ARC Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems

           

BACKGROUND

CCFS’ International links provide leverage of intellectual and financial resources on a global scale, and an international network for postgraduate experience.  International Partners provide the core of such collaborations.  Other international activity includes funded projects and substantial collaborative programs with major exchange-visit programs in France, Norway, Germany, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, USA, Taiwan, Italy, Spain, South Africa, South America, China, Brazil, Mexico, Japan, Thailand and Russia.  The listing below is not exhaustive, but demonstrates the global network with targeted leaders in fields relvant to CCFS.

FUNDED COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS COMMENCED OR ONGOING IN 2012 INCLUDE:

 Macquarie

• Sue O’Reilly, on behalf of Macquarie University, signed a formal agreement in November 2012, with the China University of Geosciences, (CUG) Wuhan establishing the “International University Consortium in Earth Science“ (IUCES).  The consortium was organised by the president of the CUG Wuhan, Professor Yanxin Wang, and consists of eleven universities from seven countries, all renowned in earth science research.  Among the IUCES partners are the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and Stanford University, the Université Pierre et Marie Curie (Paris), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, the University of Queensland, Waterloo University (Canada), the University of Hong Kong, Moscow State University and the Russia National Mineral Resources University (Mining). Signing pictured below.  The Consortium promotes research collaboration and exchange as well as undergraduate training exchange and joint postgraduate programs.

• The above IUCES agreement followed the formal MOU signed in 2011 with the China University of Geosciences (CUG), Wuhan, to promote collaborative research and exchange of postgraduate students.  Professors Sue O’Reilly and Bill Griffin in their role as as Guest Professors at CUG (Wuhan) participated in a postgraduate seminar workshop in November 2012.  The first cotutelle student (Mr Qing Xiong) continued at GEMOC/CCFS in October 2011, and Dr Huayun Tang was awarded a 12-month fellowship by the China Scholarship Council for research at Macquarie.  During 2013 ongoing research continued in collaboration with Professor Jianping Zheng and his group, and with seismologist Professor Yinhe Luo (e.g. see CCFS publication #18). Areas of geochemical research include the evolution of the lithosphere beneath several parts of China, crustal/mantle evolution in the North China Block, the Yangtze Block and southeastern China, the UHP metamorphism of Dabie-Sulu peridotites and ultramafic rocks and ophiolites in Tibet.  Geophysical research includes shallow and deep seismology in western and southeastern China and Tibet.
 

• Professors Sue O’Reilly and Bill Griffin were formal guests at the 60^th Anniversary of the founding of the China University of Geosciences, Wuhan.  Professor O’Reilly gave the formal speech representing both Macquarie University and IUCES (the International University Consortium in Earth Sciences) to an audience of over 10,000.  The ceremony ended with fireworks and the release of hundreds of doves.

 

Fireworks and fanfare as over 10,000 people celebrate the 60 ^th Anniversary of the founding of the China University of Geosciences, Wuhan.  Below: Professors Bill Griffin and Sue O’Reilly after Sue delivered a speech on behalf of both Macquarie University and the IUCES.  

• Following the signing of a formal MOU in 2011 with the Institute of Geology and Geophysics (China Academy of Science, Beijing), collaboration expanded in 2012 with exchange of personnel, and the continuing cotutelle PhD project of Ms Yuya Gao, with joint access to the complementary analytical equipment at each institution. 
  Dr Jin-Xiang Huang (TARDIS-E Project) has been undertaking development of standards for the O-isotope analysis of high-Cr garnets on the Cameca Ion probes (CMCA, UWA) with colleagues at IGG.  Collaboration on technology development remains a focus, capitalising on complementary strengths of each institution.

• A formal MOU with the University of Science and Technology, Hefei, to promote collaborative research and postgraduate joint projects was signed following a visit from 10 researchers led by Professor Yongfei Zheng.

• Professor Bill Griffin flew to New Caledonia at the invitation of SLN Doniabo, the French company that mines the ophiolitic laterites of the island to extract Ni.  The purpose of the visit was to advise the company and the BRGM on the poitential to expand the metallurgical processes to produce Scandium.  A project proposal involving a collaboration with French synchrotron researchers has been submitted to the company and is under evaluation.

