CCFS communications 2011


CCFS web resources provide information on background, research and downloadable files of the Annual Report and Research Highlights. 

Links to the GEMOC website (http://www.gemoc.mq.edu.au/) provide past GEMOC Annual Reports, updated details on its methods, new analytical advances and software updates (GLITTER), activities of research teams within GEMOC, synthesised summaries of selected research outcomes and items for secondary school resources. 

Links to the CET (Centre for Exploration Targeting) website (http://www.cet.edu.au/) provide access to wider information about CET activities beyond its involvement in CCFS and especially the wide base of end-user interaction.

Links to The Institute for Geoscience Research (TiGer) website (http://tiger.curtin.edu.au/) provide information about their facilities, participants and research activities. 

Strong industry interaction in CCFS in 2011 ranged from presentations to specific industry groups in their offices to numerous formal and informal workshops at CET and GEMOC, and invited and plenary presentations at peak industry symposia, workshops and conferences nationally and internationally.

 

CCFS PUBLICATIONS FOR 2011 ARE GIVEN IN APPENDIX 4 

The 94 CCFS Publications that were published in 2011 are mainly in high-impact international journals as listed by the internationally recognised Thomson ISI Citation data, and designated previously as A* and A journals by the earlier ARC ERA (Excellence in Research) official journal ranking. The publication list includes some resulting from research prior to 2011, but from ARC grants that were relinquished because of their close alliance with Centre research, or from CET or GEMOC activity which are now part of CCFS.

Simon






Professor Simon Wilde presenting his talk on the Early Earth at the IV Cuban Earth Science Convention, Havana, Cuba, in April.

 






Participation in Workshops, Conferences and international meetings in 2011 (and beyond) 

CCFS Investigators, associated staff, early-career researchers and postgraduates had a high profile at peak metallogenic, geodynamic and geochemical conferences as convenors, invited speakers, or presenters, with 162 presentations including: 

  • 23rd Colloquium of African Geology (Johannesburg, South Africa)
  • Gordon Research Conference on Geobiology of Precambrian Earth (Ventura, CA, USA)
  • DGG/EAGE 2011 (Cologne, Germany)
  • Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) (Toronto, Canada)
  • 42nd Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (The Woodlands, USA)
  • West Australian Geothermal Energy Symposium (Perth, Australia)
  • European Geosciences Union, General Assembly 2011 (Vienna, Austria)
  • V Cuban Earth Science Convention (Havana, Cuba)
  • American Association of Petroleum Geologists 2011 (Lima, Peru)
  • “Minerals at Extreme Conditions: Integrating Theory and Experiment” Elizabeth and Frederick White Conference (Canberra, Australia)
  • International Conference on Craton Formation and Destruction (Beijing, China)
  • Frontiers in Mineral Systems: The Inaugural Solomon Meeting (Yallingup, Australia)
  • Opportunities in Research of Metals and Minerals (Victoria, Australia)
  • GAC - MAC - SEG - SGA Annual Meeting (Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)
  • Earthscope National Meeting (Texas, USA) 
  • The 6th International Conference on Arctic Margins (ICAM VI) (Fairbanks, USA)
  • Conference - Eclogite and Granulite Complexes in the Earth History (Petrozavodsk, Russia)
  • The Evolution of Photosynthesis and Oxygenation of the Earth Symposium (Sydney, Australia)
  • IUGG 2011 General Assembly, Earth on the Edge: Science for a Sustainable Planet (Melbourne, Australia)
  • The XVII International Congress on the Carboniferous and Permian (Perth, Australia)
  • Seventh Hutton Symposium on Granites and Related Rocks (Avila, Spain)
  • Australian Mars Exploration Conference (Perth, Australia)
  • 9th International Eclogite Conference, 2011 (Mariánské Lázne, Czech Republic)
  • The 8th Annual Meeting of the Asia Oceania Geosciences Society (AOGS) (Taipei, Taiwan)
  • Goldschmidt 2011 (Prague, Czech Republic)
  • 7th International Symposium on Digital Earth (Perth, Australia)
  • Deformation Mechanisms, Rheology and Tectonics, DRT Conference (Oviedo, Spain)
  • Penrose Conference on “Comparative evolution of past and present accretionary orogens: Central Asia and the Circum-Pacific” (Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China)
  • Geological Processes From Global to Local Scales, Associated Hazards and Resources (Munich, Germany)
  • Fermor 2011 - Ore Deposits in an Evolving Earth (Piccadilly, London)
  • International Field Workshop on the Precambrian evolution of Korea, and East Asian tectonics (KBSI Ochang Center, South Korea)
  • 18th International Conference on Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS XVIII) (Riva del Garda, Italy)
  • Geological Survey of Norway (Trondheim, Norway)
  • Gondwana 14 (Buzios, Brazil)
    SEG




