Plotting Ternary Diagrams by R Library ggtern for Geological Modelling

Selecting proper methods of data modelling is crucial in geosciences, as effective data visualization enables better understanding of complex geological phenomena: processes, structure and dynamics. Various approaches of the data analysis by R language include both traditional methods of linear charts and other approaches to data visualization: ternaries, circular and radar charts. Using ternaries for triple correlations between variable can be seen in applied geological analysis which proves it to be important method for data modelling. Visualizing geological variables by ternaries enables to highlight correlation between variables in a triangle, how data are dependent and affected. In this study, several geologic, tectonic and geomorphic variables, such as sediment thickness, tectonic plates, volcanic areas, steepness and depths, were tested using R based modelling in {ggtern} library. Other graphs include radar charts and circular diagrams. Visualizing attributes as a triple component correlation by ternaries gives a better insight to the geological factors. Traditional techniques for visualization of pairwise linear correlations are not sufficient to show triple variations. Ternaries approach identifies data correlations by triple factors. Additional graphical models include circular and Euler-Venn diagrams of quantitative and qualitative geospatial data modelling. The study is supported by 7 R code listings and 9 figures.