Feature - Geological Society of Australia

The Geological Society 

of Australia Inc 

Newsletter Number 148 

September 2008 

Feature: Geothermal energy heats up 

Checking out GPS in the field 

Special report: Geotourism comes of age 

AESC 2008 round-up

The Australian Geologist 

Newsletter 148, September 2008 

Registered by Australia Post 

Publication No. PP243459/00091 

ISSN 0312 4711 

Guest Editor: Bill Birch 

Production Editor: Heather Catchpole 

Send contributions to: tag@gsa.org.au 

Central Business Office 

Executive Director: Sue Fletcher 

Suite 706, 301 George Street 

Sydney NSW 2000 

Tel: (02) 9290 2194 

Fax: (02) 9290 2198 

Email: info@gsa.org.au 

GSA website: www.gsa.org.au 

22 From the President 

23 Honorary Editor’s Comment 

25 Society Update 

Business Report 

Membership Update 

From the AJES Editor’s Desk 

Publicity & Media 

Education & Outreach 

12 News from the Divisions 

14 News 

23 Report of the Merger Committee 

Design and typesetting The Visible Word Pty Ltd 

Printed by Ligare Pty Ltd 

Distributed by Trade Mailing & Fulfilment Pty Ltd 

26 Feature: Direct geothermal energy 

30 Awards 

32 Special Report: Geotourism 

34 Analysis: GPS in the field 

37 Book Reviews 

Glacially striated, polished, massive 

sulphide outcrop on top of ovoid 

deposit showing ‘loop textures’ of 

chalcopyrite (greenish) and pentlandite 

(scattered blockier white 

crystals), surrounding pyrrhotite 

(brown); Voisey’s Bay nickel-copper 

deposit, Labrador, Canada. Dougald 

Feaver is in the photograph, which 

was taken in August 2004. 

Image and text provided courtesy 

of Dean Hoatson, Geoscience 

Australia; photographer is 

Steve Tilley of CVRD-Inco Ltd, 

now called Vale Inco Ltd. 

46 Calendar 

47 Office Bearers 

48 Publishing Details

From the President 

Iam honoured and pleased to be your new president and 

I look forward to working with the incoming National 

Executive and the membership in further promoting and 

developing the Society. 

I am indebted to my predecessor, Andy Gleadow, and the 

retiring National Executive for their excellent work on behalf of 

the Society. Andy’s tenure as president marked a shift in the 

makeup of the Executive from a State and divisional-based 

organisation into one with a national perspective. Our new 

Executive continues this trend, including representatives from 

across the country who provide a broad range of expertise. 

One of the issues confronting the Society is that its current 

governance structure (in which our major national committee, 

the Council, meets every few years with on-going decisionmaking 

carried out by the state-based Executive Committee) 

is out-dated. Although we have been served well by this 

structure, it does not reflect 21st century realities and like my 

predecessor I consider modifications are needed to ensure that 

we maintain a representative and active society. One of the 

obvious deficiencies of the current model is that each new 

Executive has to learn the processes of governing the Society; 

all the knowledge gained by the previous Executive is lost, as it 

rotates from State to State with a clearing out of expertise. 

I am pleased that in the new Executive, in addition to Andy 

Gleadow staying on in the role of Past President, a number of 

other members have been convinced to hang onto the reins for 

another term, including Fons VandenBerg as treasurer and 

Simon Turner as a co-opted member. This will ensure a smooth 

and efficient transition. 

Directly related to the issue of governance of the Society 

is the need for the incoming Executive to work with the 

Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG) on a possible 

merger. Negotiations with the AIG were undertaken by the previous 

Executive, led by Andy Gleadow and Tony Crawford, and 

their report is published elsewhere in this issue of TAG. The 

recent Council meeting of the GSA, held at the Perth 

Convention, discussed this report and enthusiastically endorsed 

a motion “that negotiations continue and a specific proposal 

be produced for wide discussion and consultation amongst the 

Divisions, Specialist Groups and membership. It is also moved 

that a draft outline of the structure of a merged Society be 

drawn up by the end of 2008, and a detailed and specific 

proposal be ready to present to the membership by the 2009 

AGM”. I plan to establish a sub-committee of the National 

Executive, consisting of Andy Gleadow, Jon Hronsky, Jim Ross 

and myself, to work with the AIG in preparing a proposal to 

submit to both of our organisations for approval over the 

coming year. This is an exciting opportunity, not just for the 

Society but I believe for the Earth Science community of 

Australia, for if successful it will enable the profession to act as 

a more coherent group with benefits to all. 

The Australian Earth Sciences Convention (AESC), jointly 

organised by the AIG and GSA, has just concluded in Perth. It 

was a resounding success and I wish to extend my thanks to 

the organising committee, and especially Sue Fletcher as 

convener, for a wonderful job. The success of the meeting 

reflects the depth and diversity of the scientific program, 

expertly coordinated by Jon Hronsky and his committee. 

Perhaps the highlight of the meeting for me was the strong 

media interest we were able to garner from both radio and 

television stations across the country. The Society employed a 

media consultant, Patrick Daley, and this clearly had a very 

positive outcome. 

Finally, elsewhere in this issue of TAG is an announcement 

by Data Metallogenica of a searchable database of Australian 

geoscience theses of almost 10,500 entries. I am sure this will 

prove a valuable resource. 

PETER CAWOOD 

President 

2 | TAG September 2008

Editor’s Comment 

We felt it was time for a bit of levity in TAG this issue, 

especially after some very serious conferencing in Perth, so we 

asked Vince Morand, from GeoScience Victoria, for some 

thoughts on what's been nagging at him recently! The AJES 

Honorary Editor has also taken a humorous approach this issue. 

BILL BIRCH 

Here’s a question: 

what comes next in the series Early, Middle, ...? 

Did somebody say “Late”? Sorry, but you’ll have to do better 

than that. The next term after Early and Middle is Furongian, at 

least as applied to the Cambrian period in the recent Geological 

Time Scale (Gradstein FM, Ogg JG & Smith AG (Eds), 2004, 

A Geologic Time Scale 2004. Cambridge University Press). Yes, 

the International Commission on Stratigraphy has decided that 

the Cambrian is divided into Early, Middle and Furongian. 

Could it be that Furongian is just a synonym for the word 

late? Perhaps it can be used in common parlance, as in the 

following examples: 

Sorry I’m Furongian, but my car broke down. Better Furongian 

than never. It’s been cold Furongianly, hasn’t it? The train 

scheduled to arrive on Platform 3 is running 7 minutes 

Furongian. We present here the Furongianest geologic time 

scale. I don’t know about you, but I doubt it will catch on. 

In the Gradstein et al time scale, most geological periods 

have sensibly been divided into Early, Middle and Late, or just 

Early and Late. The Silurian is an exception, presumably 

because it is so short it goes straight into the unpronounceable 

epoch names. The Carboniferous is stuck with Mississippian and 

Pennsylvanian, instead of Early and Late, presumably because 

USA geologists are attached to these terms. I suspect they will 

continue to ignore the term Carboniferous, and the rest of us 

will stick with Early and Late for fear of misspelling 

Mississippian. 

TAG September 2008 | 3

The Permian is another egregious (look it up) example of 

obscurantism, with its Cisuralian, Guadalupian and Lopingian 

(read Roger Pierson’s field trip report on page 17 to see these 

names in an Australian context). Maybe someone can sneak in 

when the stratigraphers are not looking and insert Early, Middle 

and Late. 

The Cambrian situation is completely inconsistent. I can 

only assume that there was some intractable member on the 

committee who has a strong emotional attachment to 

Furongian. Let’s hope medical science comes up with a treatment 

for this condition. 

I admit I haven’t read the text accompanying the time scale, 

so you might think “Ah hah! He’s going off about this stuff, and 

he hasn’t even read the reasons behind it!” But I contend that 

some things are so preposterous that no excuse can justify 

them. 

The names for the time scale should be easy and consistent. 

Early, Middle and Late — self-evident, no complicated 

mnemonic needed to put them in order. Not everybody deals 

with the Cambrian epochs every day, so why make it hard on 

them? I think most geologists would like to see every period 

divided into Early, Middle and Late, or just Early and Late. 

On another issue, I refer to Andy Gleadow’s comment in the 

last TAG concerning the lack of geological information in our 

National Parks. Let me tell you a tale. 

A few years ago several members of GeoScience Victoria 

tried to inspire Parks Victoria to distribute brochures on the 

geology of some of the National Parks in the state. We had 

several meetings with them and we produced and printed 

copies of a colour brochure on the geology of the Grampians 

National Park. Parks Victoria merely had to put them in their 

parks office along with all their other brochures. This was 

apparently too much work for them, and it all came to nothing. 

The website for Grampians National Park has not a single 

word on the geology of the park. Interestingly, the park area 

coincides almost exactly with the outcrop of the Grampians 

Group, the largely sandstone unit that forms the Grampians 

Ranges and produces the sandy soils that host the unique plant 

life of the park. 

We also produced a brochure on the geology of Wilsons 

Promontory, and a colour booklet on Tower Hill, with similar 

dispiriting results. Parks Victoria would not cooperate at all. 

They have an almost hostile attitude to the science of geology, 

equating it with mining and environmental degradation, and 

they claim the public is not interested in rocks. 

If we want to get geological information out to the public, 

we will have to side-step the National Parks, at least in some 

states. As Andy said, the Queensland and ACT divisions of our 

own society have already got the ball rolling with some excellent 

publications. Let’s do more. If the National Parks don’t 

want to distribute them, we could try the local tourism offices, 

as they seem to be aware of the public’s interest in geology. 

VINCE MORAND 

GeoScience Victoria 


SocietyUpdate 

Business Report 

Ibegan writing this report in the midst of last minute 

conference preparations. As you can imagine, there were 

numerous emails and phone calls from members and nonmembers 

wondering about different elements of the conference: 

where the AGM will be held, where and when a specific 

Specialist Group is holding its meeting, and of course the odd 

last minute meeting requests — suggesting yet again that geologists 

operate in different timeframes. It was also only days 

after Professor Garnaut released his interim report on climate 

change and commenced his whistle-stop tour. I invited Chairs 

of Divisions and Specialist Groups to comment on his report. 

Perhaps the limited response I received is more to do with the 

report’s focus on the economics rather than the science. 

This issue of TAG introduces some changes. Peter Cawood, 

as incoming GSA President, will bring you his first TAG column 

and Vince Morand, as this issue’s guest editor, looks at unusual 

stratigraphic names. As usual, the familiar faces and 

regular columns continue to keep you informed. 

You’ll also see the new ACT handbook, map and CD featured 

in this issue. These products were made possible by the huge 

effort from key people in the ACT Division, namely: Doug 

Finlayson, Kevin McCue, Bob Abel and Rex Bates (deceased) — 

all ex-Geoscience Australia staff — as well as financial support 

from the Australian Seismological Centre, Geoscience Australia 

and the GSA. These are a valuable addition to anyone’s collection 

of geological handbooks or maps of Australia, and like the 

Queensland Rocks and Landscapes series, showcase Australian 

geology at it best — being both suitable for geologists and 

accessible to students, naturalists, bush-walkers and anyone 

else wanting to know more about the geology of the ACT. 

For those members who can’t always get away to attend a 

longer conference, the South Australia Explorers’ Conference, 

on 28 November, with its focus on new companies/IPO’s, 

exploration projects, feasibility studies, mine exploration and 

development presentations, promises to prove hugely popular 

with local membership as well as interstate visitors. This 

conference has been extremely successful in the past — book 

early to secure your registration. 

As previously reported in TAG, the GSA had a presence at 

the inaugural geotourism conference: including talks on 

education and outreach activities, EarthCaching workshops 

held near the conference and the GSA booth. Geotourism is not 

another name for ecotourism. Geotourism includes geology, 

and can be an invaluable opportunity for Earth Science to be 

communicated and experienced, 

whether via signage that explains the 

weathering processes and development 

of an outcrop (rather than calling it ‘a group of rocks 

formed over a long time’) or more detailed interpretations that 

inform the casual observer or possibly inspire a student to 

pursue a career in geology. Geotourism is in its infancy stages 

— for members who are interested, I draw your attention to an 

article in this TAG titled Geotourism Product Development 

Survey, and the accompanying survey. This market research 

project has been undertaken by Edith Cowan University and 

Leisure Solutions®. I hope you will respond to this research, so 

the organisers can determine if GSA members are interested in 

the development of geotourism products. Bernie Joyce wrote of 

the important link between geotourism, geoparks and the Earth 

Sciences (TAG 146 in his book review of Geotourism) — it is 

perhaps a timely reminder of the importance of Geoparks, and 

the possible future of tourism. 

To the sponsors, exhibitors, delegates and volunteers who 

helped organise the Australian Earth Sciences Convention: 

thank you for your participation. I hope this conference 

exceeded your expectations and highlighted (again), the value 

of ongoing education, career development and relationship 

building. If you attended the inaugural GeoTrivia night, please 

do let me know what you thought — do you want to re-write 

the questions, or are you still disputing an answer? Judging 

from the rowdy behaviour on the night, GeoTrivia might be 

repeated at the next AGC in Canberra. 

ISSUE COPY FINISHED INSERTS 

ART 

DECEMBER 2008 30 Oct 3 Nov 10 Nov 

MARCH 2009 30 Jan 5 Feb 16 Feb 

JUNE 2009 30 Apr 5 May 25 May 

SEPTEMBER 2009 31 Jul 8 Aug 16 Aug 


A highly-skilled media consultant joined us at this convention 

with the aim of promoting the conference through 

networks and related associations, and with a defined strategy 

to increase the presence of Earth Sciences in the media. These 

activities were extremely successful, with the WA media 

strongly embracing the conference, interviewing session speakers, 

as well as plenary and keynote speakers. Eastern seaboard 

media were also keen to interview speakers and we received a 

wide range of coverage from TV, radio, online and print media. 

This was largely because we had good material to work with, 

and speakers who were happy to talk to the media about their 

work, and promote the convention and the Earth Sciences. 

Earth Science conferences are the perfect vehicle to get 

Earth Sciences in the public domain. The value of seeing, 

hearing and reading about Earth Sciences might encourage 

Jack-and-Jill public to begin to appreciate the important 

contribution Earth Scientists make to society: through the 

minerals and energy industries; water, land and geohazard 

management; and the fundamentals of teaching Earth Science 

in schools. Generating interest in Earth Science can stimulate a 

student to pursue geology, or inspire young people to consider 

Earth Science as a career option. Maybe it could even make 

policy-makers reconsider certain policies (one can only hope 

that ES funding will one day get larger, and geology will be 

reintroduced into a secondary classroom). 

By the time you receive this issue of TAG we will be in the 

process of relocating offices — yes after many years in the same 

location we have been forced to move. Keep an eye out for our 

change of address details. 