Yonjun Lu and Coleagues at the 11th Biennial SGA meeting held in Antofagasta, Chile.



  • 11th Biennial SGA meeting (Antofagasta, Chile)
  • 11th Australian Space Science Conference 2011 (Canberra, Australia)
  • XXXI Reunion de la Sociedad Españoloa de Mineralogía (Barcelona, Spain)
  • GSA Annual Meeting (Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA)
  • Geological Survey of Western Australia (Perth, Australia)
  • Jordanian-Egyptian Basement Evolution (JEBEL) Workshop and Field Excursion “Basement Complex of Southwest Jordan” (Amman, Jordan)
  • Ice deformation; from the model material to ice in natural environments (Grenoble, France)
  • 2011 Sprigg Symposium: Unravelling the Northern Flinders and Beyond (Adelaide, Australia)
  • AGU 2011 Fall Meeting (San Francisco, California, USA)
     

INVITED TALKS AT MAJOR CONFERENCES 2011

Conference     Presentation

Gordon Research Conference on Geobiology of Precambrian Earth, 30 January - 4 February 2011

 M. Barley. The early evolution of Earth’s atmosphere, links to tectonics and life. Invited

Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada (PDAC): Toronto, Canada, 6-9 March 2011

T.C. McCuaig. Integrated interpretation and targeting under cover. Invited

T. C. McCuaig and Jon M.A. Hronsky. Exploration targeting in a business context. Keynote

T.C. McCuaig. Managing success - Strategies for keeping the leadership edge: Exploration Targeting. Invited

European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly 2011, Vienna, Austria, 3-8 April 2011

 S. Pisarevsky. Neoproterozoic paleogeography: paleomagnetic perspective. Invited

J.C. Afonso et al. The lithosphere-sublithospheric upper mantle system beneath the Atlantic-Mediterranean Transition Region: advances and limitations from recent multidisciplinary approaches. Invited

F. Gervilla, I. Fanlo, T. Kerestedjian, R. Castroviejo, J.M. González-Jiménez et al. Alteration mechanism of chromite in podiform chromitites from two metamorphosed ophiolitic complexes: Golyamo Kamenyane (Bulgaria) and Tapo (Peru). Keynote

IV Cuban Earth Science Convention, Havana, Cuba, 4-8 April 2011

 S.A. Wilde. Unravelling the first 500 million years of Earth history. Invited
“Minerals at Extreme Conditions: Integrating Theory and Experiment” Elizabeth and Frederick White Conference, Canberra, Australia (Australian Academy of Science) 13-15 April, 2011 W.L. Griffin and S.Y. O’Reilly. Fluids in diamonds: samples from the deep lithosphere. Invited

S.Y. O’Reilly. Tracking Earth’s plumbing system in time and space: an interdisciplinary strategy towards understanding Earth’s evolution. Invited

C. O’Neill et al. The effect of D” and post-perovskite on the dynamics of plumes. Invited

S. Turner, J. Caulfield, M. Turner et al. Direct evidence for the nature and timing of sub-arc mantle metasomatism. Invited

International Conference On Craton Formation And Destruction, Beijing, China, 25-29 April 2011 

S.Y. O’Reilly, W.L. Griffin, M. Zhang, N.J. Pearson, J. Zheng, X. Xu, J. Yu and J.-H. Yang. Deep and ancient lithosphere rules supreme: a 3.6 Ga story of persistence, transformation, dispersal and re-assembly. Keynote 