• Trace elements and fluids in diamonds and relevance to mantle fluids and processes; continued in collaboration with Professor Oded Navon (Hebrew University, Israel), Professor Thomas Stachel (Edmonton, Canada) and Dr Jeff Harris (University of Glasgow, UK).  This was originally funded by an ARC Discovery Project, which was relinquished, with the funding now provided from a CCFS allocation.  This includes  the PhD project of Ms Ekaterina Rubanova.  Dr Zdislav Spetsius (Mirny, Siberia) visited CCFS/GEMOC in January-February 2012 as an external advisor to this PhD, and for analytical work connected with the links between eclogites, metasomatism and diamonds.

• Detailed 2-D and 3-D structure of the Kaapvaal Craton in several time slices, using mantle-derived xenocrysts; a collaborative project with De Beers.

• Global Lithosphere Architecture Mapping, involving analysis of crustal evolution, the composition of the lithospheric mantle and the interpretation of seismic tomography; a collaborative project with Minerals Targeting International, BHP Billiton and Professor Steve Grand (University of Texas at Austin).

• Collaboration continued with Professor Massimo Coltorti and Dr Costanza Bonadiman from the University of Ferrara, starting a new project on the nature of the mantle beneath Sardinia. 

• A TerraneChron® study to unravel the timing and tectonic history of regions in Tibet continued as a collaborative program with the National University of Taiwan (led by Professor Sun-Lin Chung), and has expanded to include collaboration with Nanjing University and the Institute for Tibetan Plateau Research, Beijing.

 

Researchers from the University of Science and Technology (USTC), Hefei with Professor Bill Griffin.  Behind, Professor Yongfei Zheng (USTC).

 

 

• The nature of the lithosphere in Mongolia, Vietnam and Russia, with Dr Kuo-Lung Wang (Institute of Earth Sciences, Academia Sinica, Taiwan).  

• Development of methodology for lithium-isotope signatures in ultramafic and mafic rocks continued with Dr Mei-Fei Chu (National University of Taiwan).  

 

Dr Hao-Yang Lee and Dr Te-Hsien Lin from National Taiwan University, with Dr Mei-Fei Chu, Professor Sue O’Reilly and Yuya Gao.

• Collaboration with colleagues at the University of Jean Monnet, St Etienne, including Professor Jean-Yves Cottin, Dr Bertrand Moine and Dr Marie-Christine Gerbe continued.  A formal agreement between the two universities includes PhD exchange, academic exchange and research collaboration relevant to the nature of the lithosphere in the Kerguelen Archipelago, Crozet Islands and the Hoggar region of Algeria.  

• A cotutelle agreement was signed with Toulouse University, and Mr Romain Tilhac commences a joint PhD at Macquarie University in early 2013, with a project titled “Peridotite massifs from the north-western Iberia: Origin and mechanisms for pyroxenite abundance in a supra-subduction context”.

• Collaboration with colleagues at the University of Montpellier continued with projects on the mantle budget of platinum group elements, microstructures of meteorites and mantle rocks, and ophiolites.  A collaboration funded by the DIISR Grant “Probing the composition of the early Solar System and planetary evolution processes” was completed as planned, but expanded to include collaboration with Professor David Mainprice on a project related to the microstructure of eclogite xenoliths.

• Igneous rocks, mineral deposits, lithosphere structure and tectonic setting: southeastern China and eastern Australia.  This collaboration with Nanjing University has expanded from an AusAID grant under the ACILP scheme with Professor Xisheng Xu (Nanjing University).  Cotutelle PhD student Yao Yu from Nanjing undertook research at CCFS/GEMOC and Nanjing University, to carry out further FTIR studies of water in mantle-derived xenoliths.