SUE FLETCHER 

Executive Director 

New members 

The GSA welcomes the 

following new members to 

the Society. May you all 

have a long and beneficial 

association with the GSA: 

ACT 

M EMBER 

Andrea Dutton 

NSW 

M EMBER 

Damien Cullen 

Rodney Berrell 

John Polgase 

Geoffrey Clarke 

Leonard Diekman 

A SSOCIATE M EMBER 

Anthony Dossetto 

S TUDENT M EMBER 

Chris Stanley 

Chester Hobbs 

Hunter Valley 

M EMBER 

Phillip Gilmore 

Simone Meakin 

QLD 

M EMBER 

John Levings 

Timothy Sibley 

Kyle Ford 

Rowan Turner 

Paul Bannerman 

Michael Page 

Paul Tipping 

Doyle Pryde 


Maureen Price 

Jessica Cooper 

David Lavery 

SA 

M EMBER 

Ernest Swierzczek 

Len Altman 


Charles Pacholicz 

Mandy Absalom 

Martin Griessman 

Joel Chin 

Stephen Thiel 

Hossain Siddiqui 

TAS 

M EMBER 

Robert Kirk 

Shelley Greener 


Abhisit Salam 

Sarah Gordee 

Martin Jutzelar 

Jacqueline Blackwell 

Fiona Best 

Vic 

M EMBER 

Helen Lynch 


Belay Gebremedhin 

Kent Balas 

Emily Hepburn 

Katherine Charlton 

Rafika Ismal 

Siddharth Paleri 

Matthew Durrant 

Chiao-Li (Zoe) Yu 

Alexander Ure 

William Melling 

Sanda McCullough 

Erin Carswell 

Daniel Foulds 

Hannah Baker 

Helen Dulfer 

Lauren Chester 

Norman Murray 

Nicole Ilic 

WA 

M EMBER 

Jaunito Asuro 

Alicia Verbeetan 

David Boyd 

Andrew Lavender 

Geoff Heggie 

Erick Ramanaidou 

Paul Myburgh 

Adam Rosair 

G RADUATE M EMBER 

Matthew Gatzoubaros 


Lin Xiubin 

Shane Hubeck 

Beatriz Estrada Roldan 

Kimberley Webb 

Zhongwu Lan 

Callum Murray 

Fiona High 

Fitriani Agustin 

Mohammad Iqbal 

Malachi Mackay 

6 | 

TAG September 2008


From the AJES Hon Editor’s Desk 

Science Citation Index 

The impact factor for 2007 has been recently released and has 

climbed up a bit to 1.21. The table below shows how the factor 

has fluctuated over the past few years. 

Science Citation Index Impact Factors for Australian Journal of 

Earth Sciences, 1995–2006 

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 

0.658 0.871 0.973 1.058 1.548 1.185 1.245 1.274 1.333 1.191 1.000 1.210 

To refresh your memories, the impact factor is a measure of the 

number of times a paper published in a particular journal can expect 

to be cited in the world literature using the formula 

Impact Factor for year n = 

Year n citations to articles published in years n-1 and n-2 

Number of articles published in years n-1 and n-2 

T & F Earth Sciences stable of journals 

You may be interested in the list of Earth and planetary sciences 

journals published by Taylor and Francis. They cover a range of 

‘Earth Science’ in the widest sense: Alcheringa; Annals of the 

Association of American Geographers; Aquatic Ecosystem Health 

& Management; Australian Journal of Earth Sciences; Geocarto 

International; Geomechanics and Geoengineering; 

Geomicrobiology Journal; Geophysical and Astrophysical Fluid 

Dynamics; Georisk; Historical Biology; Ichnos; International 

Journal of Digital Earth; International Journal of GIS; 

International Journal of Remote Sensing; Journal of Earthquake 

Engineering; Journal of Land Use Science; Journal of Location 

Based Services; Marine Biology Research; Marine Geodesy; 

Marine Georesources and Geotechnology; Maritime Policy & 

Management; Ocean Development & International Law; Polar 

Geography; Scottish Geographical Journal; The Professional 

Geographer; Water International. I have heard AJES described as 

a flagship journal in this stable (to mix my metaphors) and am 

wondering whether I should ask Council to change my title from 

Hon Editor to Hon Admiral. 

Plato and a platypus 

I have recently been reading Plato and a platypus… by Thomas 

Cathcart and Daniel Klein — subtitled understanding philosophy 

through jokes. Some of the jokes could be classed as ‘groans’ 

rather than ‘jokes’ and my wife has forbidden me to read them 

out aloud in the house. An example, to illustrate the power of 

empirical observation: 

“Three women are in a changing 

room dressing to play tennis when a 

man runs through wearing nothing 

but a paper bag over his head. After 

careful observation the first woman 

says, ‘well it’s not my husband’. The 

second woman says, ‘no it isn’t’. The third woman says, ‘he’s not 

even a member of this club’.” 

Nevertheless it is an intriguing concept and I recommend it 

to anyone interested in learning about philosophy in a painless 

way. I look forward to someone writing a crash course in Earth 

Science through jokes. 

Of course there is not much room for jokes in AJES. The 

nearest we get is in the titles of some papers: ‘A tale of two 

synclines:…’ and ‘No mountains to snow on:…’ immediately 

come to mind and I am sure there are others. It is interesting 

that most conference talks begin with a joke, to catch the 

attention of the audience, but the joke is omitted from the 

published paper. Maybe this is just as well. When I lectured in 

geology at the University of Canterbury, on several occasions 

I found my jokes regurgitated in the examination papers I was 

marking — obviously some students found it difficult to see 

where the joke ended and fact began! 

A previous editor, the late Ken Townley, told me that 

he would accept a paper written as a poem if it was goodquality 

science. Perhaps he had read Edward Hitchcock Jr’s 

remark “Shall not geology, which is the first science in affording 

scope for the imagination, be brought into favour with the 

Muses, and afford themes for the Poet?” At any rate, no one 

seems to have submitted such a paper yet — another challenge 

to all authors out there — and I shall return to this poetry 

theme in my next musings in TAG. 

But to return to the book! The full title is Plato and a 

platypus walked into a bar and goes on: 

“The bartender looked inquiringly at the philosopher who 

said ‘OK she looked better in the cave’. Which is either a very 

esoteric philosophy joke or a slur on an Australian icon! 

TONY COCKBAIN 

Hon Editor AJES 



Publicity&Media 

The Geological Society of Australia ran a strategic media 

campaign for the Australian Earth Sciences Convention 

2008 in Perth. Talented speakers highlighted the diversity 

of careers that can lead from studying Earth Science. The convention 

media (hopefully) stimulated young people to think about a 

career in Earth Science and showcased to the Jack-and-Jill-public 

that geologists are not all ‘rock-crackers’. 

Media coverage across Australia was comprehensive, from the 

local and regional papers (syndication is a marvellous thing), city 

tabloids and broadsheets, to radio and television. The following are 

a few edited highlights. 

‘Hidden gold’ worth $32bn 

The Age, Tuesday 22 July 

An estimated 1,000 tonnes of gold worth more than $32 billion 

could lie in a region north of Bendigo, a new geological study 

says…“Victoria still has a very, very significant potential for quite 

new undiscovered goldfields,” Vladimir Lisitsin, a geologist at 

GeoScience Victoria said. 

http://www.theage.com.au/national/hidden-gold-worth-32bn- 

20080721-3isr.html 

Geoscience research 

‘needs more funding’ 

Adelaide Advertiser, Wednesday 23 July 

Australian governments must provide “substantially more funding” 

for post-graduate geoscience research, the new president of the 

Geological Society of Australia warns. Professor Peter Cawood told 

the Australian Earth Sciences Convention in Perth this week that 

governments, industry and universities must work together to 

create a national geoscience research strategy. 

Tsunami alert 

Sydney Morning Herald, Thursday 24 July 

New technology means Australia will have at least 90 minutes 

warning before a tsunami hits its shores. Seismographic 

information, which would have taken days to accrue 20 years ago, 

can now be gathered in a matter of minutes, Dr Barry Drummond, 

of Geoscience Australia, told the Earth Sciences Convention in 

Perth yesterday. 

Don’t pack yet, we’re off to live on Mars 

MX (Sydney), Thursday 24 July 

Earthlings could be living on Mars within the next 25 

years…Professor Jeff Taylor from the Hawaii Institute of 

Geophysics and Planetology said…“My feeling is that humans 

will first seek to set up a permanent base on or near the Moon, 

possibly so we can generate energy from solar radiation and beam 

it back to Earth.” 

Analysis: ‘Drilling’ likely cause of volcano 

No stopping the mud 

Adelaide Advertiser, Wednesday 30 July 

The Indonesian mud volcano disaster which has displaced about 

40,000 people was most likely caused by oil and gas drilling, not 

an earthquake, Australian researcher and academic Mark Tingay 

says. In the August edition of Geology, Dr Tingay, who produced the 

research while at Adelaide University, writes that while mud 

volcanoes have been linked to earthquakes in the past, the earthquake 

some have blamed for this incident was too small and too 

far away to be responsible…Dr Tingay told the Australian Earth 

Sciences Convention in Perth the mud eruption was averaging 

about 100,000 cubic metres of mud a day, and had displaced 

40,000 people and was threatening another 60,000. 

For a real blast, why not raise 

our sights a little? 

The Australian, Wednesday 6 August 

Let’s skip this mess and expand our horizons, urges Leigh Dayton. 

It hasn’t been a fun couple of weeks…What the world needs is 

inspiration amid the dismal detritus of life on Earth. Enter Jeff 

Taylor. He’s a planetary geologist and head of the Hawaii Institute 

of Geophysics at the University of Hawaii… When he wasn’t talking 

technical turkey with colleagues about the surface of Mars, he 

was rattling the cage for an uplifting vision for humanity…Taylor 

says it’s time to rev up the rockets and start colonising the neighbourhood: 

first the moon, then Mars and, ultimately, well,… 

As Taylor notes, scientists understand enough about the 

mineral-laden surface of the moon to know that humans could 

make a hi-tech living there. It’s within our scientific grasp to 

extract oxygen, aluminium and iron from lunar dirt. We could mine 

it, mould it and use it to house us while we support our satellite 

systems, explore our planetary environs and consider setting up 

shop on the red planet. 

http://blogs.theaustralian.news.com.au/leighdayton/ 

Warning time slashed 

Gold Coast Bulletin, 24 July 

New geological technology means Australia will have at least 

90 minutes warning before a tsunami hits our shores. The 

information, which two decades ago would have taken days to 

accrue, is now being gathered in a matter of minutes, says Dr Barry 

Drummond of Geoscience Australia. 

Scientist calls to invest in research 

Daily Liberal, Dubbo NSW, 22 July 

Professor Peter Cawood says governments must allocate much 

more money to fund post-graduate research into sustainable 

baseload electricity, salinity management, climate change, geohazards, 

and groundwater exploration and contamination. 

(Continued on page 43) 



Education&Outreach 

The Australian Earth Sciences Convention recently concluded 

with the education component of the Geoscience in 

the Service of Society sessions attracting nine 

presentations, a much better number than the previous few 

conventions. Papers covered a whole range of issues, from the 

crisis in tertiary enrolments and the parlous state of tertiary 

Earth Science education, to the practical measures being 

undertaken in the nation’s school classrooms. 

The keynote speaker for the session, Jim Ross, touched on 

all these issues and showed us a way forward with the Earth 

Science Western Australia initiative, a wonderful model to take 

to the Federal Government, should the promise of a national 

curriculum become a reality over the next year or so. In all the 

discussions that occurred during sessions and informally elsewhere, 

the one take-home message was that the time to act is 

now. We must look policy makers and members of governments 

in the eye, and tell them exactly like it is and what the reality 

of the sector will be like without a major overhaul of the 

present arrangements at all levels within the education and 

training sector. 

CONASTA 

The GSA recently attended the annual conference of the 

Australian Science Teachers Association. This is part of our 

commitment to re-engage with science teachers in an effort to 

provide practical help to them as they try and meet their 

curriculum-mandated Earth Science teaching requirements. 

The GSA booth was well attended, with teachers hungry for the 

simple but effective Fact-ites and other teaching aides we have 

produced. The presentation on EarthCaching was also well 

attended and I look forward to seeing school-generated 

EarthCache proposals as a result. 

The enthusiasm for Earth Sciences shown by teachers is 

only matched by their ongoing complaint about the difficulty 

of teaching it to the growing number of students who find all 

sciences unimportant or irrelevant. We must try even harder to 

engage students in new ways to ensure they understand and 

value the origins of their favourite material goods. One way to 

do this is continue working with teachers on all levels. 

members, this may have always been 

self evident but in recent years, 

especially with the advent of the 

United Nations-supported Geoparks 

concept, policy makers and park managers are starting to see it 

too. Australia was awarded its first Geopark label, Kanawinka 

Geopark, in July of this year in recognition of the value of the 

volcanic terrains of the western district of Victoria and 

south–eastern South Australia. The GSA presence at this first 

gathering in Perth ensured that those stakeholders 

normally outside the geoscience network were aware of our 

strengths and willingness to engage in assisting this vital 

Australian industry. 

Earth Science week 

Earth Science Week is being celebrated 12–18 October. If you 

have not done so as yet, now is the time to plan an event and 

join the fun. Visit the Geoscience Australia website at 

www.ga.gov.au/about/event/eswhome.jsp to find out more. 

Send all comments to Greg McNamara at 

outreach@gsa.org.au 

GREG McNAMARA 

Education and Outreach 

Global geotourism 

The inaugural Global Geotourism Conference (www.promaco. 

com.au/2008/geotm/) was attended by the GSA this August. 

Geotourism is finally beginning to be recognised as a significant 

component in the global tourism market. To GSA 



Stratigraphic Column 

Not goodbye, but au revoir 

When I wrote my first Stratigraphic Column in 1997, I ended by 

paying tribute to my predecessor, Colin Gatehouse, noting that 

he had served the then Stratigraphic Names Committee “for 

about 10 years, a daunting record that I shall probably not 

emulate”. I thought then that I might last in the job about six 

years. But time has a habit of inexorably creeping on, and about 

12½ years after I took over from Colin, in February 1996, I was 

still National Convener, having broken even the record of 

11 years or so of another of my distinguished predecessors, the 

illustrious Norman Fisher. I had started only 13 days before 

John Howard became Prime Minister, and had managed to outlast 

even him. Clearly it was time to move on before I got stale, 

and make way for someone else who could take a fresh 

approach. 