W.L. Griffin, N. Nikolic, S.Y. O’Reilly and N.J. Pearson. Coupling, decoupling and metasomatism: Crust-mantle relationships beneath NW Spitsbergen. Invited

J.-P. Zheng, W.L. Griffin, C. Yu, S.Y. O’Reilly et al. Continental accretion and reworking beneath the North China Craton: Evidence from deep-seated xenoliths. Invited 

S.A. Wilde. Phanerozoic Crustal Growth: Sorting out facts from fiction. Keynote

Frontiers in Mineral Systems: The Inaugral Solomon Meeting, Yallingup, Western Australia, 8-13 May 2011

M. Fiorentini. Multiple sulfur isotopes in magmatic systems. Invited 

S. Reddy. Mineral system deposition and timing: Constraints from quantitative microanalysis. Keynote

Opportunities in Research of Metals and Minerals, Deakin University, 12 May 2011

S. Piazolo. Integrating in-situ experiments with numerical simulations. Invited

The Evolution of Photosynthesis and Oxygenation of the Earth Symposium, UNSW, Sydney, Australia, 28-29 June 2011

 M.J. van Kranendonk. Contingent events leading to an oxygenated environment. Keynote

IUGG 2011 General Assembly, Earth on the Edge: Science for a Sustainable Planet, Melbourne, Australia, 28 June - 7 July 2011

 S. Pisarevsky. Precambrian supercontinents and paleomagnetic data, or how “super” are supercontinents? Invited

Goldschmidt 2011, Prague, Czech Republic, August 14-19 2011 
W.L Griffin, G. Begg, S.Y. O’Reilly and N.J. Pearson. Ore deposits and the SCLM. Keynote

M.J. van Kranendonk. Geology, age and origin of the oldest terrestrial rocks and minerals. Keynote

S. Turner, J. Caulfield, M. Turner, et al. Direct evidence for the nature and timing of sub-arc mantle metasomatism. Invited

Penrose Conference on “Comparative evolution of past and present accretionary orogens: Central Asia and the Circum-Pacific”, Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, 4-10 September 2011

E. Belousova, R. Seltmann, W.L. Griffin and S.Y. O’Reilly. Hf isotopes in zircons from the CAOB: Crustal evolution history and tectonic significance. Invited

S.A. Wilde, et al. Tectonic evolution of the CAOB in NE China. Invited

International field workshop on the Precambrian evolution of Korea, and East Asian tectonics, KBSI Ochang Center, South Korea, 19-24 September 2011

 S.A. Wilde, et al. A >1300 km-long Late Pan-African Khondalite Belt along the southern margin of the CAOB. Invited

18th International Conference on Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS XVIII), Riva del Garda, Italy, 18-23 September 2011

 M. Kilburn. Chemistry at the sub-µm scale with NanoSIMS. Invited

Geological Survey of Norway, Trondheim, Norway, 23 September 2011

M.J. van Kranendonk. A chronostratigraphic division of the Precambrian: possibilities and challenges. Invited

M.J. van Kranendonk. Vertical to horizontal tectonics: Secular evolution of the Archaean Pilbara Craton, Western Australia. Invited

M.J. van Kranendonk. Contingent drivers of environmental change across the Archean-Proterozoic transition. Invited

Geological Survey of Western Australia, Perth, Australia, 17 October 2011

 M.J. van Kranendonk. Romance in geology: The marriage and breakup of continents. Invited

Ice deformation; from the model material to ice in natural environments, Grenoble, France, 7-9 November 2011

S. Piazolo. Strain heterogeneities and recrystallization in polycrystalline materials: Characterization and Interpretation. Invited

AGU’s 2011 Fall Meeting, San Francisco, California, USA, 5-9 December 2011

O. Alard. Ubiquitous old depleted mantle in the Oceanic mantle. Invited

J.C. Afonso and S. Zlotnik. The subductability of the continental lithosphere: results from coupled thermodynamic-thermomechanical numerical modeling. Invited

