The early tectonic evolution of the Curnamona Province. This project aims to test the hypothesis that the Curnamona Province preserves evidence for an extension-related structural geology architecture. This will allow a comparison of the basin evolution, crustal architecture and mechanisms of basin development between the Curnamona Province and well-understood basins of the Mount Isa Inlier. The project is expected to add value to pre-existing databases, and deliver a plate tectonic and str ....The early tectonic evolution of the Curnamona Province. This project aims to test the hypothesis that the Curnamona Province preserves evidence for an extension-related structural geology architecture. This will allow a comparison of the basin evolution, crustal architecture and mechanisms of basin development between the Curnamona Province and well-understood basins of the Mount Isa Inlier. The project is expected to add value to pre-existing databases, and deliver a plate tectonic and structural framework to interpret basin evolution and constrain geochronology/geochemical analysis, and develop a three-dimesional crustal architecture. The results will provide new constraints on the evolution of the Australian plate, and how the Australian crust has evolved.Read moreRead less
Coupled subduction dynamics and continent deformations: understanding the Asian and Red Sea tectonics. Modeling slab pull forces and lithospheric deformation provides a new insight in the dynamics of plate tectonics. Unraveling the self-consistent formation of faults, rifts, shear zones and up to passive margin will further the understanding of our planet. Furthermore the application of these models to specific geological contexts will support the exploration and assessment of inaccessible Ear ....Coupled subduction dynamics and continent deformations: understanding the Asian and Red Sea tectonics. Modeling slab pull forces and lithospheric deformation provides a new insight in the dynamics of plate tectonics. Unraveling the self-consistent formation of faults, rifts, shear zones and up to passive margin will further the understanding of our planet. Furthermore the application of these models to specific geological contexts will support the exploration and assessment of inaccessible Earth's resources, such as hydrocarbons pools, located along the deep Australian continent margins, and diamonds and ore deposits, associated with continental shear zones, which potential is still to be fully discovered.Read moreRead less
Unearthing the Marginal Terranes of the South Australian Craton: Keystone of Proterozoic Australia. This project will investigate the buried geology of vast regions of northern South Australia that is likely to be compatible with rocks that host enormous mineral wealth including the giant Broken Hill and Olympic Dam deposits. We will access these buried rocks using a program of on-shore scientific drilling that will provide the ground truth for multi-million dollar federal and state government ....Unearthing the Marginal Terranes of the South Australian Craton: Keystone of Proterozoic Australia. This project will investigate the buried geology of vast regions of northern South Australia that is likely to be compatible with rocks that host enormous mineral wealth including the giant Broken Hill and Olympic Dam deposits. We will access these buried rocks using a program of on-shore scientific drilling that will provide the ground truth for multi-million dollar federal and state government funded geophysical data acquisition. Results will help identify prospective mineral belts and determine the processes responsible for their formation.Read moreRead less
Evolution of the Proterozoic lithosphere and its bearing of sediment hosted base metal mineralisation. This project aims to determine the aspects of lithospheric evolution that led to a concentration of giant base metal mineral deposits in the Early to Middle Proterozoic (ca 1.9-1.5 billion years ago). We propose to test three related hypotheses that, if validated, will fundamentally change our view of Proterozoic metallogenesis and the way the mineral industry approaches exploration for these ....Evolution of the Proterozoic lithosphere and its bearing of sediment hosted base metal mineralisation. This project aims to determine the aspects of lithospheric evolution that led to a concentration of giant base metal mineral deposits in the Early to Middle Proterozoic (ca 1.9-1.5 billion years ago). We propose to test three related hypotheses that, if validated, will fundamentally change our view of Proterozoic metallogenesis and the way the mineral industry approaches exploration for these deposits.Read moreRead less
Tetconic feedback and the long-term evolution of the continents. The continents are shaped through complex interactions between the primary tectonic processes of magmatism, metamorphism, deformation, erosion and sedimentation. Because these processes modify the distribution of heat producing elements, and are themselves temperature sensitive, they must be subject to important feedback loops. This project will use constraints on heat producing element distributions in the Australian crust, and th ....Tetconic feedback and the long-term evolution of the continents. The continents are shaped through complex interactions between the primary tectonic processes of magmatism, metamorphism, deformation, erosion and sedimentation. Because these processes modify the distribution of heat producing elements, and are themselves temperature sensitive, they must be subject to important feedback loops. This project will use constraints on heat producing element distributions in the Australian crust, and the way in which these distributions have evolved during various tectonic processes, to elucidate the nature and significance of "tectonic feedback" and its role in shaping the continents.Read moreRead less
The Initiation and 3D Evolution of Instabilities in the Deep Continental Lithosphere. This project is part of a new international initiative in the Geodynamics of the Australian Plate bringing together studies of the active tectonics of the boundary regions of our plate and the ancient analogues of these processes which are locked into the stable interior of the Australian continent. The proposed research is a good fit to the Identification and Extraction of Deep Earth Resources priority goal. D ....The Initiation and 3D Evolution of Instabilities in the Deep Continental Lithosphere. This project is part of a new international initiative in the Geodynamics of the Australian Plate bringing together studies of the active tectonics of the boundary regions of our plate and the ancient analogues of these processes which are locked into the stable interior of the Australian continent. The proposed research is a good fit to the Identification and Extraction of Deep Earth Resources priority goal. Detachment of the lithosphere is associated with fertile mantle being emplaced at shallow depth below the crust; an important precursory event for mineralization. The project builds upon AuScope (NCRIS 5.13) to create infrastructure for a new, smart resource exploration and extraction industry based on modelling and simulation.Read moreRead less
Plate kinematics to plate dynamics: understanding plate boundary processes at the global scale. This proposal aims to create geodynamic models which can be used a basis for a new, smart resource exploration and extraction industry which uses simulation to help characterize regions where traditional geophysical imaging alone is not able to penetrate. It provides essential scientific underpinnings for
The Australian Computational Earth System Simulator Major National Research Facility (ACcESS).
NUMERICAL MODELS OF PLATE TECTONICS, MANTLE CONVECTION AND SLAB DYNAMICS WITH EVOLVING FAULTS. We plan to develop a method for simulating large-scale
geological structures with a much improved treatment
of tectonic faults in 3D.
Current computer models have sharp geological faults at plate
boundaries represented by broad, blurred zones. New techniques
for modeling cracks in engineering structures will be scaled up to
the whole Earth.
This will help us to understand how the Earth's p ....NUMERICAL MODELS OF PLATE TECTONICS, MANTLE CONVECTION AND SLAB DYNAMICS WITH EVOLVING FAULTS. We plan to develop a method for simulating large-scale
geological structures with a much improved treatment
of tectonic faults in 3D.
Current computer models have sharp geological faults at plate
boundaries represented by broad, blurred zones. New techniques
for modeling cracks in engineering structures will be scaled up to
the whole Earth.
This will help us to understand how the Earth's plates move and
interact now and in the past and how the structure of the continents
arose.
Not only is this intrinsically interesting, it
will also be of immediate practical benefit to geological modelers.Read moreRead less