Recent posts

#1

General usage / Re: enabling trace elements wi...

Last post by Paula - January 15, 2026, 04:52:48 PM

Hi Elizabeth,

The "Initial Trace:" line and the environment variables like ALPHAMELTS_DO_TRACE are from alphaMELTS 1.9. So for now, delete those lines and see if the calculation runs.

Note that in alphaMELTS 2+ the "Log fO2 Delta:" line is now "Log fO2 Offset:" for consistency with other MELTS software.

Trace elements are coming to the newer alphaMELTS software soon, though they will be implemented for the Python version and PetThermoTools first.

There is a new, easier installation procedure for alphaMELTS 2.3.2. It's currently in beta and not documented on the Github site yet, but if you email me (click the envelope under my avatar) then I'll send you an invitation to the alphaMELTS Discord server and I can walk you through installation there.

Cheers,
Paula

#2

alphaMELTS for MATLAB/Python / Re: How to solve 'Can not find...

Last post by Paula - January 07, 2026, 06:05:17 PM

Did you try installing one of the downloads from the releases from the download link? Are you also using the Python version? If you are on Windows / Python then you will need to download the alphamelts-py-2.3.2-win64-x86_64.zip file.

You need to unzip the file and follow the appropriate instructions at https://github.com/magmasource/alphaMELTS/wiki/alphaMELTS-installation-and-testing

#3

General usage / enabling trace elements with a...

Last post by elipes - January 06, 2026, 01:20:45 PM

Hi Paula,

I'm struggling with what may be a fairly basic problem with alphaMELTS in getting the program to read trace elements in my input .txt file. The alphaMELTS manual states I need to set ALPHAMELTS_DO_TRACE to true before reading in the file but I currently don't see any option to do that in a command window.

I call the entire directory containing AlphaMELTS:

elizabeth.p@Elizabeths-MacBook-Pro-3 AlphaMELTS % alphamelts_macos
ALPHAMELTS_CALC_MODE not set!

---> Default calculation mode is rhyolite-MELTS (v. 1.0.2).  Change this? (y or n): y
     Set calculation mode to rhyolite-MELTS (public release v 1.1.0)? (y or n): n
     Set calculation mode to rhyolite-MELTS (public release v 1.2.0)? (y or n): n
     Set calculation mode to pMELTS (public release v 5.6.1)? (y or n): y
---> Calculation mode is pMELTS (public release v 5.6.1).

From here I can read in my input file, as follows:

Here's my input file:
Title: Sample average
Initial Composition: SiO2 46.8
Initial Composition: TiO2 0.18
Initial Composition: Al2O3 3.87
Initial Composition: Cr2O3 0.44
Initial Composition: FeO 9.24
Initial Composition: Fe2O3 0.01
Initial Composition: MgO 36
Initial Composition: CaO 3.06
Initial Composition: Na2O 0.051
Initial Trace: Zr 10.5
Initial Trace: Hf 0.283
Initial Trace: Y 4.3
Initial Trace: Sc 16.2
Initial Temperature: 1200.00
Final Temperature: 1200
Initial Pressure: 1
Final Pressure: 1
Increment Pressure: -100
Log fO2 Path: None
Log fO2 Delta: None
mode: fractionate liquid
output: both

It reads the file fine until it gets to Zirconium and says: Error during input file read, offending record: initial trace: zr 10.5.

How can I get around this? Thank you in advance for any insight into solving this!!

Best wishes, Elizabeth P (Univ. of Florida)

#4

alphaMELTS for MATLAB/Python / Re: How to solve 'Can not find...

Last post by zy-cug - December 25, 2025, 09:19:05 AM

https://github.com/magmasource/alphaMELTS/releases

Hello Puala, I'm a student from China, and I can't find the module in this URL. How can I solve this problem? Thanks for your reply!

#5

alphaMELTS for MATLAB/Python / Re: How to solve 'Can not find...

Last post by zy-cug - December 25, 2025, 09:13:00 AM

Hi, I am a beginner to use Melts, and just downloaded files for python from https://github.com/magmasource/alphaMELTS. However, when I run 'liquidus=MELTSdynamic(1)', the error, 'Could not find module libalphamelts.dll (or one of its dependencies)', occured. Could someone tell me how to solve this problem?