Accordingly the GSA Council, meeting at the AESC 2008 in 

Perth, accepted the nomination of Cathy Brown of Geoscience 

Australia to be the next National Convener of the Australian 

Stratigraphy Commission. Of all possible candidates, Cathy is 

the most qualified. Many of you would know her from the 

12 years when she was manager of the Stratigraphic Index, and 

the amiable person you contacted when you needed to reserve 

a new stratigraphic name. She has done a great deal of valuable 

work in this area, especially getting the online version of 

the Australian Stratigraphic Units Database and Definition 

Form up and running. She has, of course, a good knowledge of 

the stratigraphic guidelines, and is very adept at tactfully 

answering queries. Her contact details are: National Convener, 

ASC, c/o Geoscience Australia, GPO Box 378, Canberra 

ACT 2601. Tel: 02 6249 9535. Email: cathy.brown@ga.gov.au 

The tight TAG copy deadline was such that Cathy could not 

write anything for this issue, but that gives me the chance for 

one last column, musing over the last 12½ years. Just how long 

that time has been is brought home to me by the fact that in 

1996 email was not widely available and all correspondence 

was still being done via Australia Post. The coming of email 

made communications so much easier, and had a big impact on 

member involvement. The massive 40–50 page Circulars from 

the International Subcommission on Stratigraphic 

Classification, of which the ASC is an institutional member, 

used to take months to arrive by surface mail, and then had to 

be photocopied for each of the subcommittees. 

The digital age also saw the arrival of the online version of 

the Australian Stratigraphic Units Database, and one of my 

early jobs was educating the geological community about its 

existence and how to use it. The Database began back in 1949 

as a card index, and since then an unbroken chain of workers 

has laboured diligently to try to keep it up to date. It has been, 

and remains, a formidable job, but the result is that we are the 

envy of the world in being the only continent having such 

comprehensive stratigraphic data available on every desktop. 

Just how valuable this is isn’t always appreciated in some 

quarters. The potential of the Database is not only in knowing 

what the definitions of units are, or in how this data underpins 

other databases, but also in information such as the Australian 

distribution of limestones intruded by granites in the 

Proterozoic, or black shales in the Permian, or red-beds in the 

Mesozoic — it’s all there included in the unit definitions. 

I started writing The Stratigraphic Column as part of our 

education function, on a couple of occasions helped by guest 

writers. This one is number 43. Had I been told at the beginning 

that it would be this number, I wouldn’t have believed it 

possible. In the process, the column has covered everything 

from various aspects of defining units, sequence stratigraphy, 

igneous suite nomenclature, the Tertiary, Quaternary and 

Precambrian time scales, obsolete names, magnetosomes, some 

new rules for naming units, and much more. 

I could dwell at length on quite a few other things, among 

them the guide to igneous suite definition (a first in the world), 

and the slow progress with sequence unit definition (the third 

international working group on sequence stratigraphy has 

again failed to reach agreement on fundamentals, this time 

with some acrimony). However, the Editor has limited me to 

one page, so I’ll have to leave it there. 

I cannot sign off, though, without recording my heartfelt 

thanks to the State Conveners and the many other members of 

the Stratigraphic Names Committee, now evolved into the 

Australian Stratigraphy Commission, who have contributed 

immensely to our achievements, and to Cathy Brown, 

Donna Phillips and Pat Pollard, who very ably built up and 

administered the online stratigraphic Database we have today, 

and which will be the foundation of even better things to come. 

I personally will remain on the stratigraphic scene, as Convener 

of the ACT Stratigraphy Subcommission, so it’s “not goodbye, 

but au revoir”. 

Over to you, Cathy! 

ALBERT BRAKEL 

National Convener 

Australian Stratigraphy Commission 



Data Metallogenica 

Data Metallogenica is pleased to announce that free 

access to AMIRA’s newly completed database of 

Australian geoscience theses is now available via a 

link on the DM home page: www.datametallogenica.com 

Records from all Australian universities were used to compile 

this searchable database of almost 10,500 entries dating 

back to 1904: it has never before been attempted and should 

be of great and lasting value to academics, exploration and 

government geologists. We are grateful to all universities for 

their co-operation and to Allan White, Amarendra Changkakoti 

and Melbourne University for carriage of the project. 

The free search allows anyone to search for dissertations by 

‘Title’, ‘Author’, ‘University’, ‘Degree’ (including Honours), ‘Year’ 

or any word(s) contained in those fields. However, subscribers 

to Data Metallogenica and sponsors of the original compilation 

project are, in addition, able to refine their searches by using 

‘State’, ‘Country’ (thesis area), mineral ‘Commodity’ and 

‘Discipline’ fields; map sheets will be added later. They may also 

view more than 1,600 economic geology abstracts. 

Notification of missing theses and any corrections will be 

gratefully received. The database is to be updated annually with 

the help of contributing universities. 

Work is well advanced on a new proposal to build a global 

thesis database, probably in stages: it will extend what has 

been successfully achieved over Australia. A work proposal will 

be circulated to potential sponsors later this year. 

What’s new 

70 mineral deposit summaries have been added for British 

Columbia, Canada. 

Other new and updated data includes: for Australia, Kintyre 

U, Elura Zn–Pb–Ag, Century Zn and Central Victorian Au; 

for Canada, the Fort a la Corne kimberlite; for the USA, 

Carlin-trend Au deposits in Nevada; for Vietnam, Phuoc Song 

Au; for Spain, Aguablanca Ni–Cu, Aguas Tenidas Zn–Cu–Ag, 

Almaden Hg, Barruecopardo W–As, Almaden Hg, Aznalcollar 

VMS, Berbes F, Cala Fe, Concepcion, Lomero Poyatos VMS, 

Reocin Zn–Pb; Rio Tinto VMS, Rubiales VMS, San Miguel VMS, 

Tharsis VMS; for England, Hemerdon W–Sn and South Crofty 

Sn–W. 

Approximately 40 full-text theses are now available on the 

DM website. Recent additions are: Matt Baggott on Leonora 

district Au deposits in WA; Huayong Chen on the Marcona 

IOCG deposit in Peru; Alan Frikken on the Rio Blanco Cu–Mo 

deposit in Chile; James Cannell on the El Teniente Cu–Mo 

deposit in Chile; Trevor Beardsmore on the Mt Dore IOCG 

deposit in Queensland; Nicholas Rosengren on the Mt Keith Ni 

deposit in WA; Steve Turner on the Yanacocha Au deposit in 

Peru; Nick LeBoutillier on Sn–W mineralisation in SW England; 

and Peter McGoldrick on the Mt Isa deposit in Queensland. 

As a Foundation Sponsor of Data Metallogenica, members 

of the Geological Society of Australia need pay an individual 

rate of only $110 pa (inc GST), which is half price. Your 

subscriptions fund DM’s development. DM is not-for-profit and 

your contribution greatly helps us to better serve you. 

For more information please contact: Alan Goode, DM 

Project Director alan.goode@amira.com.au), or Kerry 

O’Sullivan, DM Project Manager kerry.osullivan@amira.com.au 

at AMIRA International. 

KERRY O’SULLIVAN 

AMIRA International 

www.sga2009.jcu.edu.au 

Email: sga2009@jcu.edu.au 


News from the divisions 

Tasmania 

Expressions of interest: first circular 

GSA Tasmanian Division is seeking 

expressions of interest from GSA Members 

to attend a four-day combined field 

symposium entitled ‘Tungsten, Fire and Ice 

in the realm of the ancient King’ to be held 

on King Island, Tasmania, March 2009. 

Tholeiitic basalt pillow lavas, City of 

Melbourne Volcanics, Grassy Gp, King Island. 

Image courtesy Clive Calver. 

Proposed program 

Half a day of talks (Currie) 

Visit to the King Island Scheelite mine at 

Grassy. Field traverses through the wellexposed 

Neoproterozoic and 

Mesoproterozoic sequences at City 

of Melbourne Bay, Ettrick Bay, and 

Cape Wickham. 

Discussion of current controversies regarding 

the age and significance of the Cottons 

Breccia and the enclosing Grassy Group. 

The trip has been designed to take advantage 

of the release of new maps of King 

Island by Mineral Resources Tasmania, 

which has led to an increased understanding 

of the island’s geology. 

Departures will be ex-Melbourne. Estimated 

costs are expected to be in the range of 

$750–$1,200, inclusive of pre-arranged 

charter flights, island transport and accommodation. 

Exact figures will become available 

in a second circular in October. 

GSA will provide financial support to the 

field trip in order to defray overall costs to 

participants. Assuming sufficient interest for 

the trip to proceed, the final deadline for 

registrations will be 15 December 2008, and 

a deadline for abstracts will be 15 February 

2009. To gauge whether or not the 

symposium is feasible, the deadline for 

expressions of interest is 15 October 2008. 

To express interest, contact 

Andrew McNeill 

Ph: 03 6226 2487 

Fax: 03 6226 2547 

email: andrew.mcneill@utas.edu.au 

NICK DIREEN 

CLIVE CALVER 

ANDREW MCNEILL 

Organising committee 

Carbonate olistolith, Cottons Breccia, 

Grassy Group, King Island. Image courtesy 

Nick Direen. 

Victoria 

The Selwyn Medal has been awarded to 

Malcolm Wallace, Associate Professor at 

Melbourne University, and the Canavan 

Award for the best second year student in 

Earth Sciences at a Victorian university 

was given to Ashleigh Hood of Melbourne 

University. 

The Canavan Award was presented at the 

GSA Victoria’s August monthly meeting at 

the Fritz-Loewe Theatre, Earth Science 

Building, University of Melbourne. The 

Selwyn Medal will be presented at the 

Selwyn Symposium, also in the Fritz-Loewe 

Theatre, on 25 September. 

KYLE REBRYNA 

GSAV Newsletter 

ACT 

The two working groups compiling the 

map and guidebook on ACT Geology have 

completed their tasks and the map, GIS 

and guidebook have been printed. The final 

products are very professional and have 

attracted much interest locally. Some 

were even offered for sale at the recent 

Australian Earth Sciences Convention 

in Perth. 

A launch was organised for 18 August at 

the ACT Assembly Building and Mick 

Gentleman MLA did the honours. Chris 

Pigram attended in Neil Williams’ absence 

at the IGC in Oslo, and GSA was represented 

by Dave Gibson in lieu of Brad Pillans, who 

is also at the IGC. 

GSA and the ACT Government were the 

main sponsors with NPA ACT and GSA 

(ACT Division) providing seed funding and 

GA considerable in-house support. GSA 

Sydney office is handling sales of the 

individual items and various combinations 

of map, CD and guidebook in packages at 

very reasonable prices. 

KEVIN MCCUE 

GSA (ACT Division) Committee member 


Specialist Group News 

Earth Science 

history group 

The ESHG Committee has been in Melbourne 

since late in 2002. Regular meetings of the 

committee have been held, particularly 

during the preparation for the ESHG 

Melbourne conference in late 2007. 

McLeod's Archibald Liversidge volume (as proposed 

by David Branagan at the ESHG 2007 

business meeting); enable Doug McCann to 

undertake an additional study of the history of 

the ESHG to update the group's history from 

its last write-up 14 years ago; and undertake 

the archiving of all ESHG material, including 

creation of a pdf-scanned version of most 

items to send to the Basser Library in 

Canberra. Additional grants were awarded to 

Ruth Pullin, for assistance in the publication 

in the Melbourne Art Journal of her thesis 

work on von Guérard (as presented at the 

recent ESHG conference); to Charles Lawrence, 

for assistance in writing up a 'History of 

Groundwater in Australia' (as presented at the 

were presented, and John Blockley helped 

arrange for the ‘Camels, cars and compasses’ 

exhibition of old maps and artefacts, originally 

put together by Angela Riganti in Kalgoorlie, 

to be displayed at the Convention venue. 

At the AESC 2008 meeting in Perth, a new 

Committee consisting of John Blockley and 

colleagues from the WA Division took over 

the running of the ESHG. The outgoing 

Melbourne Committee and the incoming 

WA Committee had been active over the 

preceding months working towards a smooth 

changeover. 

The retiring Committee members are Bernie 

Joyce (chair), Guy Holdgate (secretary), 

Roger Pierson (treasurer) and Doug McCann 

(newsletter editor). We have had both a busy 

and rewarding time, and we wish the new 

ESHG Committee well. For further information, 

see the Earth Sciences History Group's website 

at: http://vic.gsa.org.au/eshg.htm 

Chair 

BERNIE JOYCE 

School of Earth Sciences, 

University of Melbourne 

The ESHG Melbourne Committee conclude their last meeting in a Carlton coffee shop: left to 

right: Roger Pierson (treasurer), Doug McCann (newsletter editor), Bernie Joyce (chair), Guy 

Holdgate (secretary). 

Newsletters have been published, a new 

series of email news has been set up, and 

No1 to No 8 have been sent to members. We 

have set up a website for the group, on 

which we use the original logo, supplied by 

Barry Cooper, and regular reports have also 

appeared in The Australian Geologist. The 

ESHG is in a healthy state, both financially, 

and with a growing membership; now some 

80 members. 

Following the recent conference and discussions 

on how to improve the group's archives 

— including bringing its history up-to-date, 

and encouraging members to publish 

research on the history of Earth Sciences in 

Australia — the ESHG Committee approved a 

number of grants at its meeting in 

Melbourne on 13 June 2008. These grants 

will assist with the publication of Roy 

recent ESHG conference); and to Doug 

McCann and David Branagan, towards their 

expenses in Perth to attend the ESHG Business 

meeting, and in taking part in the handover of 

the ESHG Committee to WA, in lieu of other 

ESHG Committee members unable to attend. 

Doug McCann represented the ESHG 

Committee at the GSA Council Meeting on 

Sunday 20 July 2008 in Perth. A full copy of 

the ESHG Chair's report to the Council meeting 

will appear in Newsletter No 39, together 

with financial statements, to record for members 

the Committee's activities from the AESC 

2006 meeting up to now. 

Although there was not a separate history 

session in Perth, papers by ESHG members 

David Branagan (NSW), Doug McCann 

(Victoria) and Barry Cooper (South Australia) 

New SGGMP committee 

The AGM of the Specialist Group for 

Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Petrology was 

held at the Australian Earth Sciences 

Convention. A new committee was formed, 

with many thanks to the old committee for 

their hard work over the last few years. 

The new committee is: 

Chair: Chris Clark (c.clark@curtin.edu.au) 

Secretary: Nick Timms (n.timms@curtin.edu.au) 

Treasurer: Katy Evans (k.evans@curtin.edu.au) 

Newsletter: Janet Muhling 

Conference Organiser: John Foden 

Conference abstracts: Ian Graham 

Committee members: Ralph Bottrill, 

Peter Downes, Ian Fitzsimons. 

Nominations for Queensland or Victorian 

representatives on the committee are welcome. 

KATY EVANS 

Curtin University of Technology 


NEWS 

AESC 2008 wrap up 

The 2008 Australian Earth Sciences 

Convention was held late July at the Perth 

Convention and Exhibition Centre. The 

convention was jointly hosted by the 

Geological Society of Australia and the 

Australian Institute of Geoscientists. 