• A new collaborative research project was initiated with the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa (Dr Marina Yudovskaya, pictured left with Elena Belousova).  The aims of this study are (1) to place further constraints on osmium-isotope signatures of the mantle sources for Os-rich alloy grains from the Bushveld Complex and (2) to look at the crustal evolution of the Complex using the U-Pb and Lu-Hf isotope systematics of zircons from ultramafic rocks as well as from felsic rocks in the roof of the Bushveld Complex (felsite, granophyre and young granitic veins).

• Ongoing collaboration with Alfred Kröner  (University of Mainz, Germany) is focused on the continental growth history of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB).  The main outcome of this study is that that the production of mantle-derived or juvenile continental crust during the accretionary history of the CAOB has been grossly overestimated.  Two papers have been accepted for publications in Gondwana Research and the results were also presented during the Workshop on “Geodynamic Evolution of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt” in St. Petersburg, Russia, May 25-27, 2012.

• Continuing collaboration with Professors Carlos Villaseca (pictured right) from the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain to provide further insights into the age, nature and composition of the lower continental crust in central Spain.  The initial outcomes of this collaborative project are presented by Villaseca et al. (2012) in Lithos reporting “Recycled metaigneous crustal sources for S- and I-type Variscan granitoids from the Spanish Central System batholith: Constraints from Hf isotope zircon composition”. 

• Collaborative project continued with Dr Irina Nedosekova, Institute of Geology and Geochemistry, Urals Division of the Russian Academy of Sciences to investigate the genesis and evolution of the of the Ilmeny-Vishnevogorsky carbonatites of the Ural Mountans, Russia.  The new integrated results on trace-element compositions and Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd, U-Pb, Lu-Hf isotope data were presented during the 34^th International Geological Congress in Brisbane, August 5-10, 2012 and published in Mineralogy and Petrology in 2013.

• Professor Frank Brenker (pictured (left) with Dan Howell) from the Institute of Geosciences, Goethe University (Frankfurt) visited CCFS in March to work with Dr Dan Howell on a set of unusual diamonds that carry mineral inclusions from depths of 300 - 660 km below the surface.  The diamonds were cut in parallel-sided plates and polished, using the diamond preparation facility.  Cathodoluminescence imaging, infrared mapping and laser-ablation analyses were used to investigate the growth, deformation and impurity contents of these diamonds.  Once Frank returned to Frankfurt, he began a novel ion beam-based analysis on the same plates. Early indications are that the results are going to be very interesting.

• Several collaborative projects continued with Dr Kreshimir N. Malitch (Department of Geochemistry, All-Russia Geological Research Institute (VSEGEI), St Petersburg) including: (1) the nature and origin of zircons from the intra-continental paleorift-related ultramafic-mafic intrusions of the Noril’sk area (northern Siberia, Russia), including economic and subeconomic PGE (platinum-group element)-Cu-Ni sulfide deposits; now published in Lithos and Russian Geology and Geophysics; (2) analysis of Os-(Ir-Ru) alloy grains in two world-class Au-PGE placer deposits associated with the Guli clinopyroxenite-dunite massif (northern Siberia, Russia) and the Evander Goldfield within the Witwatersrand Basin (South Africa).  The main aim of this study is to place further constraints on osmium-isotope signatures of the mantle sources for Os-rich alloy grains at Guli and Evander, which (along with the Witwatersrand grains) represent the oldest known terrestrial platinum-group minerals.

• Studies on the geochemical signatures of Mesozoic granites as indicators of geodynamic processes in southeastern China were undertaken with Professor Jinhai Yu (collaborative project with Nanjing University) and included a research visit by PhD student, Ms Qian Liu (Research highlight).

• Studies continued with Dr Rendeng Shi (Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, China Academy of Sciences, Beijing) on the age and origin of platinum group alloy phases in podiform chromitites in ophiolites from Tibet (CCFS publications #190, 239).

 

Professor Jianping Zheng (Right) with Professor Sue O’Reilly and Bill Griffin as they listen to presentations by PhD students at China Univ of Geosciences in Wuhan.

 

• TerraneChron® analysis of Proterozoic terrains in Africa, North America and Europe, with several mineral-exploration companies.

