This method should avoid the problem of induced correlation and false identification of conserved components that can be present in Pearce element-ratio analyses.
Magmatic fractionation follows the equations for linear mixing and unmixing.
Should magmatic fractionation result from the crystallization of olivine, Woronow showed that the composition of derivative magmas will scatter about a straight line radial to S on the ternary plot. As confirmation, a regression of A1 on A2 will indicate that the data scatter about a line which passes through the origin, since the origin serves as the vertex S, where A1 and A2 are equal to zero. However, we observed that the exact composition of minerals chosen to test should be known. Mineral compositions are estimated from Tables 4 and 5. This was true for all compositions of the forsterite-fayalite solid solution series with the exception of Fo50.