900+ delegates attended the conference: 

350 talks, 27posters, 53 exhibition booths 

and a dynamic and lively program made the 

convention overwhelmingly successful. 

The convention theme: New Generation 

Advances in Geoscience linked five themes to 

the International Year of Planet Earth (IYPE) 

and showcased the significant contribution 

Earth Science makes to society, and the 

depth and breadth of the geosciences in 

Australia. Ten concurrent sessions over 

four days provided many opportunities for 

delegates to pursue their expertise or dip in 

and out of areas outside their current work 

and get up-to-date with the latest thinking 

and technology. 

These sessions included: 

■ Mining and exploration: new frontiers, 

research, precompetitive geoscience and 

geology, business approaches, investment and 

psychology 

■ Geohazards: tsunamis, earthquakes, 

volcanoes 

■ Water exploration and contamination, 

salinity, food security 

■ Future energy sources, geothermal energy, 

carbon sequestration, coal seams, clean coal 

technology 

■ Climate change and sea-level change 

■ Geotourism 

■ Geoscience education 

■ Australia and the Integrated Ocean Drilling 

Program (IODP) 

■ Quantitative assessment of undiscovered 

gold endowment in central Victoria 

(Left to right) Andy Gleadow and Mike Smith 

enjoy the ice breaker. 

The ice breaker reception kicked off the convention 

on Sunday, 20 July and was followed 

by the opening of the convention on Monday 

21 July by Professor Lyn Beazley, the Western 

Australian Chief Scientist, and Lindsay 

Kirsner, General manager – Resource 

Development, Rio Tinto, the convention’s 

Diamond Sponsor. This was followed by the 

presentation of the SW Carey Medal to 

Gordon Lister and then the opening address 

by Peter Cawood, who delivered the Mawson 

Lecture on Making Mountains: Geological 

drivers and environmental consequences. 

(Left to right) Graziella Caprarelli and Wes Nichols, planetary scientist and coal geologist, 

connect at the GSA booth. 

The five themes arising from the IYPE program 

— Geoscience in the Service of Society; 

Resources: Foundation for our Future; 

Evolution of Life and the Solar System; 

Earth’s Environments: Past, Present and 

Future and the Dynamic Earth: From Crust to 

Core — formed the basis of the technical 

sessions developed by the technical sessions 

committee, which consisted of Jon Hronsky 

(chair), Graham Begg, Marcus Harris, Ross 

Dowling, Marc Norman and Ken Lawrie. 

Women from industry and government: (left to right) Amy Prendergast, Anna Petts and 

Gill Hamson at the ice breaker. 


There were numerous opportunities for networking, 

including two ‘happy hours’, the 

conference dinner, GeoTrivia, the student 

careers evening, as well as lunches and 

morning and afternoon teas. 

(Left to right) Sue Golding, Andy Barnicoat and Helen Keogh catch up at the AESC. 

(Left to right) Jon Hronsky, Russell Korsch and Richard Chopping discuss the program. 

Left to right: Andy Gleadow, Gordon Lister, Peter Cawood, Lyn Beazley and Jon Hronsky 

at the AESC. Image courtesy Lyn Beazley. 

Photographs courtesy Clarke Rodda, Festival City Photography 

Feedback was overwhelmingly positive and 

delegates enjoyed a stimulating and dynamic 

conference. There was the usual conference 

problem — too much to choose from — 

although I am sure that the alternative of 

having too few lectures would not go down 

well! Plenary sessions were well attended 

and generated a significant amount of 

media. Channels 10 and 7 and the ABC 

television stations filmed plenary speakers. 

The Sunrise program followed up a media 

release that picked up coverage in The Age 

and interviewed Dr Richard Aldous, Executive 

Director, Minerals and Petroleum Division, 

Department of Primary Industries, Victoria, 

bringing geosciences into many homes 

during breakfast primetime — a valuable time 

slot. 

The GSA employed a strong media strategy 

for the conference and to increase the 

presence of Earth Science in the media. 

Significant coverage was achieved on both 

the west coast and the eastern seaboard. A 

number of local, state and national newspapers 

carried articles about the breadth of the 

geosciences, ABC’s Radio National covered 

plenary, keynote and many session speakers 

and local and interstate radio stations interviewed 

a solid cross-section of the speakers. 

Online magazines and content providers covered 

many aspects of the conference from 

the keynote and plenary speakers to session 

speakers and covered diverse topics from the 

distinct possibility of living on Mars within 

25 years, to the assessment and warning of 

Australia’s tsunami risk and the workings of 

the 100 seismograph stations operating 

around the Australian coastline, as well as 

the likelihood of ‘mega-disasters’ in the Asia- 

Pacific region, and how meteorite impacts 

may assist with locating precious minerals. 

Peter Cawood was interviewed about lack of 

funding for research students — 

$100,000/year for new graduates vs 

$25,000/year for a research scholarship 

(if you are lucky enough to get one). 


Plenary speakers 

Dr Peter McCabe (CSIRO): 

Australia’s energy future 

Professor Malcolm Walter (University of New South Wales): 

The geological history of climate change 

Mr Phillip Commander (Department of Water Western Australia): 

The Yarragadee Aquifer 

Dr Barry Drummond (Geoscience Australia): 

The tsunami risk to Australia and what is being done to mitigate it 

Professor Mike Gurnis (California Institute of Technology, USA): 

Historical geodynamics: from crust to core–mantle boundary 

Dr Jeffrey Taylor (Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, USA): 

New views of the chemistry and geology of the crust of Mars 

Best paper presentations 

Judging the best paper was challenging — how do you compare a minerals paper with a paper 

on hydrogeology or planetary science? The organising committee determined each theme 

would have its own best paper. The best papers for the 2008 conference were: 

Best student paper 

Ms Melissa Murphy: Provenance of ophiolitic sand: comparison of ancient 

and modern sand 

Geoscience in the Service of Society 

Ms Amy Prendergast: Tsunami hazard in south-eastern Australia: preliminary 

findings from palaeo-tsunami investigations on the NSW coast 

Resources — Foundation for our Future 

Mr Chris Cairns: Integra Mining's exploration strategy and discoveries — 

does one size fit all? 

The Evolution of Life and the Solar System 

Mr Mark Van Zuilen: Photosynthesis in a 3.5 Ga-old shallow marine 

depositional environment; clues from carbon and iron isotope 

systematics 

Earth’s Environments — Past, Present and Future 

Dr Vanessa Wong: Above-ground responses to below-ground processes: integrating 

remote-sensing and airborne electromagnetics for salinity management 

The Dynamic Earth — From Crust to Core 

Dr David Healy: Trench-parallel fast axes of seismic anisotropy due to 

dehydration in subducting slabs 

Best poster presentation 

Dr Nick Timms, A/Prof Steven Reddy, Dr Joseph Hamilton & Dr Helen Smyth 

Zircon deforms in a magma chamber! 

Best exhibitor 

CRC LEME 

Future Australian geological conventions 

2010: 20th AGC, Canberra 2016: 23rd AGC, Adelaide 

2012: 21st AGC and the 34th IGC, Brisbane 2018: 24th AGC, Hobart 

2014: 22nd AGC, Sydney 2020: 25th AGC, Melbourne 

Delegates driving to the conference were 

surprised and delighted to hear conference 

speakers and the Earth Sciences on their car 

radio. Clippings and a full media report are 

now available (although not available 

at the time of printing TAG). Professor 

Lyn Beazley, in congratulating the 

organisers for a great conference said 

“I was delighted to see the schools event. 

It is excellent that so much media coverage 

was given to the event.” 

There was a mix of exhibitors this year, 

including a large number of service industries, 

resources companies, Earth Science 

departments, state surveys and publishers. 

Rio Tinto’s exhibition booth was very popular 

with their VKI gravity gradiometer and a 

large number of societies were also present. 

Exhibitors were keen to talk with students, 

younger geologists and those with established 

careers — clearly the resources 

‘boom’ creates a very competitive 

environment! 

Special thanks must go to all sponsors and 

exhibitors for their invaluable participation 

and support for the convention, especially 

Diamond Sponsor Rio Tinto, Norilsk Nickel, 

Goldfields, CSIRO, Integra Mining Limited, 

Curtin University of Technology, The 

University of Western Australia, The 

Geological Survey of Western Australia, 

Anglogold Ashanti, Geoconferences, Gnomic 

Exploration Services Pty Ltd, Chevron, 

Geoscience Australia, Taylor and Francis, 

Independence Group and Resource 

Information Unit. 

Plenary talks were recorded and will be 

progressively added to the website as they 

become available. There were a number 

of field trips organised pre and postconference 

as well as workshops; the JORC 

workshop being of particular interest and 

significance to delegates. 

Finally, thank you to the speakers and delegates; 

without you there is no convention. 

Planning for the next conference in 

Canberra in 2010 is already starting. If you 

want to know more contact the GSA office 

(info@gsa.org.au). 

SUE FLETCHER 

Executive Director and AESC Convenor 


Australia's first Global 

Geopark 

On Sunday 22 June 2008 at the 3rd UNESCO 

International Conference on Geoparks in 

Osnabruck, Germany, it was announced that 

in south–west Victoria and south–east South 

Australia, the region known as the 

Kanawinka Geopark would be listed as the 

57th UNESCO-endorsed Global Geopark. It is 

Australia's first Global Geopark, and one of 

only a few in the Southern Hemisphere. 

The young volcanic area of the Kanawinka 

Global Geopark has more than 100 small 

scoria cones, maars and lava shields, built up 

by Strombolian/Hawaiian eruptions over the 

past five million years. Fluid basalt flows 

have spread laterally around vents, and often 

for many tens of kilometres down river 

valleys. The plains are a part of a larger 

UNESCO inspectors, both geologists, viewing 

the Dry Stone Walls Heritage Trail established 

in 1997 at Pomborneit in the Mt Porndon 

Stony Rises, west of Colac, with Josie Black 

(centre) of Mt Noorat; (left) Dr Marie-Luise 

Frey, Business Manager of the World Heritage 

Site Messel Pit, and former geoscientist in the 

Volcanoeifel European Geopark (Germany); 

(right) Dr Jutta Weber, Member of the executive 

board of the UNESCO-Geopark 

Bergstrasse-Odenwald (Germany). 

Image courtesy Bernie Joyce. 

region known as the Newer Volcanic Province 

of south-eastern Australia, which includes a 

contrasting Uplands volcanic region to the 

immediate north of the plains, in Central 

Victoria. 

The geology of the Geopark, which stretches 

from near Colac in Western Victoria to 

Mt Gambier and beyond in South Australia, 

is based on scientific study going back over 

150 years, making the area one of the best 

studied of the world's young basaltic lava 

fields. Equally important to the success of 

the application have been the studies of local 

history, plants and animals, and indigenous 

features, as well as cultural aspects including 

art and architecture. 

In April 2003, Australian UNESCO representative 

Dr Sue Turner contacted Bernie Joyce 

about her work towards future Geoparks in 

Australia, and discussed how to prepare a 

list of possible Geoparks for Australia. 

After working in early 2004 on the theme of 

'Young volcanicity on an old continent' and 

publishing several papers showing how individual 

geosites, landscape and art, music, 

literature, and historic and indigenous heritage, 

could be linked across an area, Bernie 

Joyce was able to suggest to Sue Turner in 

June 2004 that the young volcanoes of the 

Joane McKnight, Chair of the Kanawinka 

Geopark Board, outside the Volcanoes 

Discovery Centre in Penshurst, Western 

Victoria. Image courtesy Joane McKnight. 

Newer Volcanic Province, and especially the 

Western Plains of Victoria, might make a good 

candidate for a future Geopark in Australia. 

Joane McKnight and the Volcanoes Discovery 

Trail Committee began work on an application 

to UNESCO, and after two and half years 

work, the application was submitted in 

December 2006, and in June 2007 was 

assessed in the field by expert UNESCO 

inspectors. 

A Geopark is a territory with well-defined 

limits that has a large enough surface area 

for it to serve local economic development. 

It consists of a number of geological heritage 

sites (on any scale) or a mosaic of geological 

entities of special scientific importance, 

rarity or beauty, and representative of the 

area and its geological history, events or 

processes. It may not solely be of geological 

significance but also of archaeological, 

ecological, historical or cultural value. 

Already the Global Geopark Network encompasses 

countries in Europe and China, with 

some 32 sites now designated as Global 

Geoparks. With one each in Iran, Malaysia 

and Brazil, and now one in Australia, the 

total of UNESCO Global Geoparks has 

reached 57. Japan, USA, Vietnam and 

Hong Kong now have applications pending 

for Global Geopark status. 

The GSA congratulates Joane McKnight, now 

Chair of the Kanawinka Geopark Board, the 

members of the earlier Volcanoes Discovery 

Trail Committee, Susan Turner, Bernie Joyce 

of the University of Melbourne, and all those 

from local government bodies, State government 

departments, universities, National 

Trust and many other bodies, and not least 

the people of the region, who have supported 

the application. 

More information on the Geopark can be 

found at kanawinkageopark.com/. 

HEATHER CATCHPOLE 

Production Editor, The Australian Geologist 

International symposium 

and field workshop: 

the Permian of 

Gondwana and the 

southern Sydney Basin, 

south-east Australia, 

January 14–22, 2008 

This article was inadvertently omitted from 

publication in the June issue of TAG. 

A one-day symposium, The Permian of 

Gondwana: stratigraphy, sedimentology and 

palaeontology, was held at the Melbourne 

campus of Deakin University on 14 January. 

The symposium was hosted by the Deakin 

University Palaeobiology and Global Change 

Research Group and planned by Deakin 


University’s Guang Shi. The event brought 

together some of the world’s leading Permian 

biostratigraphers in order to tackle one of 

the most difficult biostratigraphic correlation 

problems for the Permian; the stratigraphic 

alignment of high palaeo-latitude Permian 

sequences of Gondwana and the Arctic. Ten 

international Permian specialists visited 

Australia during January 2008 to participate 

in the symposium. The visitors were: 

Alejandra Pagani and Arturo Taboada 

(Argentina), Charles Henderson (Canada), 

Jun-ichi Tazawa and Katsumi Ueno (Japan), 

Alexander Biakov, Alexander Klets and Igor 

Vedernikov (Russia), and Horng-Sheng Mii 

and Chih-jen Cheng (Taiwan). 

Each of the specialist visitors, as well as 

Guang Shi, Elizabeth Weldon and Roger 

Pierson from Deakin University, presented 

papers at the symposium describing aspects 

of their current Permian research. 

The next day, a week-long field workshop: 

Permian stratigraphy, sedimentology and 

palaeontology of the southern Sydney Basin, 

south-east Australia, began by mini-bus. 

