StrataBase: a stratigraphical database and processing program for microcomputers

Abstract Stratigraphical work focuses on changes of many parameters through sequences of strata as records of geological history. Quantitative stratigraphy therefore needs a database organized primarily by sequence and amenable to sequential forms of analysis: sequential changes in composition or compositional ratios, Markovian chains, time-series analysis of cyclicities. It also needs ready graphical conversion of numerical data in stratigraphical or statistical format. StrataBase is such a database designed for the Macintosh 512, written in Microsoft BASIC 2.0 and in Assembly language 68000. Data are filled in a bidimensional 314 K matrix, and are rendered totally accessible by a Virtual Disk in the RAM.