A. Dosseto and S. Turner. Reappraisal of magma genesis under the Kamchatka arc with uranium-series isotopes. Invited

M.H. Ritzwoller, F.-C. Lin, W. Shen, J. Xie, Y. Yang, Y. Zheng and Z.L. Quan. Crustal and uppermost mantle anisotropy in the western US and China inferred from surface wave dispersion. Invited

Y. Yang et. al. Surface wave tomography on large-scale seismic arrays combining ambient noise and teleseismic earthquake data. Invited

A full list of abstract titles and authors for Conferences and Workshops attended is given in Appendix 6 and on the CCFS website. 

OTHER CONFERENCE ROLES

  • Dr Klaus Gessner was a member of the organising committee and convened the Session “Building a regional geoscientific framework” at the West Australian Geothermal Energy Symposium, 21-22 March 2011. 
  • Associate Professor Tracy Rushmer was one of the organisers of the Elizabeth and Frederick White Conference “Minerals at Extreme Conditions: Integrating Theory and Experiment” held in Canberra at the Australian Academy of Science 13-15 April, 2011. 
  • Dr Zheng-Xiang Li was co/vice-chairman of the international Scientific committee and Serge Pisarevsky was on the Conference organising committee for the International Symposium “Large Igneous Provinces of Asia, Mantle Plumes and Metallogeny” held in Irkutsk, Russia, August 2011.  
  • Professor Bill Griffin Chaired session at the 9th International Eclogite conference, 2011, Czech Republic, August 6-9, 2011 entitled “Mantle Dynamics, Fluid Flow in the Subduction Zone and HP Melting“.Gold

 
 

 

CCFS participants and friends enjoying a scenic evening dinner cruise at the Goldschmidt, Prague: (L-R) Lora Armstrong (Bristol University, UK), Mel Murphy, Yao Yu, Ed Saunders, Dan Howell, and Heather Handley (photograph courtesy of Heather Handley.

 

 


 

CCFS was well represented at the 2011 Goldschmidt conference held in Prague, Czech Republic, 14-19 August:  

  • Professor Simon Turner was a member of the scientific program committee and a co-coordinator of Theme 06: “Recycling: Subduction, The Mantle Wedge and Arc Volcanism” 
  • Dr Heather Handley co-chaired sessions 9e: “Geochemistry of volcanic systems and natural hazards” and “Timescales of Magma Evolution, Degassing, and Ascent through the Crust”
  • Associate Professor Marco Fiorentini co-convened session 11b: “Ore Deposits and the Role of the Lithospheric Mantle”
  • Professor Martin van Kranendonk was a co-convener and Chair of session 05c: “Continent Formation through Time”
  • Dr Craig O’Neill was co-convenor for session 5e: “Petrologic, Geochemical and Tectonic Links between the Continental Crust and Lithospheric Mantle” 

CCFS will also contribute to many of the Themes and Symposium at the 34th IGC to be held in Brisbane in August, 2012 (http://www.34igc.org/scientific-themes-symposia.php):

  • Professor T. Campbell McCuaig is convening the ”Exploration Geoscience” Theme and symposia 8.2: “The science of exploration” 
  • Professors Sue O’Reilly and Bill Griffin is convening Theme 16: “The Deep Earth”. Professor Bill Griffin, Associate Professor Norman Pearson, Dr Juan Carlos Afonso, Dr Craig O’Neill and Dr Yingjie Yang are convening/co-convening symposia within the Theme; O’Neill: ”The lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary: nature, formation and evolution from Hadean to now”; Griffin/Pearson: “The crust-mantle lithosphere system”; Yang/Afonso: “Lithosphere structure from ambient noise and other seismology”
  • Professor Martin van Kranendonk is convening Theme 17: “The Early Earth: Hadean and Archean Development of a Habitable Planet” and symposium: “Rates and mechanisms of Archean crust formation – the relative contribution of plume versus plate tectonics”. Contributors within this session include Dr David Wacey: “The habitats and paleobiology of early life on Earth, and the rise of oxygen”; Professor Martin van Kranendonk and Dr Craig O’Neill: “Early Earth geodynamics and evolution – uncovering links between changing early Earth and biological diversification”
  • Professor Zheng-Xiang Li is convening a symposium within Theme 18: "The Proterozoic Earth" titled "Proterozoic supercontinents, processes, models, myths, and possibilities"
  • Associate Professor Robert Pidgeon is convening a symposium within Theme 20: “Planetary Sciences” titled “Lunar research and exploration in the 21st century”
  • Associate Professor Simon George is convening a symposium within Theme 26: “Antarctic and Arctic Geoscience” titled “Antarctic marine biogeochemistry”
  • Professor Martin van Kranendonk is convening a symposium within Theme 35: “Geostandards” titled “International Subcommision on Precambrian stratigraphy: a chronostratigraphic division of the Precambrian: possibilities and challenges”Workshop


