GGSD Program Details for NetPath

NetPath

Category	Geochemistry
Platform	DOS, UNIX, DG, Sun
Status	Freeware
Description	NETPATH is an interactive program used to interpret net geochemical mass balance reactions between initial and final waters along a hydrologic flow path. The program uses chemical and isotopic data for waters from a hydrochemical system. The processes of dissolution, precipitation, ion exchange, oxidation/reduction, degradation of organic compounds, incongruent reaction, gas exchange, mixing, evaporation, dilution, isotope fractionation, and isotope exchange can be considered. Geochemical mass balance reaction models are examined between selected evolutionary waters for every possible combination of the plausible phases that account for the composition of a selected set of chemical and isotopic constraints in the system. The software includes a database program for storing and editing chemical and isotopic data. A mass balance model is defined as the masses (per kilogram H2O) of a set of plausible minerals and gases that must enter or leave the initial solution in order to define exactly a set of selected elemental, electron transfer, and isotopic constraints observed in a final (evolutionary) water. In hydrochemical systems the number of reacting phases is often larger than the number of constraints necessary to define their composition. It solves a set of linear equations that account for conservation of mass, and (optionally) conservation of electrons and selected isotopes to find every subset of the selected phases that satisfies the chosen constraints. Each mass balance model can be treated as an isotope evolution problem solving isotope mass balance and Rayleigh distillation problems to predict the isotopic composition at the final point on the flow path.
Cost	Free on WWW
Data formats supported	None stated
Supplier in United States of America	International Ground Water Modeling Center