L)
- 1096-9837
- OpenAlex
- W2077267127
- Cited by
- 4,385
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 292 · 2025: 316 · 2024: 335 · 2023: 313 · 2022: 325 · 2021: 394 · 2020: 311 · 2019: 280 · 2018: 249 · 2017: 274 · 2016: 221 · 2015: 188 · 2014: 201 · 2013: 159 · 2012: 130
- FWCI
- 13.22
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Earth Surface Processes and Landforms (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- Natural Environment Research Council
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Earth-Surface Processes › Geological formations and processes
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Geochemistry and Petrology › Geochemistry and Elemental Analysis
- Physical Sciences › Earth and Planetary Sciences › Earth-Surface Processes › Coastal and Marine Dynamics
- Keywords
- grain size distribution, unconsolidated sediments, sediment classification, sorting, skewness, sieving, laser granulometry, ternary plots, depositional environment
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