WORKSHOPS

  • On the 17th May CCFS hosted a geothermal workshop for Professor Mary O’Kane, in her capacity as NSW Chief Scientist. The workshop, “Geothermal Energy Exploration – Approaches to Resource Assessment and Modelling”, was attended by leading geothermal experts from government and industry. 


    Professor Mary O’Kane (second from left) with attendees at the geothermal workshop including Sue O’Reilly and Jim Piper from Macquarie.

 

  • Dr Juan Carlos Afonso was a main organiser of the workshop “Thermodynamic-Geophysical characterization of the upper mantle: the next step” held at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, Ireland, in November: http://www.dias.ie/ThermoDynaMixIII/index.html.Brown
  • Professor Steve Reddy (Curtin) organised a Workshop titled “Introduction to Quantitative Microstructural Analysis Using Electron Backscatter Diffraction”, held at Curtin University. 


    One of our International Partner investigators, Professor Michael Brown, and student examining the famous migmatites at Mt. Tiashan in Shandong Province, China, in preparation for a Beijing SHRIMP Center workshop to be held in 2012.
  • Professor Campbell McCuaig (convenor/lecturer), Marco Fiorentini and Bill Griffin (lecturers) participated in the CET Masters workshops: MTEC MSc Computer-aided Exploration Targeting Course 4-5 July 2011; MTEC MSc Ore Deposit Conceptual Models Course 9-10 November 2011.
  • Professor Martin van Kranendonk co-convened the workshop “Friends of the Precambrian”, as part of the 2011 GSA Annual Meeting in Minneapolis, 11 October 2011; co-sponsored by the International Commission on Stratigraphy. 
  • Dr Dan Howell was a presenter at a Diamond school/workshop in the early part of last year (http://www.socminpet.it/diamond2011/home.htm). The full report is available at: https://dco.gl.ciw.edu/sites/dco.gl.ciw.edu/files/images/DCO_REPORT_Nestola.pdf.
  • Simon George held a one day biogeochemistry workshop for the Genes to Geoscience Research Centre, as part of our postgraduate training “Where biology, geology and chemistry meet” in July 2011. 

INVITED SEMINARS

  • Dr Elena Belousova gave a departmental seminar at the University of Wollongong on the 2nd of November, 2011 titled “The TerraneChron® approach to crustal evolution studies and implications for continental crust growth”. 
  • Professor Bill Griffin gave a departmental seminar at the University of Wollongong titled “Global Lithospheric Architecture Mapping (the GLAM project)”.
  • Dr Craig O’Neill presented a talk on “COE for Core to Crust Fluid Systems”, at Monash during the Workshop “De-risking Geothermal Energy Demonstration through Collaboration” in March, and a talk on “The evolution of Precambrian tectonics” at Adelaide University in Oct 2011.
  • Professor Martin van Krenendonk presented talks at; Harvard University Boston: “A chronostratigraphic division of the Precambrian: possibilities and challenges” (September ), the Carnegie Institution of Washington: “Vertical to Horizontal tectonics: Secular evolution of the Archaean Pilbara Craton, Western Australia“ (September) and at the University of Wisconsin, Madisonin: “800 Ma that changed the world: Contingent drivers of environmental change across the Archean-Proterozoic transition” (October).  Page33


ESTEEM FACTORS AND OUTREACH 
 

Awards: 

  • Dr Elena Belousova, Dr Sandra Piazolo, and Associate Professor Marco Fiorentini were awarded ARC Future Fellowships.