After two days and almost 800 km of travel 

we encountered our first Permian glacially 

derived sediments, at an unconformity where 

the Early Permian Wasp Head Formation 

rocks overly the Lower Ordovician deformed 

and metamorphosed sandstone Wagona 

Beds, behind a beach near Batemans Bay. 

On the following days we travelled northwards 

visiting a number of shore platforms 

and headlands to view the marine stratigraphical 

succession through the Wasp Head 

Formation, Pebbly Beach Formation, Snapper 

Point Formation, Wandrawandian Siltstone, 

Nowra Sandstone, Berry Formation, 

Broughton Formation and finally the 

marginal marine–terrestrial Illawarra Coal 

Measures near Wollongong, south of Sydney. 

The northward stratigraphical succession 

moves through the Cisuralian and 

Guadalupian Epochs to conclude in the 

Lopingian Epoch with the Illawarra Coal 

Measures. Many of the sediments viewed 

contained an assemblage of macrofaunal 

fossils including abundant brachiopods, 

bivalves, gastropods, bryozoans and crinoids. 

A variety of trace fossils producing high 

bioturbation were viewed. Coalified logs at 

some diamictitic localities indicated a nearshore 

deposition while glendonite pseudomorphs 

at other localities indicated a cold 

climate environment. Highly disturbed 

“chaotic” sediments, interpreted as seismites, 

were observed in the Wandrawandian 

Siltstone. In the north, latite was encountered 

– a spectacular blowhole at Kiama is 

formed in this volcanic rock. 

Seminar participants, Monday 14 January 2008. Standing: Monica Campi, Peter Pratt, Roger 

Pierson, James Hill, Jun-ichi Tazawa, Charles Henderson, Horng-Sheng Mii, Arturo Taboada, 

Chih-jen Cheng, Alexandr Klets, Katsumi Ueno, Igor Vedernikov, Guang Shi. Kneeling: Elizabeth 

Weldon, Karen Gao, Alejandra Pagani, Alexander Biakov. Image courtesy Roger Pierson. 

The ability to work through the complexities 

of the complete succession of sediments 

from the earliest Permian Wasp Head 

Formation through to the Late Permian 

Illawarra Coal Measures along the southern 

Sydney Basin coastline was an exceptional 

experience for all those participating in the 

field workshop. To have a number of the 

world’s Permian specialists undertake the 

field workshop and to discuss and argue 

about what they observed, both at the sites 

visited and socially in the evenings, was an 

important by-product of the exercise. Each of 

the international participants expressed their 

gratitude and appreciation to their Australian 

hosts for the privilege of being part of a 

memorable gathering and exchange of 

knowledge. Acquaintances had become 

confirmed colleagues by the time farewells 

were made on the final day of the field 

workshop in Sydney. 

ROGER R PIERSON 

Back row: Igor Vedernikov, Peter Pratt, Chih-jen Cheng, Charles Henderson, Horng-Sheng Mii, 

Arturo Taboada, Katsumi Ueno. Front row: Jun-ichi Tazawa, Roger Pierson, Alexandr Klets, 

Alexander Biakov, Alejandra Pagani, Guang Shi. Image courtesy Roger Pierson. 

School of Life and Environmental Sciences 

Deakin University 


Imaging the 

Earth’s crust 

Seismic profiling and Earth-imaging techniques 

provide some of the most powerful 

tools for the geological community to 

investigate sub-surface geology. From mine 

or petroleum-reservoir scale to crustal and 

lithospheric scale, deep seismic reflection 

profiling and crustal tomography can now 

image major structural features down to 

depths of 50–60 km. Earth imaging can 

now be successfully undertaken in terranes 

dominated either by sedimentary basins or 

by near-surface igneous and metamorphic 

rocks. 

IGCP Project 474: Images of the Earth’s Crust 

and it successor, IGCP Project 559: Crustal 

Architecture and Images, seek to provide 

images and information on the Earth’s crust 

to the wider community and thus help bridge 

the gap between the scientific effort and 

public interest. To a greater or lesser extent, 

the lives of people in most communities 

around the world are affected by large-scale 

geological and tectonic processes. 

Since the first symposium: Deep Seismic 

Profiling of the Continents and their Margins 

was held in New York, 1984, there have been 

international meetings every two years where 

seismologists and other Earth Scientists 

engaged in deep seismic profiling come and 

discuss the latest profiling techniques and 

the interpretation of data and results. These 

meetings encourage specialists engaged in 

deep seismic profiling data acquisition, processing 

and interpretation to share their 

knowledge and try to improve techniques 

and methods of operating. In recent years, 

IGCP Project 474 has supported these symposia 

and encouraged participants to make 

information available to the wider community 

through its website www/earthscrust.org. 

Seismix2008 was the 13th in the series of 

deep seismic profiling symposia. It was held 

from 8–13 July 2008 in Finland, a country 

with a prosperous mining industry across its 

predominantly Precambrian terranes. The 

venue was in the winter sports village of 

Saariselka, about 300 km north of the Arctic 

Circle in Lapland. The meeting was jointly 

organised by the Geological Survey of Finland 

and the Institute of Seismology, University of 

Helsinki. In 2001–2005, Finland undertook a 

major Earth-imaging program when it 

Example of a wide-angle seismic record section, compiled from nuclear explosion C1 just east 

of the Ural Mountains eastwards across the central part of the Siberian Craton. 

Image courtesy Doug Finlayson. 

examined its crustal architecture in detail 

along five deep seismic profiles crossing the 

country, the so-called Finnish Reflection 

Experiment (FIRE). This work and its results 

were a highlight of the symposium. The 

depth to the Moho under central Finland is 

the deepest found in Europe at over 55 km, 

and the evolution of this crustal architecture 

is still a subject of ongoing discussion. 

At the symposium, 110 delegates from 

around the world presented 67 oral papers 

and 97 poster papers in a variety of sessions 

(no parallel sessions). This format was very 

successful in promoting discussion across 

the various scientific specialist groups. The 

papers presented found a focus on three 

aspects of Earth Science research as a whole; 

mineral province research, petroleum 

province research and natural hazard 

research. Papers were the result of work from 

both onshore surveys and marine continental 

margin projects from around the world, 

including Europe, Australasia, Antarctica, 

South Africa, Japan, China, Russia and North 

America. 

The invited lecture by David Snyder from the 

Geological Survey of Canada highlighted the 

use of seismic reflection profiling in mineral 

exploration. The application of new improvements 

in seismic acquisition technology 

across crystalline basement rocks and 

exploration leases (cable-less technology, 

denser acquisition arrays, etc) has enabled 

rugged terrains to be investigated in both 

2D and 3D. Three component sensors now 

enable both P- and S-waves to be recorded 

and interpreted with confidence. Crustalscale 

fault surfaces can be identified at 

depth, and integrated with geological 

mapping and drilling to compile models 

for mineralising fluid-flow pathways and 

possible accumulations. Examples were 

shown from Canada and Australia. 

Hiroshi Sato, from the Earthquake Research 

Institute at the University of Tokyo, gave an 

introductory talk on the issues surrounding 

fault definition in central Japan in the quest 

to mitigate earthquake hazards across the 

island chain. Research is sought after to 

improve building-vulnerability estimates and 

building codes throughout the region. In a 

series of papers, Sato-san and his colleagues 

demonstrated that even in land areas as well 

surveyed as Japan, there are still surprises in 

the location and extent of significant fault 

structures that traverse urban areas and are 

a potential threat to communities. 

Although the focus of the symposium was on 

crustal architecture, there were some outstanding 

papers that highlighted structures 

deeper in the mantle. Nina Pavlenkova, from 

the Institute of Physics of the Earth, Moscow, 

presented historical data from the 

1950s–1980s Soviet Union seismic recordings 

made in connection with their “Peaceful 


Nuclear Explosions” programme. About 25 

such explosions were fired and recorded out 

to a distance of 3000 km. Much of the data 

from the profiles remained un-interpreted 

until comparatively recently. The data 

provided a unique opportunity to investigate 

structures and velocity variations within the 

upper mantle down to depths of at least 

300 km. Interspersed chemical explosions 

along recording lines enabled detailed 

crustal velocity features to be interpreted. 

The proceedings from the symposium will be 

published in a special edition of the journal 

Tectonophysics in about 18 months. The 

author wishes to acknowledge travel funding 

support from the Australian IGCP Committee 

and IGCP Project 474. 

DOUG FINLAYSON 

Canberra 

Excursion report: 

mines and wines of 

south–western West 

Australia 

Four days (25–28 July) were spent by five 

delegates, two guides and one driver covering 

1,000 km in a 46-seater coach looking at 

five minesites, two mineral processing plants 

and tastings from eight wineries. Phew, at 

least that’s covered the statistics. Now, for 

the more interesting part of this comment, 

why did that happen? It was a field 

excursion following AESC 2008. 

The mines were Alcoa’s Huntley bauxite 

mine, Boddington Gold’s developing gold 

mine, Premier’s coal operations in the Collie 

Basin, Talisman’s lithium–tantalum–tin 

pegmatite at Greenbushes and Bemax’s 

(Cable Sands) titanium–zircon mineral 

operation at Gwindinup North. The mine visits 

were topped off with the Alcoa alumina 

plant at Pinjarra and Iluka’s synthetic rutile 

operation at Capel to see the very important 

value-adding of these mineral resource 

processing plants. There are some pretty 

significant operations amongst those mines: 

the south–west of Western Australia produces 

about 15% of the world’s alumina and 

Talisman’s operation is the largest producer 

of tantalum and spodumene (for glass 

manufacture) on Earth. While WA once 

produced over 50% of the world’s ilmenite 

and zircon, that proportion has decreased, 

but it’s still a major producer. 

Just to prove we are geologists, we looked at 

some geology too! On the far south–west 

coast of Australia we examined coastal outcrops 

of the Neoproterozoic Leeuwin 

Complex. Mostly granitic gneiss with mafic 

(metagabbro) bands forming banded gneiss. 

Washed clean by the waves and swells of the 

Indian Ocean, the scenery is magnificent. 

The basement is overlain by lime sand dunes 

that commonly show palaeosols underlain by 

a rhizomorph-rich horizon over the crossbedded 

limesand. These are of Cenozoic age 

and contain some notable caves. On the way, 

we passed over the edge of the Whicher gasfield, 

a large field in tight rocks that is not 

yet commercial. It is strategically located at 

the southern end of the natural gas pipeline 

that provided north–west shelf gas to the 

south–west. In light of the recent gas supply 

restrictions, facilitating it to become a 

producer is now rather important. 

Possibly of more interest was the Margaret 

River wine region. While producing only a 

small proportion of Australia’s wines, this 

region puts out a notable part of the nation’s 

high-quality wines (OK, some pundits may 

not agree, but this author is sticking to his 

sips on this one). As explained in the field 

guide (Record 2008/10 of the Geological 

Survey of Western Australia; available free 

from the GSWA website) the Cabernet 

Sauvignon of Vasse Felix, Cullen and Moss 

Wood wineries and the Chardonnays of 

Leeuwin Estate and Cape Mentelle are 

Wine tasting at Voyager Estate, Margaret River with host pouring 

white wine and, from left, Mike Freeman, Simon Beam, Phil Gilmore, 

Mike Donaldson and Judy and Charles Allton. Image courtesy 

Patrice de Caritat. 

Huntly bauxite mine of Alcoa. Image courtesy Patrice de Caritat. 


comparable to the best in the world. Wine 

tastings on the trip included those of Vasse 

Felix, Voyager Estate, Treeton Estate, Wattle 

Ridge Vineyard and Shedley Wines, with 

other wines opened by the motels used 

for accommodation (and how many other 

GSA excursions have a description of 

wine-growing geology?). 

It was predictable that winter’s weather 

would be wet and cold. However, thanks 

to the contacts of one of the leaders with 

higher powers, the rain mostly stopped when 

we were outside of the bus or motels. The 

Premier coal mine visit was delayed because 

of thick fog, but once the sun came out and 

started heating the black roads and mine 

floors, mists rose in silent streams from all 

around the mine pits, giving an ethereal 

feeling to the mining. 

The Boddington gold mine was an eyeopener. 

This is currently being developed as 

the largest untapped gold resource in the 

continent. A joint venture of Newmont and 

AngloGold Ashanti is investing $1.8 G on 

starting the mine, with a camp of dongas for 

2,300 people (for someone who has seen 

many similar camps in the Eastern Goldfields, 

the scale was mind-blowing), and there were 

15 high-lift cranes assembling the mine 

plant! Current plans are for the open cut 

to eventually be 600 m deep. We were 

fortunate to see much core as well as the 

former oxide-ore open cut. 

At Bemax’s Gwindinup North deposit with Patrice de Caritat (left-hand side), Alan Turner 

(mine manager), Judy Allton and Phil Gilmore. Image courtesy Mike Donaldson. 

Enjoying a beer-tasting with pizza lunch at Cowaramup Brewing Company are Mike Donaldson, 

Phil Gilmore, Patrice deCaritat and Charles Allton. Image courtesy Patrice de Caritat. 

Greenbushes was a very quiet mine. Presently 

operating on 9–5 day shifts (because the 

company has momentarily saturated the 

world market for glass-quality spodumene), 

our visit coincided with an off day and so it 

was deathly quiet. A strange experience 

when seeing a 300 m-deep open cut. 

Finally, at the other extreme the Bemax 

(Cable Sands) Gwindinup operation is only 

5 m deep mining in unconsolidated sands. 

The Alcoa operation is of similar depth 

All the mining companies are to be complimented 

for their help, advice and guides 

for the visits. Mike Donaldson and I, the 

excursion guides, are very pleased at the 

support we were given by the companies 

because it is the third time we have put on 

such excursions to the south–west of 

Western Australia, and the company support 

is invaluable for the successful visiting. 

A successful trip which was perhaps dulled a 

little because of the poor registration, but 

with very close interaction between the leaders 

and participants. The visitors were 

intrigued at the driver’s ingenuity at keeping 

the bus going. On the last morning, walking 

out of the motel room we saw Terry with his 

head stuck into the engine bay and up to his 

elbows in black oil. The bus alternator had 

blown an oil seal. “No worries,” says Terry. 

“I will just bypass the alternator. Just give me 

30 minutes”. So, 30 minutes later 

the engine was started to the sound of 

screeching agony from the motor. Not to be 


deterred, after a few moments with the usual 

expression he says: “She’ll be right mate — 

I’ll just take off the fanbelt.” So he did, and 

drove all the way back using the batteries as 

the only source of electric power. We have a 

feeling our overseas delegates were bemused 

at the laconic Aussie attitude! So ended a 

most enjoyable, informative, though perhaps 

a little hazy at times, excursion. 