So am I. How do you deal with this problem? I can't find module libalphamelts.dll anywhere.

#6

News and updates / PetThermoTools online workshop...

Last post by asimow - December 18, 2025, 10:17:47 AM

We will be hosting a free online workshop January 12-13, 2026, to introduce a new python package called PetThermoTools that can be used to run thermodynamic calculations in rhyoliteMELTS, pMELTS, and MAGEMin (Holland models) in Python, getting around a lot of the stability issues of MELTS in particular and providing speed improvements through the use of parallel processing.

It can do mantle melting, fractional or equilibrium crystallization, phase diagrams, degassing and much more. Feel free to share this announcement broadly as well as signing up yourself!

Sign up link is here.

A preprint announcing and describing the new software is here:
PetThermoTools: a fast, flexible, and accessible Python3 package for performing thermodynamic calculations

Read the Docs examples with linked YouTube videos are here:
Welcome to PetThermoTools's documentation! — PetThermoTools v.0 documentation

Happy to also hear any issues you and your group may have trying to run stuff!

#7

The MELTS family of algorithms, and scientific discussion / Re: column-pick can not transf...

Last post by Paula - December 11, 2025, 01:14:13 PM

Hi Kai,

The output from column-pick.command is a comma- or text-delimited text file that can be easily imported into Excel. It is not an actual Excel file. If you take the ">aaa.xlsx" off what you are typing then you will be able to see the output of column-pick.command, including any error messages.

The input to column-pick.command is mostly a list of files, tables, and columns. For example:

Code Select Expand

Name: col_custom.txt
Header: Excel
Format: csv              ! output a comma-delimited table that can be opened in Excel automatically by double-clicking in Finder/Explorer
!Format: txt              ! output a tab-delimited table that can be opened in Numbers (Mac) automatically from the terminal command line
!Padding: '0.0'

File: System_main_tbl.txt
Table: System
Columns: index Pressure Temperature

! custom expressions need to be at the end and are processed left to right; avoid special characters like in FeO* or Mg#
File: Liquid_comp_tbl.txt
Table: "Liquid Composition"
Columns: SiO2 TiO2 Al2O3 Fe2O3 Cr2O3 FeO MnO MgO NiO CaO Na2O K2O P2O5 H2O CO2 FeOtot={FeO}+0.9*{Fe2O3} Mgnum=({MgO}/40.3044)/(({MgO}/40.3044)+({FeO}/71.8464)) Mgpc=100*{Mgnum}

File: Phase_mass_tbl.txt
Table: Phase
Columns: liquid1 clinopyroxene1 clinopyroxene2 fluid1 olivine1 plagioclase1 spinel1

Delimiter: comma        ! default input delimiter is space, but .tbl files are comma-delimited

File: olivine.tbl
Columns: fayalite,forsterite

File: plagioclase.tbl
Columns: albite,anorthite,sanidine

For this example you would type:

Code Select Expand

column_pick.command col_custom.txt > aaa.csv
Or you can use the "-c col_custom.txt" switch to the run-alphamelts.command script, in which case the output will go to "alphaMELTS_tbl.txt". You would need the "Output: both" line in your .melts file to make sure the .tbl files are written.


Paula

[Liquid_comp_tbl.txt>aaa.xlsx]

#8

The MELTS family of algorithms, and scientific discussion / column-pick can not transfer i...

Last post by Kai Wen - November 24, 2025, 09:19:22 AM

Dear Paul,
I open column-pick command after installing perl. It could produce a excel, but it told me can not download information, the new excel is just 1 Kb. My code is Liquid_comp_tbl.txt>aaa.xlsx, is there any thing wrong? Or need a comparable excel version?
Best,
Kai

#9

alphaMELTS for MATLAB/Python / Re: How to solve 'Can not find...

Last post by ll863628123 - October 12, 2025, 07:30:46 PM

Thank you very much, the code worked.

#10

Windows / Re: Nothing seems to work

Last post by victor_13 - October 12, 2025, 07:06:42 AM

Hi,

I'm experiencing the same issue that others have reported. I've been trying to use MELTS_Excel for several days, but I keep getting the following error message:

''Server returned no results, giving up''

I've tried using different versions of the MELTS_Excel spreadsheet, but I always get the same error.

At this point, I'm not sure what else to try to make it work properly. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.