     

    Bill Griffin (fifth from left) and some of the Macquarie CCFS participants who attended the presentation of his Distinguished Professor Awards 2011.

  • Professor Bill Griffin was awarded the title of Distinguished Professor at Macquarie University. The “Distinguished Professor Awards recognise professors who have made an outstanding contribution to their field of scholarship or discipline and to the University...” reflecting “...exceptional distinction and an outstanding contribution to his discipline”. He joins CCFS’s Professor Sue O’Reilly who was awarded Distinguished Professor at Macquarie University in 2010 and Professor Simon Wilde who was named John Curtin Distinguished Professor in 2010.
  • GraduationDr Norman Pearson received the MUPRA Supervisor of the Year award. The judges stated that, “What stood out was the way his students value him, not only for what he contributes to their research, but also the support and care he has shown them”. 


    Norman Pearson after the graduation ceremony for two of his postgraduate sutents, and now CCFS ECR’s, Yoann Gréau and Marek Locmelis, April 2011.


  • Professor Sue O’Reilly was awarded “Docteur Honoris Causa” at Lyon University in a ceremony at Jean Monnet University, St Etienne, France.
  • Dr Monika Kusiak of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw was awarded a Marie Curie Fellowship to work with Professor Simon Wilde on “The Earth in Transition: from Earliest Crust to Earliest Preserved Rocks”; she will spend two years at Curtin University and a further year at the Natural History Museum in Stockholm under the guidance of Professor Martin Whitehouse.Page33c
  • Professors Sue O’Reilly and Bill Griffin were invested as Guest Professors at China University of Geosciences at Wuhan in April 2011 
  • Professor Martin van Kranendonk received the 2012 European Association for Geochemistry Eminent Speaker Award.
  • Earth Sciences Research in Earth Sciences at Macquarie University received the highest possible rating in ERA 2010 - ‘performance well above world standard’ ; http://mq.edu.au/research/era/research-areas/earth-science.html. Macquarie University and CCFS’s Partner Institutions, the University of Western Australia and Curtin, were all among the top 6 rated institutions for Earth Sciences.


    Sue O’Reilly accepting her Docteur Honoris Causa at Lyon University.


Outreach:

  • On the 18th July Professor Sue O'Reilly presented a talk to teachers from North Sydney High School as part of "Uni for a day". The teachers were given details about undergraduate study at
    Macquarie followed by a tour of CCF's specialist laboratory, the Geochemical Analysis Unit (GAU).
  • Dr Juan Carlos Afonso, Dr Heather Handley, Dr Dan Howell and Dr Craig O'Neil worked with 6 high school students from NSW to promote careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) as part of the STEM NERD project (http://stemcareer.com/).
  • Dr Juan Carlos Afonso, Dr Heather Handley and Dr Mark Lackie attended Macquarie University "Science High Achievers Awards Dinner" to help promote Earth Science research at MQ to academically outstanding high school students, their parents and teachers.
  • As part of the 2011 Macquarie University Colloquium Lecture Series, Professor Sue O'Reilly delivered a public lecture at the city campus of the Macquarie Graduate School of Management. The lecture, titled: "Journey to the Centre of the Earth - Volcanoes, Diamonds and Earthquakes" attracted an audience of 90 school children, university students and aspiring geologists. The event was publicised in the mainstream press (The Sydney Morning Herald) and via the Macquarie University web site. The lecture can be viewed via You Tube at http://marketing.mq.edu.au/events_at_macquarie/lecture_series/macquarie_university_colloquium/professor_sue_oreilly/
  • Dr Craig O'Neill participated in a solar and renewable energy summit held at the University of Newcastle.
  • Professor Simon Wilde compiled the "Jack Hills" and "Hadean" sections of the Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, published in 2011 by Springer (see CCFS Publications #118,119).
  • In July 2011 Associate Professor Simon George attended a "Spaceward Bound" expedition in the Pilbara with NASA scientists and the Mars Society