MIKE FREEMAN 

International conference 

on island arc-continent 

collisions 

The Macquarie Arc Conference, 

Orange NSW, 13–21 April 2009 

As part of IGCP project 524, the conveners 

invite you to visit Orange, New South Wales, 

Australia in April 2009, for an international 

conference on island arc–continent collisions 

and mineral deposits in accreted arcs. Four 

days of talks in a vineyard setting will be 

bracketed by four days of field trips, 

examining key outcrops that demonstrate 

the evolution of the accreted Macquarie Arc 

and some of the major gold–copper mines 

developed in it. 

The conference is scientifically sponsored by 

IGCP 524 and the ERAS activity of the 

International Lithosphere Program. The New 

Frontiers Initiative of the New South Wales 

Department of Primary Industries is the principal 

conference sponsor. 

Who should attend? 

■ Anyone working in modern island arcs, 

researching how tectonic settings or processes 

involved in subduction may affect the 

geometry of future collisions, or how the 

beginnings of subduction of continental crust 

are reflected in arc evolution or the formation 

of mineral deposits. 

■ Anyone working in accreted island arcs, 

either from process or architectural points of 

view. 

■ Anyone exploring for pre-accretionary, synaccretionary 

or post-accretionary mineral 

deposits in accreted arcs. 

■ Anyone tracking what happens to arcs or 

supra-subduction zone elements (forearc 

elements, accretionary elements, back arc 

elements) after they have been accreted 

to orogenic belts or have collided with 

continents. 

■ Anyone wishing to catch up with the latest 

ideas on the evolution of major orogenic 

belts AND their mineral deposits in a special 

day of keynote talks covering accreted arcs 

from around the world. 

■ Anyone wishing to catch up on the latest 

research on the mineral-rich Macquarie Arc 

in the Lachlan Orogen, or other work on 

accreted Australian arcs. 

Special sessions and keynote speakers 

Invited talks will cover the evolution of major 

orogenic belts around the world, the roles 

played by island-arc accretion in that 

evolution and in orogenesis, and the timing 

of, and controls on, formation of mineral 

deposits. Keynote speakers include John 

Bradshaw, Dennis Brown, Mark Cloos, John 

Dewey, Rich Goldfarb, Richard Herrington, 

Alfred Kroener, Richard Tosdal, Cees van 

Staal, and Wenjiao Xiao among others. For 

information go to: www.hotelnetwork.com. 

au/macquariearcconference 

Terry Leach 

scholarship awarded 

The Terry Leach scholarship for postgraduate 

research in petrology and geochemistry has 

been awarded to Ms Zarah Heyworth, BSc 

(hons), PhD student at the University of 

Queensland. Zarah’s research is primarily 

focused on understanding the chemical 

fluxes and dynamics of volcanic and 

hydrothermal systems within the 

Australian–Pacific margin. She was also 

awarded the AIG-terra search postgraduate 

bursary to do an oxygen isotope study at the 

ANU on sea-floor samples from the Vanuatu 

back arc basin. 

For a tribute to Terry, click on www.hellscho. 

com.au/tribute_to_terry_leach.htm 

The Terry Leach symposium will be held on 

17 October 2007 at the Kirribilli Club, Milsons 

Point, Sydney (see http://www.smedg.org.au 

for details). The scholarship honours the life 

and work of Terry Leach, BSc (Carleton 

University), MSc hons (Auckland University), 

M Soc Econ Geol. Terry passed away on 

28 February, 2007. 

Know your geologist... 

How the Snowy was mapped 

Hint: The two intrepid geologists are mapping Devonian Snowy River Volcanics 

in the mid-1980s. (See page 44) 


Report of the Merger Committee – July 2008 

Negotiating Committee 

Following the 2006 Council Meeting, a Negotiating Committee was 

established with two members each from GSA and the Australian 

Institute of Geoscientists (AIG) to further explore the possibility of a 

merger between the two organisations. 

The Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists was also invited 

to participate but opted to monitor proceedings as observers at some 

of the meetings. The GSA representatives were Andrew Gleadow 

(President) and Tony Crawford (Past President), and the AIG members 

were Rick Rogerson (initially as President and now Past President) 

and Andrew Waltho (initially as President Elect and now President). 

Meetings of the Negotiating Committee were held by teleconference 

at roughly monthly intervals over the first half of 2007 culminating in 

a face-to-face meeting in Melbourne in June 2007. One logistical 

problem was that, with only four members on the committee and very 

busy schedules for all of the participants, it proved very difficult to get 

all four members together and many of the meetings were underrepresented. 

Nonetheless, the meetings held during this period were 

productive, and a series of key issues that would need to be considered 

in any merger were identified and discussed. A considerable amount of 

common ground was identified and, importantly, no insurmountable 

barriers to a merger were apparent. The discussions were carried out 

with a strong sense of common purpose, and indeed an expectation 

that a merger could be achieved. 

Value proposition 

The key question of course is: why proceed to a merger of the GSA 

and AIG, and what benefits would this provide to the members? 

A number of potential benefits have been identified and the following 

points summarise a range of arguments in favour of forming a merged 

organisation: 

■ preservation of all the existing benefits currently 

provided to members, including publications, conferences, information 

and news of relevance to the geosciences, awards and other 

means of professional recognition, as well as maintenance of standards 

of professional conduct; 

■ creation of a substantially larger organisation with increased 

resources, and greater influence and lobbying power in matters of 

concern to the geosciences; 

■ enhanced recognition of the geosciences by the community at 

large through the greater visibility and influence of the organisation, 

and broader identification with professional standards of best practice; 

■ lower unit operating costs overall through efficiencies of scale, and 

a single membership invoice for the significant number of members 

currently in both organisations; 

■ greater circulation and impact of publications and electronic media 

with benefits to authors, publishers and advertisers, as well as greater 

penetration of news and information; 

■ broader exposure for members to geoscience activities and events, 

especially in fields outside an individual’s current field of practice or 

expertise; 

■ all members would have access to Professional Registration and 

enhanced opportunities for professional development activities with 

access to independent verification of these; 

■ better coordination and more effective investment in geoscience 

education at tertiary and school levels, together with enhanced 

opportunities for promoting geoscience careers to geoscience 

graduates; 

■ enhanced ability to negotiate specific benefits for members 

(eg discounted services, professional insurances, commercial and 

personal financial services). 

A vital foundation in all of these considerations, of course, 

is summarised in the first point, that existing services to members of 

both existing organisations would continue in at least as effective a 

form as they are currently provided. 

Membership profiles 

AIG conducted a poll of members on their website, the results of 

which were overwhelmingly in favour of a merger, and discussions 


with many individual GSA members over the last two years have also 

indicated a high degree of acceptance for the idea. Both organisations 

have substantial membership rolls, at around 2,200 members for GSA 

and around 1,600 for AIG. An investigation of membership lists 

showed that approximately 340 members are common to both (around 

15% and 20% respectively), so that a merged organisation could be 

expected to have a total membership of around 3,450. It is clear that 

such a combined organisation would have much greater resources at its 

disposal and project a much stronger voice into issues of national 

concern for the geosciences than either society operating alone. This 

aspect alone would be sufficient reason for considering a merger. 

Publications 

Publications have obviously been a much more important part of the 

role of GSA than they have been to AIG, and both sides are agreed that 

our major publication, AJES, would, of course, continue exactly as it 

does now. AJES would continue to be the flagship publication, but of 

a merged organisation as AIG has no equivalent journal to this. Both 

organisations currently operate a Newsletter, of which TAG would 

probably be the more appropriate vehicle to accommodate the 

expanded interests of a merged grouping. Similarly, both organisations 

operate their own websites, which would over time need to be merged 

into one, a process which should be straightforward. Similarly, there is 

no equivalent in AIG of our electronic newsletter, GeOz, which could 

therefore easily accommodate the same role for a merged organisation. 

Code of ethics and professional standards 

It was recognised that a vital requirement for the AIG was to have an 

enforceable Code of Ethics, and other professional standards, to which 

all members are bound. This should present no great difficulty given 

that the GSA has its own Code of Ethics, but the two codes would 

need to be merged and unified. Further, the well-established mechanisms 

for handling professional standards and practice issues within 

AIG would need to be replicated in a merged organisation. 

An appropriate mechanism might be to establish a Standing 

Committee for this purpose. 

AIG currently provides Professional Registration for geologists, based 

on commitment to and independent verification of personal professional 

development, through its Registered Professional Geoscientist 

scheme. In a merged organisation, this opportunity would become 

available to all members. The larger grouping would increase the 

opportunities for such professional development and increase the 

awareness of these opportunities across a much larger potential market. 

The Geological Society of London operates a somewhat similar 

Registered Professional Geologist scheme. 

In Australasia, the public reporting of exploration results and valuation 

of mineral assets are governed by the JORC and VALMIN codes, 

requiring that reports are prepared by a ‘Competent Person’. This designation 

requires not only membership of a recognised Professional 

Organisation, but also compliance with levels of experience relevant to 

the report in question. The relevant Professional Organisation must 

have a suitable disciplinary procedure to handle any complaints that 

may arise about the professional work of such a ‘Competent Person’. 

At present AIG is a recognised Professional Organisation, but GSA is 

not, so it would be vital that a merged organisation maintained or 

acquired this recognition under the respective codes. 

Organisational Structure 

In discussions, it was recognised that the key issue for a merger to be a 

success with both our membership groups would be the structure of 

the merged organisation. It was therefore agreed that most of our 

attention would be focused towards defining this structure, and to put 

aside to a later date such issues as what a merged unit might be called. 

It was recognised early in our discussions that the GSA Specialist 

Group structure provided a ready means for handling and catering for 

the breadth of interests that a merged organisation would encompass. 

Indeed, given that the largest membership group already in GSA is that 

of Earth scientists working in the Minerals Industry, and the largest of 

our Specialist Groups is that for Economic Geology, the appropriate 

emphasis is already in place. Clearly, a merger would be expected to 

provide considerable vitality to interests in this area, and scope for new 

groups or sub-groups to emerge. 

In terms of the overall governance and formal organisational structure 

of a merged entity, it is important to recognise that both organisations 

currently operate at both national and state level. At state level, a structure 

very like the existing Divisions or Branches could readily accommodate 

the expanded needs of regional groupings, with very little 

change. At the national level the two organisations currently operate 

under rather different structures. The AIG has a Council (Board of 

Directors) that is elected nationally and meets at two monthly intervals. 

GSA has a large Council that represents its component Divisions 

and Specialist Groups and meets only about every two years, and an 

Executive Committee that meets monthly to carry out the functions 

of the Council between its meetings. It is argued elsewhere, in the 

President’s Report, that the current GSA structure is unwieldy and in 

need of reform, regardless of whether any merger goes ahead. 

The preferred model at the national level suggested by the Negotiating 

Committee is for a single governing Council or Board that should 

have a national focus and be elected by the membership. It is suggested 

that members of Council would be elected for terms of two years 

with 50% retiring each year, but eligible to re-stand. Staggered terms 

would be an essential characteristic to provide corporate memory and 

the necessary continuity of experience and expertise, the lack of which 

is a significant limitation and impediment to progress in the present 

GSA structure. Office-bearers would be elected annually by the 

Council from its members, and once again they would be able to restand. 

The merged organisation would be incorporated, as are the 

existing organisations, as a company limited by guarantee, allowing for 

it to have subsidiaries. 

Transitional structure and process 

The negotiating Committee considered a possible mechanism for a 

transitional structure to facilitate a gradual transfer to a fully merged 

organisation. The suggestion is that a new umbrella corporate entity 

would be established that would eventually become the merged organisation. 

Initially the two existing organisations would join as members 


of this new organisation, essentially in their existing form. Then the 

individual structures and membership of the two partners would be 

merged into the new unified entity, by a mutually agreed process. This 

would provide a phased pathway that would allow for differences in 

the needs of different components and would provide a ready mechanism 

whereby additional parties could join the merged organisation at 

some future time, without having to renegotiate the detailed structure 

each time. The provision of such a pathway was considered a highly 

desirable feature, given that a successful merger between GSA and AIG 

may make a similar path attractive to other potential merger partners. 

negotiating committee was that in their opinion a merged organisation 

would best be known by a new name, rather than one of the existing 

names. As far as GSA is concerned the committee felt that it would be 

preferable to avoid a name that shared the same initials with a major 

comparable organisation (as occurs now with the Geological Society 

of America). 

Andy Gleadow (President) and 

Tony Crawford (Past-President) 

Possible name for a merged organisation 

This was not discussed at length as the negotiating committee recognises 

that there would be a range of opinions of this matter. It was suggested 

that a suitable name should ultimately be decided by a plebiscite 

of the combined membership. The only preference expressed by the 

The above report was tabled at the Geological Society of Australia 

Council Meeting on 20 July 2008 in Perth and the following motion 

was moved and accepted: 

The report was also tabled at the Geological Society of Australia 

Annual General Meeting on Monday, 21 July in Perth and the 

following motion was moved and accepted. 

Motion: That the report of the Merger Committee be accepted, and 

to recommend to the incoming Executive that negotiations continue 

and a specific proposal be produced for wide discussion and consultation 

amongst the Divisions, Specialist Groups and membership. 

It is also moved that a draft outline of the structure of a merged 

Society be drawn up by the end of 2008, and a detailed and specific 

proposal be ready to present to the membership by the 2009 AGM. 

Moved Tony Crawford, seconded Wes Nichols. Carried. 

Motion: That this Annual General Meeting support the following resolution 

moved and carried by Council on 20 July 2008: That the report 

of the Merger Committee be accepted, and to recommend to the 

incoming Executive that negotiations continue and a specific proposal 

be produced for wide discussion and consultation amongst the 

Divisions, Specialist Groups and membership. It is also moved that 

a draft outline of the structure of a merged Society be drawn up by 

the end of 2008, and a detailed and specific proposal be ready to 

present to the membership by the 2009 AGM. Moved Barry Cooper, 

seconded David Branagan. Carried. 


Feature 

Hot water energy: tapping into the Perth basin and beyond 

Hot-rock energy has been much in the news as both an 

alternative and a supplement to fossil-fuel-derived 

energy, offering the biggest capacity of the available 

renewable energy resources (such as hydro, biomass, wind and 

solar). Less has been said about direct geothermal energy, 

which is particularly suitable as an alternative energy source 

for metropolitan areas. In Western Australia, the Perth and 

Carnarvon basins are prime targets for benefitting from this 

renewable energy resource. 

Sedimentary basin systems are widespread in Australia and 

are excellent locations for geothermal energy exploration. Onefifth 

of the Australian landmass is underlain by a single hot 

groundwater basin, the Great Artesian Basin. In the last decade, 

33 exploration companies have targeted Australia’s geothermal 

energy resources. The first Geothermal Exploration Licence 

(GEL) was granted in 2001 and since then there have been 284 

licence application areas covering 232,902 km 2 in Australia 1 . 

