International links in CCFS

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.

FORMAL MEMORANDA OF UNDERSTANDING (MOU)

Formal MOU between international institutions promote the Centre’s collaborative research and facilitate visits by Centre staff and postgraduates as wellas joint PhD research projects. CCFS has agreements with the following international institutions:

China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) - 2011 (& Cotutelle)
Constitution of the International University Consortium in Earth Science - 2012
University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei - 2012 (& Cotutelle)
Institute of Geology and Geophysics, China University of Geosciences (Beijing) - 2014
Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research, CAS (Beijing) - 2014
Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Germany - 2015

COTUTELLE MOU

Cotutelle MOU aim to establish deep, continuing relationships with international research universities through joint research candidate supervision. CCFS has agreements with the following international institutions:

China University of Petroleum, Beijing, China
Durham University, United Kingdom
Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary
Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen, Nuremberg, Germany
Nanjing University, China
Pierre and Marie Curie University, PARIS VI
Peking University, China
São Paulo University, Brazil
University of Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain
Universidad de la Republica, Uruguay
Université Montpellier 2, France
Université Paul Sabatier, France
University Jean Monnet, France
University of Zaragoza, Spain

CCFS INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIVE NETWORK

INTERNATIONAL LINKS - 2020 SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS

A collaborative project between the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, China Academy of Science, Beijing (IGG CAS), CCFS, Geoscience Australia (GA), and ANSIR (Australian facilities for Earth sounding) resulted in a 4-year passive seismological deployment (China-Western Australia Seismic survey - CWAS) along a 900 km profile across Western Australia from Port Hedland to the southwestern border of the Kimberly Craton. 80 broadband seismic stations were established and extended beyond the continent margin in the Canning Basin using ocean-bottom seismometers (CANPASS).

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the focus shifted from fieldwork to data interpretation.

A related Chinese NSF proposal commenced in 2020, expands the Canning project into the Archean cratonic regions. This 4-year project will also seek opportunities to put a second Ocean Bottom Seismic Array offshore of the Canning coastal region.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic limited the opportunity for delegates from international institutions to visit CCFS in 2020. Visitors discussed programs including the exchange of staff, joint research activities and the exchange of students (see Visitors list, Appendix 5).

A collaborative research agreement continued with the China University of Geosciences (Wuhan) with funding by the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC). This grant provides a living allowance and travel between China and Australia for students and visiting scholars. Students and researchers funded by this project will study and work under the project’s aims, integrating geological, geochemical, geophysical and experimental techniques to study the structure, composition, geodynamics and metallogeny of the deep lithosphere and beyond.

Prof Zheng-Xiang Li continued as Co-director of the Australia-China Joint Research Centre for Tectonics and Earth Resources (ACTER). ACTER is a joint research centre led by the Institute for Geoscience Research at Curtin University and the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with participants from collaborating institutions from the two countries. CET, TIGeR and GEMOC are all Key Australian Partner Institutions (http://tectonics.curtin.edu.au/).

ACTER aims to facilitate collaborative research and research training in geotectonics and mineral and hydrocarbon resources, the exchange of staff and joint supervision of research students, shared access to analytical facilities, the organisation of joint conferences and annual focused field-based workshops and the exchange of academic materials and information.

CCFS Director, Professor Sue O’Reilly, is a group leader of UNESCO-IUGS IGCP 662 project aimed at providing insights on current global issues and supported by the International Geoscience Programme (IGCP) (href="https://en.unesco.org/news/new-projects-will-explore-geological-record-support-sustainable-development). IGCP 662: “Orogenic architecture and crustal growth from accretion to collision” aims to conduct comparative studies of several types of orogens (accretionary and collisional) to better understand the dynamics of Earth’s crust, and the genesis and distribution of mineral deposits (metallogenesis). It will include a comparative study of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB); one of the world’s largest accretionary orogens spanning six nations and evolving over some 800 million years, the Tethyan orogenic belt; the world’s youngest extensive collisional and metallogenic belt, and other composite orogens. The project included participants from more than 143 countries with diverse socio-economic and political contexts.

IGCP 662 project information and upcoming events are available from here

The UNESCO-IUGS IGCP 648 project “Supercontinent cycles and global geodynamics” continued in 2020. The project brings together a diverse range of geoscience expertise from around the world, including three CCFS CIs, to explore the occurrence and evolution history of supercontinents through time and construct global databases of geotectonics, mineral deposits and the occurrences of past mantle plume events.

IGCP 648 annual workshop was replaced by a virtual seminar series held in Perth from May-August and September-December 2020

For more information visit http://geodynamics.curtin.edu.au/igcp-648/

Zheng-Xiang Li has continued his collaborative ties with researchers at the University of Liverpool, studying the evolution of the Earth’s magnetic field through time.

Marco Fiorentini continued international collaborations with:

University of Milan, Italy: ongoing work with Marilena Moroni and Massimo Tiepolo on the Ivrea Zone (Italy) and the role of volatiles in magmatic systems
Moscow State University, Russia: ongoing work with Alexey Ariskin on the genesis of Ni-Cu-PGE mineralisation in the Dovyren layered intrusion, Russia
Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Science, Irkutsk, Russia: Ongoing work to establish the nature of the volatiles in the Siberian Traps
University of Bologna, Italy: ongoing work on the nature of the sulfur cycle in magmatic arcs
University of Leicester, UK: ongoing work with David Holwell on the Ivrea Zone (Italy), the role of volatiles in magmatic systems, and the Munali Ni-Cu-PGE deposit
ETH, Switzerland: ongoing work with Andrea Giuliani on metasomatism of the lithospheric mantle
Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan: ongoing work with Yuichiro Ueno on the multiple sulfur isotope characterisation of Archean magmatism

International visitors are listed in Appendix 5.