Esteem:

  • Professor Sue O'Reilly continued as a member of the International Kimberlite Conference Committee; a member of the Scientific Committee for the "International Conference on Craton Formation and destruction" held in Beijing April 25-29, 2011, and is a foundation member of the Theo Murphy Think Tank Action Group "Searching the deep Earth: The future of Australian resource discovery and utilization".
  • Professor T. Campbell McCuaig is the Chair of the MTEC Mineral Geoscience Masters implementation committee; a Member of the MTEC MGM/MGH Steering committee; a Council Member of the Society of Economic Geologists(SEG); a member of the SEG curriculum committee; a Member of the Science Advisory Committee for Discovery Theme of Minerals Down Under CSIRO Flagship; a Member of the GSWA Mineral Exploration Technical subcommittee and a Member of the AMEC Congress Steering Committee.
  • Professor Simon Wilde is Deputy Director of the International Precambrian Research Centre of China (IPRCC) at Beijing SHRIMP Centre and the Department of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences.
  • Professor Bill Griffin continued is a member of the Scientific Committee, "International Earth Science Colloquium on the Aegean Region", 1-5 October 2012 and continued as an invited founding core member of the of the International Precambrian Research Centre of China (IPRCC) at Beijing SHRIMP Centre and the Department of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences.
  • Professor Simon Turner continued as a Director of the Geochemical Society and served on the AuScope II steering committee.
  • Associate Professor Marco Fiorentini became a Member of the UWA CAMECA IMS1280 Science Advisory Committee in 2011 and continued as a Member of the Geological Society of Australia, the Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits and the Society of Economic Geologists.
  • Associate Professor Norman Pearson continued as a founding member of the international organising committee of the "Working Group on Data Acquisition, Handling and Interpretation in Laser Ablation U(-Th)-Pb Geochronology"
  • Professor Martin van Kranendonk was Chair of the Precambrian Subcommission of the International Commission on Stratigraphy, continued as a Scientific Advisory Committee Member at the University of Western Australia, was a Core Member, International Precambrian Research Centre of China and continued as Assistant Director, Australian Centre for Astrobiology
  • Associate Professor Tracy Rushmer is a NSF (National Science Foundation) panel member for Geochemistry and Petrology (2010-2012).
  • Michael Wingate is a Member of the Steering Committee, IAVCEI Large Igneous Provinces Commission and is a member, John de Laeter Centre SHRIMP Advisory Group, Curtin University.
  • Dr Bruce Schaefer was the AuScope Earth Composition and Evolution Component Leader and coordinated the National Geochemistry Program for the AuScope NCRIS capability; http://www.auscope.org.au.
  • Dr Juan Carlos Afonso continued as Division Officer of the European Geosciences Union (Geodynamics Division) and EGU Officer Geodynamics Division (Outstanding Young Scientist committee)

CCFS Representation on editorial boards included: Lithos (Griffin, O'Reilly, Rushmer); Geological Society of America Bulletin (Griffin); Journal of Petrology (Turner); Precambrian Research (Barley, Pisarevsky, van Kranendonk), Solid Earth (Schaefer); Acta Geologica Sinica (Griffin), Journal of Asian Earth Sciences (Li, Wilde), Acta Geoscientia Sinica (Li), EGU Journal Solid Earth (Afonso), Chemical Geology (Wilde); American Journal of Science (Wilde); Journal of Jilin University - Earth Science (Wilde), Advisory Board: Gondwana Research (Wilde).Page35




Ming Zhang, Bill Griffin, Sue O’Reilly and Jianping Zheng at Wuhan University with poster advertising the Guest Professor ceremony.

 
 


MEDIA

CCFS participants featured prominently in the media in 2011.

Sue O'Reilly:

Simon Wilde:

Simon Wilde filmed segments at Jack Hills for a television program entitled "Australia: the Land that Time Forgot" to be shown on ABC 1 in early 2012. He also recorded segments for a TV program on the Early Earth for Arte France.