• Formal visits to Chinese institutions strengthened or initiated collaborative research projects and agreements: China Academy of Sciences, Geology and Geochemical Institute and Tibet Institute, CAS Beijing; China University of Geosciences (Beijing, Wuhan).  A new 5-year research project with Nanjing University was funded.

• GEMOC continued relationships with the newly established International Precambrian Research Centre of China (IPRCC); Bill Griffin is on the Board and involved in organising the 2013 meeting in Beijing in October.

 

Workshop at the Institute for Tibetan Plateau Research, China Academy of Sciences, Beijing, with leader Dr Rendeng Shi on right.

• Collaboration continued with Dr Monica Escayola (Geological Survey of Canada) on the Os-isotope compositions of sulfides and alloys from ultramafic complexes in the Yukon. 

• Collaboration continued with Professor Fernando Gervilla (University of Granada), Dr Carlos J. Garrido (University of Granada, Spain), Dr Isabel Fanlo (University of Zaragoza, Spain), Dr Joaquin A. Proenza (University of Barcelona) and  Dr Antoni Camprubí (National University of Mexico) on the origins of chromitite deposits in ophiolites, including Os-isotope analysis of platinum group minerals.

• Collaboration continued with Dr Vlad Malkovets (Novosibisrk, currently Okayama University, Misasa, Japan) on the origins and modification of the lithospheric mantle beneath cratonic areas, using the compositions (including Os-isotope compositions) of sulfide phases included in mantle-derived minerals.

• Collaboration continued with Professor Csaba Szabo, investigating sulfide phases in xenoliths from around the Pannonian Basin. 

• Dr Juan Carlos Afonso continued collaborating with Professors Ivone Jimenez-Munt, M. Fernandez, J. Verges and D. Garcia-Castellanos from Institute of Earth Sciences ‘Jaume Almera’, CSIC, Barcelona, Spain on a project “Characterisation of the lithospheric mantle beneath the Alpine orogenic belt from numerical modelling: a comparison between Atlas, Tibet, and Zagros” funded by the National Research Council of Spain.

• Dr J.C. Afonso collaborated with Professor Alan Jones and Dr J. Fullea from the Dublin Inst. for Advanced Studies (Ireland) on the characterisation of the lithospheric mantle beneath Ireland, funded by IRETHERM (Science Foundation Ireland).

• Dr J.C. Afonso collaborated with Professors Dave Eaton (Univ. of Calgary, Canada) and Jeroen Tromp (Princeton University, USA) on the synthetic computation of receiver functions and waveforms using a combination of the two software platforms SPECFEM3D and LITMOD3D.  The project is funded by the Canadian Research Council.

• Dr J.C. Afonso collaborated with Dr Max Tirone (Bochum University, Germany) and Professors Jibamitra Ganguly (University of Arizona, USA) and Paul Asimov (Caltech, USA) on the set up of thermodynamic benchmarks for internally consistent thermodynamic databases for mantle minerals. 

• Dr J.C. Afonso collaborated with Professors James Connolly (ETH Zurich), Alan Jones (DIAS), W.L. Griffin, S.Y. O’Reilly, and Dr Y. Yang on the development of 3D multiobservable probabilistic inversion methods for the thermochemical structure of the lithosphere and subithospheric upper mantle.  This project is funded by ARC DP project 120102372.

• Dr J.C. Afonso collaborated with Professor David Pedreira on the characterisation of the lithospheric mantle across the Pyrenees.  The project is funded by the Spanish Research Council.

• Professor Alan Jones visited MQ in October to collaborate with Dr Afonso on the integration of MT inversion methods into LitMod software.

• Professor Manel Fernandez (CSIC, Barcelona) visited MQ to work with Dr Afonso on the application of LitMod2D to study the lithospheric structure of several mountain chains in Europe and Asia.

• PhD candidate Lavinia Tunini (Spain) visited MQ to work with Dr Afonso on different aspects of thermal modelling of the lithosphere.

• Dr Craig O’Neill continued collaborations with Adrian Lenardic (Rice University) and Shijie Zhong (University of Colorado, Boulder) as part of the Flat Subduction Geodynamics CCFS project (Two-phase flow within Earth’s mantle: modelling, imaging and application to flat subduction settings).

