Linking the deep carbon cycle with critical mineral deposits. This project aims to determine how the global carbon cycle controlled the occurrence of carbonatites, which provide most of the world’s rare earth elements, using novel methods to improve our understanding of carbonatites and carbon-rich mantle rocks. This project expects to generate new knowledge on how global geodynamic processes, including the supercontinent cycle, influenced carbon recycling and mantle enrichments. This project wi ....Linking the deep carbon cycle with critical mineral deposits. This project aims to determine how the global carbon cycle controlled the occurrence of carbonatites, which provide most of the world’s rare earth elements, using novel methods to improve our understanding of carbonatites and carbon-rich mantle rocks. This project expects to generate new knowledge on how global geodynamic processes, including the supercontinent cycle, influenced carbon recycling and mantle enrichments. This project will have significant economic benefits for targeting economically critical mineral deposits required to transition to a decarbonized world and placing the carbon cycle in a paleogeographic context to understand the climate in deep time.Read moreRead less
Revealing the deep Earth in deep time. This project aims to determine the nature of the chemical and dynamical transformation of the Earth’s interior at the end of the first 25 per cent of its history. This will provide a new understanding of the related establishment of modern surface features such as extensive continents and an oxygenated atmosphere, as well as investigate causal relationships with west Australia’s mineral resources. The expected outcome will be a significant new understandin ....Revealing the deep Earth in deep time. This project aims to determine the nature of the chemical and dynamical transformation of the Earth’s interior at the end of the first 25 per cent of its history. This will provide a new understanding of the related establishment of modern surface features such as extensive continents and an oxygenated atmosphere, as well as investigate causal relationships with west Australia’s mineral resources. The expected outcome will be a significant new understanding of the chemical and thermal history of our planet.Read moreRead less
Aqueous fluids in the deep earth. This project aims to improve our understanding of the role of fluids in controlling exchanges between the deep Earth, shallow rocks, and atmosphere. The project expects to investigate some of the key weaknesses in the thermodynamic models that are used to predict the behaviour of sulphur, carbon and metals in fluids at high pressure and temperature by using recent advances in computational and experimental (geo)chemistry. Integrated in large-scale geodynamic mod ....Aqueous fluids in the deep earth. This project aims to improve our understanding of the role of fluids in controlling exchanges between the deep Earth, shallow rocks, and atmosphere. The project expects to investigate some of the key weaknesses in the thermodynamic models that are used to predict the behaviour of sulphur, carbon and metals in fluids at high pressure and temperature by using recent advances in computational and experimental (geo)chemistry. Integrated in large-scale geodynamic models, the more reliable predictions will provide a more realistic assessment of the role of sulphur in controlling metal endowment and atmospheric chemistry through geological times. This should provide a useful guide for mineral exploration and planetary science.Read moreRead less
Impact of melt loss on crustal heat production and Earth geodynamics. This project plans to develop a thermodynamic tool set to calculate the amounts of rare earth elements, thorium and uranium in monazite and link its growth and radiogenic heat budget to rock evolution. Thorium (Th) and uranium (U) produce 83 per cent of the heat in Earth’s continental crust. Vast tracts of high-heat-producing rock from hot, deep parts of the crust defy the notion that such crust is depleted in Th and U. The ca ....Impact of melt loss on crustal heat production and Earth geodynamics. This project plans to develop a thermodynamic tool set to calculate the amounts of rare earth elements, thorium and uranium in monazite and link its growth and radiogenic heat budget to rock evolution. Thorium (Th) and uranium (U) produce 83 per cent of the heat in Earth’s continental crust. Vast tracts of high-heat-producing rock from hot, deep parts of the crust defy the notion that such crust is depleted in Th and U. The causes of high heat production in the deep crust remain unclear. This project will develop a tool set to calculate the Th and U concentration in minerals (eg monazite, zircon) and silicate melt as a function of depth, temperature and rock composition. This tool set would be of great benefit to the geoscience community for better understanding fundamental geodynamic processes.Read moreRead less