Wang Tao, Simon Wilde and Alfred Kroner at the opening of the workshop on the Precambrian Evolution of Korea, organised by the KBSI SHRIMP Center, South Korea in September 2011.


T. Campbell McCuaig:

  • small-centre-doing-big-work-in-minerals _ News _ Minerals and Resources_080611.pdf

Zheng-Xiang Li: 

  • Article for Australasian Science Magazine “The big twist” (July 2011 issue, pp. 37-38).
  • ABC radio (8 February) on all rural ABC radio broadcasts. Synopsis from the newsreader: “New research shows that WA may once have had a mountain range higher than Mount Kosciuszko. Professor Zheng Xiang Li from Curtin University says that tectonic movements created a mountain range about 600 million years ago and was eroded 50 million years later”. The broadcast also announced that tectonic movements may have resulted in considerable quantities of untapped gold deposits in WA and Queensland. 
  • ScienceNetwork Western Australia online story “Curtin ends controversy ‘1000 million’ years in the making” (21 January 2011; http://www.sciencewa.net.au/Minerals-and-Resources/Minerals-and-Resources/Curtin-ends-controversy-1000-million-years-in-the-making.html).
  • Science Alert online article “Geology tells Australia’s story” (7 February 2011; http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20110701-21720-3.html) 

Marco Fiorentini:

  • Marco Fiorentini is the official SBS Italian Radio commentator for news related to a variety of geologically related topics, such as global warming, utilisation of geothermal energy, mining and exploration, etc. This experience has proven to be a very effective means to liaise and communicate with members of the wider community.


Craig O’Neill: 

Steve Reddy: 

  • Moon impact zircon (see paper details below): Media release - “Curtain Geologists make a ‘shocking’ discovery”: http://news.curtin.edu.au/news/curtin-geologists-make-a-‘shocking’-discovery/ 
  • Media release on the paper Timms et al. (2012) published in MAPS on Curtin University website. This research is the first to report precise crystalline characteristics of micro-deformation features in lunar zircon and highlights the importance of micro-scale study to understand large meteorite impacts on the Moon. 

Nature Geoscience paper creates media attention:

CCFS's Dr David Wacey, Associat Professor Matt Kilburn and Associate Professor John Cliff were three of the authors of a Nature Geoscience paper published online in August 2011 titled “Microfossils of sulphur-metabolizing cells in 3.4-billion-year-old rocks of Western Australia”, describing their discovery of Earth’s oldest microfossils (for full reference see below). It was picked up by much of the world’s media. Over 8,000 articles from around the world covered the story in the first few weeks following its publication. Here are some highlights:

 



Dr David Wacey is an advisor to WA Chief Scientist Lyn Beazley who presented their work on Earth’s oldest microfossils at the National Geographical Society London. 



And many more!

There were also live radio interviews:

  • Dr Dave Wacey did live interviews with: ABC Sydney, ABC North (Karratha, Port Hedland), ABC Perth
  • Professor Mark Barley was interviewed by Science Network WA, Science Illustrated Australian Media Properties. 
  • Collaborator Brasier did live interviews with BBC Radio 4 – Material World (headline story)
  • Commentaries were also featured in: Daily Express, Daily Mail, Daily Telegraph, International Herald Tribune, Times of India, Straits Times Singapore, ABC online, Boston Globe, San Fransisco Chronicle, New Zealand Herald, El Mundo.

Visitors

CCFS fosters links nationally and internationally through visits of collaborators to undertake defined short-term projects, or short-term visits to give lectures and seminar sessions. Formal collaborative arrangements are facilitated by partnerships in grants with reciprocal funding from international collaborators. 

All Australian and international visitors are listed in Appendix 5. 

They have participated in: 

collaborative research 

technology exchange 

seminars, discussions and joint publications

collaboration in postgraduate programs 

Pubs'

          

 

© Macquarie University | Privacy Statement ABN 90 952 801 237 | CRICOS Provider No 00002J

Site Publisher: Macquarie University, Sydney Australia