• Professor Yinhe Luo (pictured above with Yingjie Yang) from China University of Geosciences at Wuhan visited CCFS/GEMOC from July 23 to September 29, 2012 working with Dr Yingjie Yang on a project “Imaging crustal anisotropy of the Dabie Orogenic Belt using ambient noise tomography”. 

• Dr Yong Zheng (pictured left) from Institute of Geodesy and Geophysics of China Academy of Sciences, visited CCFS from October 11 to November 26 to work with Dr Yingjie Yang on a project “Using two-plane wave tomography method to map the upper mantle structure of Tian Shan”.

• Professor Jieyuan Ning and his postgraduate student Jiangang Han from Beijing University visited CCFS/GEMOC in March to work with Dr Yingjie Yang on “Ambient noise tomography in northeast China”.

• Dr Longquan Zhou (pictured right) from China Earthquake administration visited CCFS from 14 -23 August for training on the ambient noise tomography method.

• 2012 saw the initiation of a collaborative program based around the ophiolites scattered across Turkey.  The Turkish program is led by Professor Cahit Helvaci of Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi in İzmir, Turkey, and recently appointed Associate Professor Mehmet Akbulat.  Bill Griffin, Sue O’Reilly, José M. González-Jiménez and new PhD student Nicole McGowan Attended the IESCA conference in Izmir, and then joined Mehmet for a week’s field work in the ophioiites surrounding Antalya in southern Turkey.  The observations and samples collected will become part of Nicole’s PhD project, while Jose will concentrate on Platinum Group Minerals in the chromitites.  It is expected that Mehmet Akbulat will visit CCFS-Macquarie for an extended period in 2013.

 

Sue O’Reilly and Professor Cahit Helvachi in front of a famous mylonite zone in Turkey.

 

• In February 2012, Macquarie hosted a Vice President delegation from Jilin University, one of the universities key Chinese partners.  A tour through the GEMOC/CCFS research laboratories was conducted to showcase Macquarie’s research excellence.  The visit was aimed at exploring future opportunities in joint PhD supervision, teaching and research collaboration

 

 

Delegate visit by representatives from Jilin University, February, 2012 (L-R) Karl Lukezic , Professor Simon Turner , Associate Professor Tracy Rushmer, Professor Jian Yang, Professor Zhenwu Wu (Vice President Jilin University), Associate Professor Norman Pearson, Professor Lian Hu (Dean of College of Computer Science, Jilin University), and Tiejun Bu (Deputy Director, Division of International Relations, Jilin University).

 

University of Western Australia

• Professor Cam McCuaig was invited by Professor Zeng-qian Hou, Director of the Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (CAGS), to participate in the international project of IGCP/SIDA 600 “Metallogenesis of collisional orogens in the East Tethyside domain”.  This project (2011-2014) is jointly funded by UNESCO and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA) and lead by Professor Hou.  The Centre for Exploration Targeting (CET), UWA was invited to be a partner institute and Professor Marco Fiorentini, Dr Robert Loucks and Dr Yongjun Lu from CET are actively collaborating with CAGS under this IGCP framework.  This collaboration between CET and CAGS involves multi-isotopic mapping in Tibet, experimental and field studies of adakites and associated porphyry Cu systems in Tibet, Pakistan and Iran.

• Researchers at UWA have an ongoing collaboration with Professor Robert Kerrich from University of Saskatchewan, Canada, which ranges from studying potassic intrusions in SW China and porphyry magmatism in the Philippines, to greenstone belts in the Yilgarn Craton and western Africa. 

• Professor Cam McCuaig continued collaboration with Dr David Leach from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), leading to a paper “Banded Iron Formation to Iron Ore: Implications for the Evolution of Earth Environments”. 

• A new collaborative project between Dr David Wacey and Martin Brasier (Oxford University, UK) commenced, investigating the geology and biodiversity of the 1900 Ma Gunflint Formation of Canada, in particular sulfur-based metabolisms.

