The link between cratonic roots, redox state, and mantle geodynamics. This project aims to understand the role of Earth's redox state on the geodynamic evolution of continental cratonic roots. Cratonic roots form strong, buoyant rafts upon which Australia's oldest crust and mineral deposits survived. Cratons preserve a record of planetary-scale chemical shifts, including the rise of surface oxygen, but it is unclear how these redox shifts themselves affected lithospheric processes. This project ....The link between cratonic roots, redox state, and mantle geodynamics. This project aims to understand the role of Earth's redox state on the geodynamic evolution of continental cratonic roots. Cratonic roots form strong, buoyant rafts upon which Australia's oldest crust and mineral deposits survived. Cratons preserve a record of planetary-scale chemical shifts, including the rise of surface oxygen, but it is unclear how these redox shifts themselves affected lithospheric processes. This project integrates new developments in geochemistry, geophysics, and geodynamics, to map the geochemical state and structure of cratonic roots, aiding mineral exploration, and also shedding light on the processes that modify, mineralise, and sometimes destroy cratonic roots.Read moreRead less
Seeing the unseeable: A new generation of geophysical imaging. This project aims to develop novel mathematical frameworks for probabilistic geophysical imaging and inference, building on recent advances in statistics and machine learning. These will allow us to obtain a more detailed and robust understanding of structures and processes occurring within the Earth, including those relevant to the Australian minerals and/or energy industries. Outcomes of this research include mathematical and compu ....Seeing the unseeable: A new generation of geophysical imaging. This project aims to develop novel mathematical frameworks for probabilistic geophysical imaging and inference, building on recent advances in statistics and machine learning. These will allow us to obtain a more detailed and robust understanding of structures and processes occurring within the Earth, including those relevant to the Australian minerals and/or energy industries. Outcomes of this research include mathematical and computational tools for imaging the subsurface, and greater understanding of Australian and global geoscience. This work can permit more effective exploitation of earth resources, as well as improving our understanding of how the Earth system has developed over geological history. Read moreRead less
Evolution of Proterozoic multistage rift basins – key to mineral systems. This project will deliver a new quantitative and integrated exploratory framework for the mineral industry in Australia’s frontier sedimentary basins by integrating the latest advances in laboratory experimental tectonics with thermo-mechanical numerical, surface process and geophysical modelling. The project will use northern Australian basins as a natural laboratory to address the fundamental processes involved in the de ....Evolution of Proterozoic multistage rift basins – key to mineral systems. This project will deliver a new quantitative and integrated exploratory framework for the mineral industry in Australia’s frontier sedimentary basins by integrating the latest advances in laboratory experimental tectonics with thermo-mechanical numerical, surface process and geophysical modelling. The project will use northern Australian basins as a natural laboratory to address the fundamental processes involved in the development of sedimentary ore systems. The project will investigate how they can be detected by modern exploration techniques using a multidisciplinary approach with a team of experts with backgrounds in mineral and petroleum systems. 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
Realising Australia’s rare earth resource potential. This project aims to reveal the potential for undiscovered economic deposits of rare earth elements within the Australian continent. Future supply of these elements underpins societies transition to clean energy and embrace of high-tech applications. The project expects to greatly enhance our knowledge of Australia’s endowment of rare earth element resources using an array of traditional and innovative geological research methods. Expected out ....Realising Australia’s rare earth resource potential. This project aims to reveal the potential for undiscovered economic deposits of rare earth elements within the Australian continent. Future supply of these elements underpins societies transition to clean energy and embrace of high-tech applications. The project expects to greatly enhance our knowledge of Australia’s endowment of rare earth element resources using an array of traditional and innovative geological research methods. Expected outcomes of this project include a greater understanding of how, where and when rare earth element orebodies form in the Earth's crust. This should provide significant benefits to exploring for––and discovering––new orebodies that are required to secure global critical metal supplies. Read moreRead less
The global consequences of subduction zone congestion. This project will use a combination of 3D geodynamic modelling, plate kinematic reconstruction and geological and geophysical synthesis to determine how congested subduction zones influence plate kinematics, subduction dynamics and tectonic evolution at orogen and global scales. The project aims to deliver a transformation change in understanding the links between congested subduction, mantle flow, trench migration, crustal growth, transitio ....The global consequences of subduction zone congestion. This project will use a combination of 3D geodynamic modelling, plate kinematic reconstruction and geological and geophysical synthesis to determine how congested subduction zones influence plate kinematics, subduction dynamics and tectonic evolution at orogen and global scales. The project aims to deliver a transformation change in understanding the links between congested subduction, mantle flow, trench migration, crustal growth, transitions between stable convergent margin configurations and deformation in the overriding plates of subduction zones. Determining these relationships is significant because it will provide dynamic context to interpret the geological record of ancient convergent margins, which host a large percentage of Earth's metal resources.Read moreRead less
Experimental and empirical insight into melting of the early Earth's mantle. The early Earth's mantle produced melt at much higher temperature than today, creating rocks with unique chemistries and mineralogies. But pressing knowledge gaps about hot mantle melting remain. The aim of this project is to generate new experimental and empirical knowledge to help closing these gaps by:
(i) conducting high pressure experiments to refine phase-composition relationships and element partitioning;
(ii) qu ....Experimental and empirical insight into melting of the early Earth's mantle. The early Earth's mantle produced melt at much higher temperature than today, creating rocks with unique chemistries and mineralogies. But pressing knowledge gaps about hot mantle melting remain. The aim of this project is to generate new experimental and empirical knowledge to help closing these gaps by:
(i) conducting high pressure experiments to refine phase-composition relationships and element partitioning;
(ii) quantifying mineral fabrics in cratonic peridotites to understand the movement of early continents; and
(iii) constructing the first petrological deep time model for greenstone belt volcanic rocks.
The expected outcomes are better models for the early Earth's melting and tectonic regimes and insight into the emergence of land.Read moreRead less