24 Advances and Applications in Geochronology for Interpreting Stratigraphic and Basin Records, Part I

This session welcomes submissions related to applications of geochronology (e.g., U-Pb, 40Ar/39Ar) in stratigraphic research, including topics such as eruption and maximum depositional age estimation, provenance analysis, numerical modeling of geochronological data, and multi-disciplinary chronostratigraphic characterization.

Sunday, 19 October 2025
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
HBGCC, 304C

dzToolBox.com, a New Web Platform Aimed to Facilitate Quantitative Analysis of Detrital Zircon Data

Paper number: 24-7
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 9:40 AM – 9:55 AM

Authors

Abstract

As detrital zircon geochronology continues to gain popularity, there is an increased demand for quantitative tools that facilitate data visualization and interpretation. The past decade has brought several new quantitative tools to the forefront of the science, leading to innovative new ways to handle detrital zircon data. However, many of these new advancements remain as stand-alone desktop programs, code, or spreadsheets; there is currently no web-based interface that incorporates a full suite of detrital zircon quantitative comparison methods in an accessible and user-friendly interface. To address this need, we designed a modern web application that provides free access to quantitative detrital zircon analysis tools. The new web application provides a simple, yet powerful work environment that incorporates a Python-based back-end and a Bootstrap-based HTML front-end. The back-end utilizes a library of chronology tools we developed called dz_lib. This library is freely available to any developer to use in their projects, and it is easily integrable into existing technologies, such as GIS. Both dzToolBox and dz_lib are updated and expanded frequently. This expandable online platform currently includes quantitative comparison metrics for U-Pb age distributions, multidimensional scaling, common maximum depositional age calculations, forward sediment mixture modeling, and bivariate kernel density estimation for two-dimensional data such as paired zircon U-Pb age and Hf isotopic data. Quantitative comparison metrics include the likeness, similarity, Komolgorov-Smirnov, Kuiper, and cross-correlation. Users also have the option to register for an account to save data and results of their online work. We demonstrate the utility of this new platform using a data compilation of >15,000 individual ages from the Mesoproterozoic Belt Supergroup as a test of the new platform. Results show that the online interface is capable of handling large amounts of data and data analysis. As development continues, we plan to implement more advanced applications for interpreting multivariate data. We also plan to integrate these new tools with existing GIS technologies so that the user can visualize samples in an interactive geospatial context. We see this contribution as a complement to existing data visualization and interpretation tools such as IsoplotR and detritalPy.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 57, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2025AM-414084

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