• Dr David Wacey commenced a collaborative project with Nicola McLoughlin, Harald Furnes, Ingunn Thorseth from University of Bergen, Norway, investigating the emergence of life on Earth 3+ billion years ago funded by the Bergen Research Foundation and the University of Bergen.

• Professor Mark Barley continued his collaborations with international leaders in multiple sulfur isotope geochemistry (James Farquar, Boz Wing, Shuhei Ono, Doug Rumble, Sue Golding, Jay Kaufman etc.) to determine how the range of methods fits together.

• Dr Matt Kilburn continued a collaboration begun in 2009 with Bernard Wood and Jon Wade (University of Oxford, UK), to investigate the isotopic fractionation of elements between metal and silicate melts at high pressures and temperatures.

• Within the framework of CCFS Foundation Project 2a, Professor Marco Fiorentini has an ongoing collaboration with scientists from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (Prof Jochen Kolb).  In July-August 2012, students and researchers from the CET Magmatic Mineral System Theme carried out field work in south east Greenland.  In November 2012, Marco Fiorentini was invited to be part of a small and selected panel of experts at the Greenland Nickel Workshop in Copenhagen  to assess the prospectivity of nickel-sulfide magmatic systems in Greenland.  Furthermore, in December 2012 Marco Fiorentini organised the hugely successful Greenland Day in Perth, a forum to outline the exploration potential of Greenland for a wide range of commodities.

• Within the framework of CCFS Foundation Project 2a and his Future Fellowship, Professor Marco Fiorentini has an ongoing collaboration with scientists from the University of Leoben (Austria).  In particular, Marco Fiorentini and Marek Locmelis are currently working with Giorgio Garuti, Federica Zaccarini and Oskar Thalhammer to constrain the geochemical and isotopic architecture of nickel-sulfide mineralisation in the Ivrea-Verbano Zone of Italy.
   

Curtin University

• Dr Xuan-Ce Wang is collaborating with Dr Jie Li (Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, China) on the petrogenesis of the Leiqiong flood basalts, with the aim of understanding the links between mantle plumes and subduction.

• Dr Sergei Pisarevsky is Paleomagnetic Coordinator on the International project “Reconstruction of supercontinents back to 2.7 Ga using the Large Igneous Province (LIP) record”, in collaboration with Dr Richard Ernst (Carleton University, Canada) and Dr Wouter Bleeker (Geol. Surv. of Canada).  He also is Team Leader in the IGCP-SIDA Project 599  “The Changing Early Earth”, in collaboration with Dr Jaana Halla (University of Helsinki, Finland).

• Dr Zheng-Xiang Li has an ongoing collaborative project with a large group of researchers from around the world, including Dr D.A.D. Evans (Yale University), Dr S. Zhang (China University of Geosciences, Beijing) and the Nordic Paleomagnetic Working Group, aiming to establish the configuration and evolution of a pre-Rodinia supercontinent Nuna (Columbia) that probably existed between 1.8-1.4 Ga. 

• Dr Zheng-Xiang Li’s work on the Phanerozoic magmatism and tectonics of South China is part of an ongoing collaborative project with Dr X.H. Li (Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing), Dr W.X. Li (CAS, Guangzhou), Professor X. Xu (Nanjing University), and Professor S.L. Chung and Dr Q.H. Lo (National Taiwan University). 

• An ARC-CAS jointly-funded project on Mesozoic vertical tectonic movements in South China and subduction dynamics involves collaboration with Dr Y.G. Xu and Dr W.X. Li (CAS, Guangzhou), and Dr M. Danisik (Univ of Waikato, NZ).  A project on the tectonic evolution of Tibet and NW China is a collaboration with Dr Q. Wang (CAS, Guangzhou) and Dr C.L. Zhang (China Geological Survey, Nanjing).  A newly funded NSF-China project to work on the development and evolution of the Red River Fault System involves a collaboration with Professor X.D. Jiang (China Ocean University).