The Australian Geothermal Energy Group (AGEG), which formed 

in 2006, estimates $853 million will be invested in geothermal 

energy exploration over the period from 2002 to 2013. 

Much of this exploration has focused on Hot Fractured 

Rocks (HFR). Geodynamics Ltd has drilled three wells down to 

HFR (above 200°C) near Innamincka, in the north-east of South 

Australia, tapping into the Cooper Basin, which has the world’s 

hottest non-volcanic rocks. The company then pumped water 

into natural fractures, thereby improving permeability and 

allowing enhanced flows of super-heated water to the surface, 

which is then re-injected back into the HFR reservoir. This is 

called an Engineered Geothermal Systems (EGS), with the HFR 

having been artificially enhanced with a fracture-stimulation 

program. All three wells have been fracture-stimulated safely 

and effectively, and that fracture-stimulation has created the 

largest hot-rock EGS in the world. 

In metropolitan areas, the opportunity exists to utilise geothermal 

heat directly from lower temperature sources. Direct 

use of geothermal heat in this context is more efficient than 

using geothermal energy for electricity generation, where up to 

90% of the extracted geothermal energy may be lost as heat 

(Tester et al, 2005 2 ). Geothermal energy can significantly offset 

electrical consumption and its corresponding greenhouse gas 

emissions. Lund et al (2005) 3 note that in May 2005, direct use 

of geothermal energy worldwide was 273,372 terajoules/yr 

(75,943 gigawatt hours/yr), equivalent to annual savings of 

25.4 million tonnes of oil and 24 million tonnes of carbon emissions 

to the atmosphere. Regenauer-Lieb et al (2008) 4 suggest 

direct heat use can displace worldwide peak electricity consumption 

by 30%. 

Applications of direct geothermal energy 

There have been limited applications of direct geothermal 

energy use so far in Australia. Hot-spring bathing facilities exist 

in Hastings, Tasmania, as well as at Moree, near Narrabri, and 

Lightning Ridge in New South Wales. Four out of the five pools 

at Challenge Stadium in Perth are heated by geothermal 

energy. Geothermal heat pumped from a 58°C, 1400-m-deep 

bore in Portland, Victoria was used to heat municipal buildings 

and public facilities in the town but ceased operations in 2006 

after a consultant’s report found an issue with the bore casing. 

Wannon Water, which decommissioned the bore, said while 

there are other bores, these were not used for direct geothermal 

energy. They added that they were open to approaches 

from geothermal companies to utilise this energy. 

Direct geothermal heat use can 

displace worldwide peak electricity 

consumption by 30%. 

Within cities, geothermal energy has the capacity to drive 

air conditioning, heating and desalination, and has commercial 

uses in aquaculture, agriculture and industry. Hot, deep water 

at temperatures below 200°C can be accessed by direct geothermal 

methods for district heating. Waters of intermediate 

temperatures can be used for industrial drying, while warm 

water from shallow depths can be circulated in a closed loop 

using ground-source heat pumps for the heating and cooling of 

buildings, and to provide heated water for fish farming. 

Exploration into geothermal energy 

Exploration into direct geothermal energy sources has boomed 

in the past decade. Barry Goldstein, Chair of AGEG, notes that 

pending announcements from the WA Government arising from 

its recent Perth Basin gazettal of Geothermal Exploration 

Permits, there are now 282 Geothermal Licences applied for in 

order to sell heat energy into the transmission grid, and some 

of these permits are in the process of being assessed. 

Most jurisdictions are expected to allow the deployment of 

ground-sourced heat pumps without a requirement to hold 

a geothermal licence. Victoria has explicitly defined waters 

from above 1 km or below 70°C (whichever is shallower) as 

excluded from the State’s Geothermal Exploration Permits. 


Geothermal exploration generally focuses on Engineered Geothermal 

Systems (EGS), with the Hot Fractured Rock having been artificially 

enhanced with a fracture-stimulation program. Image courtesy PIRSA. 

In response to the growing interest in direct geothermal 

energy, Geoscience Australia's Geothermal Energy Project aims 

to establish the capacity to do heat flow measurements across 

the country in existing drill holes greater than 300 m deep as 

part of the agency's Onshore Energy Security Program funded 

by the Federal government in August 2006. 

In February 2008, the Western Australian Government 

announced a new $2.3 million Geothermal Centre of 

Excellence, formed by staff from the University of Western 

Australia, CSIRO and Curtin University of Technology. The 

centre aims to help turn low-heat geothermal energy around 

Perth into a “clean and cheap power source”. 

The Australian Geothermal Energy Group (AGEG), which formed in 

2006, estimates $853 million will be invested in geothermal energy 

exploration over the period from 2002 to 2013. Image courtesy PIRSA. 

Geothermal energy to heat up in Perth 

The Perth Basin, which extends offshore and underlies both 

Perth and Geraldton, is an archetypal sedimentary basin ranging 

in age from Triassic to Recent. It contains a sequence up to 

15 km thick of highly permeable, non-marine sandstone, siltstone, 

mudstone and chalk. These unconformably overlie a suite 

of granites, the predominant source of geothermal heat. The 

basin hosts the Yarragadee aquifer, which is up to 3 km in 

thickness and is the biggest shallow aquifer in the region. 

What makes the Perth Basin particularly suitable for direct 

geothermal energy is its high permeability, which Klaus 


ABOVE: Examples of direct-use applications for geothermal energy. 

Modified from Lindal, B, 1973 ‘Industrial and other applications of 

geothermal energy’ Geothermal Energy: Review of Research and 

Development, UNESCO, LC No. 72-97138, p 135–148. Image courtesy 

Geoscience Australia. 

Regenauer-Lieb, Premier's Research Fellow at CSIRO Exploration 

and Mining, describes as similar to an open garden hose. 

“When I first looked at the permeability data from the 

Perth Basin I was shocked. Normally you expect to have high 

permeability in young sediments. These Jurassic sediments have 

a flow that is the equivalent of an open garden hose — four 

darcy — which is the same permeability as coarse gravel.” 

“These Jurassic sediments have a flow 

that is the equivalent of an open 

garden hose — four darcy — which is 

the same permeability as coarse 

gravel.” 

Current temperature data for the Perth Basin come from 

80,000 shallow (bore water) drill holes and 100 deep drill holes 

from offshore oil exploration at Jurien Bay near Geraldton, 

150 km north of Perth. While these data need to be reinvestigated, 

as they only provide a lower bound estimate for temperature, 

they indicate there is enough heat to provide a source of 

energy for around one-third of the city’s air-conditioning 

needs, says Regenauer-Lieb. With colleagues, he is currently 


air conditioning could save big office buildings, malls, hospitals, 

universities etc around 40–80% of their power bill. As exploration 

progresses and further advances in technology come into 

play, direct geothermal energy could be a major part of our 

energy supply for Perth and elsewhere around Australia in the 

future. 

The 2008 Australian Geothermal Energy Conference ran 

from 19–22 August 2008. Full details of the conference are at 

www.impactenviro.com.au/ausgeothermal. 

HEATHER CATCHPOLE 

Heather Catchpole is a freelance specialist science writer 

based in Sydney and production editor of The Australian 

Geologist. She has a BSc in Earth Sciences and Master of 

Science in Science Communication. 

A prototype lab-scale multi-bed adsorption chiller located at the 

National University of Singapore (designed by H T Chua, X Wang and 

colleagues from the National University of Singapore (NUS) under the 

generous funding supports of the NSTB of Singapore, NUS, Cyclect 

Holdings Pte. Ltd, the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology 

and NEDO of Japan). Image courtesy Hui Tong Chua. 

constructing 3D geological models of the basin’s underlying 

topography, to model the flow of cold water and pinning of 

buoyant hot water into topography-controlled upwellings. 

Geoscience Australia has committed funding to further investigations 

of the Perth Basin, which should see test holes drilled in 

yet-to-be-released sites by July next year. 

REFERENCES 

1 Goldstein, B, 2008, Changing energy for a changing environment. 

Hot rock power: what’s the potential and how does it actually work? 

Citi’s Energy 2020 Conference. 

2 Tester, JW, Drake, EM, Golay, MW, Driscoll, MJ, & Peters, WA, 2005, 

Sustainable energy: choosing among options. The MIT Press, 

Cambridge, Massachusetts, 846 pages. 

3 Lund, JW, Freeston, DH, and Boyd, TL, 2005, Direct application of 

geothermal energy: 2005 worldwide review. Geothermics, Vol 34, p 

691–727. 

4 Regenauer-Lieb, Hui Tong Chua, Xiaolin Wang, Horowitz FG, Florian, 

J, Wellman, 2008, Direct-heat use for Australia 2008 Australian 

Geothermal Energy Conference. 

Advances in technology 

Currently, low-temperature geothermal heat is generally 

extracted by ground-source heat pumps, which the Australian 

Geothermal Implementing Agreement’s 2006 Annual Report 

notes are finding increased use in Australia in both commercial 

and residential applications. Regenauer-Lieb, and colleague 

Hui Tong Chua, from the University of Western Australia’s 

Department of Mechanical Engineering, say that using adsorption 

chillers in their place can greatly enhance the capacity of 

direct geothermal energy. 

“Currently, heat is harvested from ground-source heat 

pumps in the kilowatt range. We propose to take the next step 

to the megawatt range using a mixture of absorption (for temperatures 

over 80°C) and adsorption chillers (for lower temperatures),” 

says Regenauer-Lieb. 

Absorption chillers use a solid base for sorption (eg silica 

gel) while the adsorption chillers use a fluid base (eg Li–Br). 

Regenauer-Lieb estimates that using adsorption chillers to drive 


Awards 

Professor Gordon Lister, SW Carey Award 

recipient. 

Dr Jim Ross, WR Brown Medal recipient. 

Several medals were awarded at 

the AESC 2008 conference. 

The first medal, the SW Carey Medal, 

was presented to Professor Gordon Lister 

by Andy Gleadow, prior to the Mawson 

Lecture. This medal is awarded to a person 

distinguished in the field of tectonics 

(sensu lato). 

The conference organisers were asked if 

the Society of Economic Geologists could 

present the prestigious RAF Penrose 

Gold Medal to Dr Michael (Mike) 

Solomon at the conference. This medal “is 

awarded in recognition of a full career in 

the performance of outstanding work in 

the Earth Sciences”. We were more than 

pleased to support this request and David 

Groves presented the medal to Mike. 

The WR Browne Medal was awarded to 

Dr Jim Ross. This is awarded to a person 

distinguished for their contributions to 

the geological sciences in Australia. 

The Joe Harms Medal was awarded to Dr 

Mike Etheridge by Andy Gleadow. This 

medal is awarded to a person distinguished 

for excellence in mineral exploration 

and contribution to the discovery 

of ore deposits. 

Dr Mike Solomon, RAF Penrose Gold Medal 

recipient. 

The FL Stillwell Award is given annually 

to the author or authors of the paper in 

the Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 

judged the best in each year by the 

Editorial Board. The FL Stillwell Award for 

2006 was awarded to Neville Exon, Peter 

Hill, Yves Lafoy, Christian Heine and 

George Bernardel for their paper: Kenn 

Plateau off north–east Australia: a continental 

fragment in the southwest Pacific 

jigsaw. 

Dr Mike Etheridge, Joe Harms Medal. 

The FL Stillwell Award for 2007 was 

awarded to Dick Morris and Erick 

Ramanaidou for their paper: Genesis of 

the channel iron deposits (CID) of the 

Pilbara region, Western Australia 

The DI Groves Award is awarded annually 

for the best paper published in the 

Australian Journal of Earth Sciences by a 

young author, who must be the senior 

author. The DI Groves Award for 2006 was 

awarded to Mark Quigley, senior author of 

the paper written jointly with Matt Cupper 

and Mike Sandiford entitled: Quaternary 

faults of south-central Australia: 

palaeoseismicity, slip rates and origin. 

The DI Groves Award for 2007 was awarded 

to Ivo Vos, senior author of the paper 

written jointly with Warren Potma, Frank 

Bierlein and Heather Sheldon: Numerical 

modelling of the western Hodgkinson 

Province, north–east Queensland: implications 

for gold mineralisation. Frank Bierlein 

accepted on behalf of Ivo Vos. 


Dick Morris and Erick Ramanaidou, 

FL Stillwell Award recipients. 

Left to right: Charles Butt, Nigel Radford 

(Butt-Smith medal recipient) and Ray Smith. 

Image courtesy CSIRO. 

Mark Quigley, DI Groves Award 2006 

Neville Exon, FL Stillwell Award. 

The Australian Institute of Geoscientists 

(AIG) presented the inaugural AIG 

Service Medal to Mike Smith. 

The Butt-Smith medal was presented to 

Dr Nigel Radford at the Australian Earth 

Sciences Convention Dinner, 23 July, by 

Dr Mike McWilliams, Chief of CSIRO 

Exploration and Mining, and Dr Steve 

Rogers, CEO CRC LEME. The Butt-Smith 

medal is for outstanding and sustained 

contribution linking regolith science to 

exploration in Australia. 

Mike Smith, AIG Service Award. 

Photograhs courtesy Clarke Rodda, 

Festival City Photography 

Frank Bierlein accepting on behalf of Ivo Vos, 

DI Groves Award 2007. 


Special Report 

Geotourism product development survey: 

a cooperative, market research project between 

Edith Cowan University, and Leisure Solutions® 

Ecotourism is ecologically sustainable tourism, focusing 

on natural areas. Its aim is to foster environmental and 

cultural understanding, appreciation and conservation. 

Geotourism is ecotourism or tourism related to geological sites 

and features, including geomorphological sites and landscapes. 

Geotours visit natural scenic landforms and explain the surface 

and deep processes that shaped them. Tourists, seeking to have 

the natural environment interpreted for them, can expect 

explanations of geology as well as flora and fauna, creating a 

holistic view of ecosystems. This enhances their support for the 

conservation of ecosystems for future generationss. 

Geotourism has great potential as a new niche ecotourism 

product, but will require the same disciplines that apply to 

other niche, ‘high value-added’ tourism activities. Wherever 

tourism contributes a direct environmental benefit to a visited 

location, its clients gain empathy for the holistic heritage of the 

area, and this reward creates enhanced customer loyalty to the 

operator. 

The research project provides an opportunity for ECU students 

to gain a real-world experience of conducting market 

research. Students’ engagement in the project will enhance 

their learning experience in the tourism research and analysis 

unit. 

ECU students will also provide fresh ideas and valuable 

input into this research project. The result of the research will 

be used by Leisure Solutions® for geotourism product development. 

Research is an essential element of tourism policy, planning, 

development, management and marketing. Tourism Research 

and Analysis II (TSM2107) is a unit provided by the School of 

Marketing, Tourism and Leisure at Edith Cowan University. 