• Professor Simon Wilde continues to work with Professors Jian-Bo Zhou and Xing-Zhou Zhang of Jilin University on the evolution of the NE China segment of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt.  Collaboration with Professor Xiao-Long Huang from the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry has led to the characterisation of the TTG gneisses in the Taihua complex at the extreme south of the North China Craton.  Professor Xiao-Long Huang spent 12 months at Curtin working with Simon, supported by the Chinese Science Council and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

• Simon’s ongoing collaboration with Dr Guochun Zhao of the University of Hong Kong has led to the recognition of two high-grade metamorphic events in rocks of the Huaian complex near the junction between two Proterozoic mobile belts: the Khondalite Belt and the Trans-North China Orogen.  Collaborative work on the Central Indian Tectonic Zone with Professor Santanu Bhowmik of the Indian Institute of Technology at Kharagpur has focused on the application of U-Pb and Lu-Hf isotopic work on zircon and dating of monazite in high-grade metamorphic rocks. 

• Simon’s long-standing collaboration with Professors Fuyuan Wu and Jinhui Yang at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) in Beijing has led to compilation of an extensive geochronological data base for the Chinese part of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt and continued investigation of the isotopic signature of magma mixing in the North China Craton.  Ongoing collaboration with Profs Dunyi Liu and Yusheng Wan and their students at the Institute of Geology at the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences (CAGS) in Beijing has recently focused on examining events that straddle the Archean/Proterozoic boundary in the Western Block of the North China Craton.  Collaboration with Dr Yuruo Shi of CAGS has concentrated on Precambrian rocks close to Beijing.  

• Simon is also collaborating with Alfred Kröner from the University of Mainz on several projects, including the eclogites of the Escambray in Cuba, the Precambrian rocks along the Namibia-Angola border, and several studies in China in the Central Tectonic Zone and Western Block of the North China Craton

• A Tectonic History of South China in Nine Days – CCFS Joint Field Workshop with Chinese Partners - A biannual field workshop on tectonic history of South China was jointly conducted by CCFS CI Professor Zheng-Xiang Li of Curtin University, Professor Hanlin Chen and Dr Fengqi Zhang of Zhejiang University, and Professor Xian-Hua Li of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.  It featured a one-day indoor lecture by Zheng-Xiang Li on the tectonic history of South China, followed by a 8-day field excursion from eastern Zhejiang Province to central Jiangxi Province (pictured below).

GSWA

• Dr Klaus Gessner maintains international research collaboration links with a number of international researchers.  Within the ARC Linkage Project “Multiscale Dynamics of orebody formation” he continues collaboration with Professor Jamie Connolly and Professor Taras Gerya (ETH, Zurich, Switzerland) on simulating the dynamics of lithosphere-scale fluid and melt transport.

• As part of the International Synchrotron Access Program-funded project on “3D imaging and structural analysis of fault rocks from recent and ancient earthquakes.” Klaus has collaborated with Dr Virginia Toy (Otago University, Dunedin), and Dr Xianghui Xiao at the Advanced Photon Source’s 2-BM-B beamline (Argonne National Laboratories, USA).

• Dr Klaus Gessner has collaborated with Prof Uwe Ring at Stockholm University and Dr Stuart Thomson at the University of Arizona (Tucson) on the tectonic evolution of Turkey.

UNSW

• Martin Van Kranendonk is tracing the geochemical origin and evolution of granitoid rocks in the Ancient Gneiss Complex of Swaziland, with the help of Professor Alfred Kroner (University of Mainz), Dr Elis Hoffman (University of Bonn) and Professor Carsten Munker (University of Cologne).  He is collaborating with Dr Steven Shirey (Geophysical Lab., Washington, D.C.) on the onset of subduction on Earth at ca 3.0 Ga, and working with Professor John Valley, Professor Clark Johnson, and Dr K. Williford (University of Wisconsin) on collaborative projects including: in-situ investigation of kerogen of microfossils from the 2.3 Ga Turee Creek Group; Fe-isotope investigation of 2.75 Ga BIF from the Murchison Domain of the Yilgarn Craton; U-Th-Pb dating of jaspilite from the ca 3.5 Ga Marble Bar Chert Member of the Duffer Formation, Pilbara Craton; oxygen isotope studies of cherts from the Pilbara Craton.