Proposed new market for geotourism 

In regard to demographic and lifestyle considerations, it is 

hoped that geotourism, if positioned as a supplementary 

knowledge-adding product within an attractive ecotourism 

experience, will attract affluent ‘over-45-year-old’ customers. 

These may come from amongst geoscience professionals from 

within these segmentations, as well as their partners and 

friends, particularly through alumni and professional societies 

such as the Geological Society of Australia (GSA), the 

Australian Institute of Geoscientists (AIG), and The Australasian 

Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM). 

This proposition was presented by geologists Angus M 

Robinson and David Roots at the Inaugural Global Geotourism 

Conference 2008 in Fremantle, Western Australia, held in 

August this year. 

Need for market research 

Given the relatively small size of the Australian ‘geoscience 

interest’ market, content packaging will be critical. To address 

this issue, Leisure Solutions® and the School of Marketing, 

Tourism and Leisure at Edith Cowan University (ECU) are currently 

undertaking a cooperative market research study involving 

members of the Geological Society of Australia. 

Balls Pyramid at Lord Howe Island, one of the most beautiful of all 

Pacific Ocean islands. With an eroded crater of a hot-spot volcano of 

greater than 50 km diameter, Lord Howe Island is an outstanding 

Australian exemplar of a geotourism locality. Image courtesy Lord 

Howe Island Tourism Association. 


Methodology 

Leisure Solutions® is undertaking market research on 

geotourism products to determine the extent of interest of the 

members of the Geological Society of Australia (GSA) in 

participating in commercial domestic (Australian) and overseas 

travel in geotourism related activities. ECU students will help 

Leisure Solutions® to achieve this goal by engaging in the 

research process including survey questionnaire development, 

data collection and data analysis. 

Industry engagement is one of the strategic priority areas of 

ECU. The cooperation between ECU and Leisure Solutions® 

through this market research project serves as an excellent 

example of a strategic partnership between ECU and the 

emerging geotourism industry. By working on real-world industry 

projects, the students are able to apply their knowledge 

from the classroom. It is an interesting and valuable learning 

experience for the students, which will be helpful in their 

future professional life. In return, an industry partner is able to 

utilise the intellectual resources available from the University 

to serve their research purpose. 

All participants who complete and lodge the survey 

enclosed within this issue of TAG by 10 OCTOBER 2008 

will automatically be eligible for a prize draw of a Nikon 

COOLPIX S200 7MP Digital Camera (with zoom lens), 

value of approximately $250 — the ultimate geotourist’s 

companion! 

GEOQuizAnswers on page 45 

Get your thinking caps on (no cheating!). 

1. The highest mountain on Earth is called Mt Everest. It 

also goes by several local, unpronounceable names. But 

how did the Everest family pronounce their name? 

2. Who named the Permian System? 

3. We are all familiar with hangingwall and footwall as 

applied to faults. But what do hangingpost and banging 

post refer to? 

4. Why are trilobites so called? 

5. We used to call them lamellibranchs (my Welsh geology 

teacher once wrote llamellibranchs). What do we call them 

now? 

6. It was once suggested that the upthrow and downthrow 

sides of a fault on a map could be indicated by writing 

‘up’ on one side and ‘dn’ on the other. Why was this abandoned? 

7. Who named ‘Gondwanaland’? 

8. She was called ‘the greatest fossilist the world ever 

knew’ and her death in 1847 merited an obituary in the 

Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, an organisation 

that would not admit women until 1904. Who was she? 

Edith Cowan University has a privacy policy and all survey 

data and any personal details relating to the competition draw 

will be kept confidential to the University. The competition 

draw will take place on Monday 13 October 2008 at 9.00 am 

and the winner advised by telephone. 

Survey forms can be mailed using an envelope marked 

Iris Mao 

School of Marketing, Tourism and Leisure 

Edith Cowan University 

Reply Paid 83659 

Joondalup WA 6027 

Or fax to 08 6304 5840, 

or digitised and forwarded to Iris Mao, i.mao@ecu.edu.au 

Further information: 

Iris Mao, Edith Cowan University, 08 6304 5606 

ANGUS M ROBINSON 

Leisure Solutions® 

angus@leisuresolutions.com.au 

0418 488 340 

9. What is the Gotlandian System now called? 

10. With which geological systems do you associate the 

names Arkell, Walcott and Lapworth? 

11. In the days when the map of the world was largely 

coloured in red, the book Geology of the British Empire 

summarised the geology of a very large part of the globe. 

Who wrote it? 

12. Nowadays we usually call a people by their first name, 

but in the past only surnames were used. What were the 

first names of Australian geologists T W E David, D 

Mawson and W R Browne? 

13. Who came up with the undation theory to explain 

orogeny? 

14. Which petrologist’s work could be literally described as 

reactionary? 

15. Brachiopods are commonly known as ____ shells 

16. The Haumurian is part of what System? 

17. The smart student translated nuées ardentes as ‘ardent 

nudes’. What is the correct translation? 

18. What is the Wentworth Scale? 

19. OK, so what is a placoid scale? 

20. The son of Uranus and Gaia gave his name to what 

ocean? 

BY TOR MENTOR 


Analysis 

GPS in the field: 

improving the accuracy of recreational GPS units 

The typical recreational autonomous Global Positioning System 

(GPS) unit has attractive features — moderate price, small size, 

ease of use, no license overheads — but despite a display with 

a resolution of a metre, its uncertainty is, at the best, several 

times that. 

This paper addresses some of the sources of error associated 

the GPS system, the techniques employed to reduce these 

errors and a method of reducing the uncertainty of the recreational 

GPS unit to less than one metre. 

GPS errors 

A GPS unit determines its position by establishing (using 

precise timing) its distance from four or more satellites 1 . 

Position errors can be classified as random or systematic. 

Random errors 

Random errors occur within the GPS unit as a result of internal 

timing errors. Random errors can also arise externally from 

multiple reflections from foliage or structures. Careful electronic 

design and antenna design can reduce, but not eliminate, 

random errors. Industrial GPS units utilise more sophisticated 

GPS system features than recreational units and have lower 

errors. 

A standard method of managing random errors in a data 

acquisition system is by averaging the data. 

Systematic errors 

Systematic errors occur because of errors in the nominated 

positions of the satellites and variations in path times due to 

atmospheric conditions. Systematic errors can be corrected 

provided that appropriate data are available. 

Differential GPS 

Differential GPS (DGPS) is a technique for correcting systematic 

errors. Consider two GPS units acquiring data in the same 

neighbourhood. The position of one unit (the base) is precisely 

known; the other (the rover) is acquiring data. Both units will 

be subject to the same systematic errors. Because the base unit 

position and its indicated position are available, the systematic 

error can be determined. This systematic error can then be 

used to correct the indicated position of the rover unit. 

However, the difficulties with DGPS, for the casual user are 

its cost and inflexibility. There are several versions of the DGPS 

technique available. These versions fall into two broad classes: 

by self or by others. 

(i) by self 

The user manages both the base and rover units. Correction is 

done in real time by a radio link (Real Time Kinematics, RTK) 2 

or by processing the data after it has been acquired (post processing). 

(ii) by others 

Correction data can be obtained from another party (generally 

for a fee). Terrestrial stations that provide correction data can 

be accessed in some areas. Satellites provide correction data 

over larger areas 3 . 

Investigation methodology 

Three techniques for reducing the error of recreational GPS 

units were investigated — averaging, differential and the use of 

an external antenna. The units trialled were Garmin GPS72 and 

Garmin GPS76. 

GPS data was acquired and processed. The program 

(Pyramid) used to do the processing and the acquired data is 

available in electronic format 4 . 

1. Averaging 

Recreational GPS units commonly have a track recording facility. 

The location is automatically logged at intervals. The resulting 

sequence forms a track. For a stationary GPS unit the ‘track’ 

is scatter of points, which can be averaged to produce a better 

estimate of position. 

FIGURE 1: Pyramid screen shot: vertical axis, metre: horizontal 

axis, hour. 


Averaging of acquired data was done progressively — the 

average was calculated afresh for each new sample. Thus 

progressive averages against time were generated (see Fig 1). 

The individual plots presented are easting, northing and 

elevation. The plots have been referenced to the final average 

value. The presentation shows, for example, in the case of the 

data generating figure 1, that a higher degree of reliance could 

be placed on the final value of the easting than that of the 

elevation. 

2. Differential 

The program will display the difference between data acquired 

by two GPS units placed at different locations with overlapping 

acquisition periods. Thus the effect of systematic errors 

common to both units will be eliminated. 

3. External antenna 

A low cost (A$35) external antenna was trialled. 

without antenna with antenna 

easting 0.55 0.25 

northing 1.43 0.18 

elevation 1.70 0.49 

BOX 1: Standard deviation, single surveyed site: metre. 

Results 

1. Averaging 

A GPS unit was placed on a surveyed marker and acquired data 

for approximately 6 hours. The sampling period was 10 seconds. 

This process was performed 9 times. The results are shown in 

Box 1. 

2. Averaging and the use of an external antenna 

The process of section 6.1 was repeated 5 times with a GPS 

using an external antenna. The results are shown in Box 1. 

3. Differential 

Two sites were selected. These sites were separated 8.329 

metres vertically and approximately 71 metres horizontally. 

4. Acquisition without an antenna 

A GPS unit without an antenna was placed at each site. Each 

unit acquired data for approximately 8 hours and 30 minutes. 

The sample period was 15 seconds. The common acquisition 

time for the two units was typically 8 hours and 28 minutes. 

This process was performed 7 times. 

The data were analysed for standard deviation for the 

synchronous differential pairs (7 pairs) and asynchronous pairs 

(42 pairs). The standard deviations are presented in Box 2. 

asynchronous synchronous asynchronous 

differential differential antenna 

easting 0.49 0.40 0.31 

northing 0.56 0.20 0.28 

elevation 1.53 0.82 0.75 

BOX 2: Standard deviation of differential values: metre 

5. Acquisition with an antenna 

A GPS unit with an antenna was placed at one site. It acquired 

data for approximately 8 hours and 30 minutes. The next day it 

was placed at the other site to acquire data. In total four sets 

of data were obtained. 

The data were analysed for standard deviation (four pairs). 

The results are presented in Box 2. 

Discussion, conclusions and 

recommendations 

Averaging 

The averaging process improves the accuracy of data obtained 

from a recreational GPS unit. Significant gains can be achieved 

with averaging periods of several minutes, however many hours 

of averaging are required to ensure accuracy to the sub-metre 

level. 

Differential 

The combination of the differential process and averaging can 

achieve significant improvement in accuracy. However, examinations 

of the data 4 give expectations of a higher degree of 

accuracy than was actually achieved. If the systematic error 

hypothesis is correct, we would expect the variations at one 

site to be matched by like variations at the other site, thus 

maintaining a constant difference. This effect is apparent in the 

data. For example, one elevation plot (29/07/2007) shows the 

variation in differential elevation limited to 0.2 metres for the 

final three hours of the acquisition period. The implication is 

that the uncertainty is also about 0.2 metre, yet the actual 

error is 1.3 metre. 


The author speculates that as a consequence of GPS unit design, 

there are systematic errors within each unit that are not 

compensated for by the differential technique. 

Antenna 

The use of an antenna was very effective — the GPS unit has 

access to more satellites and as a result the accuracy is 

improved. Asynchronous determination of the difference in 

elevation between two sites with a single GPS unit using 

an antenna returned lower standard deviations than the 

synchronous differential technique using two GPS units 

without antennas. 

In summary, investigations (working from a small number of 

tests) show that the combination of averaging techniques and 

an external antenna will provide sub-metre accuracy for horizontal 

position. Investigations (working from a small number 

of tests) show that sub-metre accuracy can be achieved in three 

dimensions using the differential technique. Averaging techniques 

are time intensive. 

MAL HAYSOM 

Department of Civil Engineering and Physical Sciences, 

La Trobe University m.haysom@latrobe.edu.au 

REFERENCES 

1 Geoscience Australia www.ga.gov.au/geodesy/gps/ 

2 For example see Leica Geosystems 

www.leica-geosystems.com/corporate/en/ndef/lgs_62015.htm 

3 For example see Sokkia: 

www.sokkia.com/Products/Detail/GSR2650_LB.aspx 

4 La Trobe University, Civil Engineering and Physical Sciences, 

www.latrobe.edu.au/ceps/staff/haysom/pyramid.htm 

The Adelaide Branches of AIG, ASEG, 

AUSIMM GSA, SACOME and principal 

sponsor PIRSA invite you to the 

2008 SA Explorers’ Conference 

Friday 28 November 2008, 

8.30am to 5.00pm 

Adelaide Convention Centre 

25 presentations on 

new companies/IPO’s 

exploration projects 

feasibility studies 

near mine exploration 

and development. 

Contact: Kevin Wills on (08) 8362 5900 

email: kwills@flindersdiamonds.com 

Coming soon in an AJES 

near you 

Anthropogenic climate change is the Earth’s most serious 

large-scale environmental concern. In their review paper 

‘Impact of changing climate and land use on the hydrogeology 

of south-east Australia’, Ian Cartwright and Ian 

Simmonds point out that while changes in global temperature, 

rainfall and surface water have been modelled in a 

sophisticated manner, the impact on groundwater 

resources is much less well constrained. In south-east 

Australia, the decrease in rainfall amount and increase in 

temperature that are predicted by climate models are generally 

assumed to reduce the amount of recharge to the 

groundwater systems. However, the increase in recharge 

that has resulted from clearing of the native vegetation 

will almost certainly produce a greater impact on the 

groundwater system, increasing quantity and potentially 

improving quality. Additionally, the impact on recharge of 

changes to the rainfall frequency, rather than just the total 

amount of rainfall, is not well documented. Overall, our 

understanding of the impacts of climate change on 

groundwater systems is insufficiently advanced to make 

firm predictions. Indirect impacts of climate change, particularly 

the projected increased demand for groundwater 

or surface water to supplement surface water supplies, will 

have a major impact that may be greater than the direct 

effect of climate change. 

Cartwright, I & Simmonds, I, 2008, ‘Impact of changing 

climate and land use on the hydrogeology of southeast 

Australia’ Australian Journal of Earth Sciences Vol 55/8. 


Book Reviews 

Function of soils for 

human societies and the 

environment 

E Frossard, WEH Blum and BP Warkentin (Eds) 

Geological Society London 

Special Publication 266 

Soils, the upper layer of the Earth’s crust, 

form the basis of terrestrial ecosystems, 

including our agricultural systems. They 

enable microorganism, plant and animal 

growth; they filter, buffer and transform 

substances entering them and release other 

substances into the atmosphere and groundwater; 

they form an important ecological 

habitat, acting as a gene reserve for numerous 

organisms. 

This book takes a look at the roles soil plays 

in human societies — agriculturally, physically, 

chemically and culturally — and the importance 

of soil for a healthy environment. The 

volume is a collection of 15 scientific papers 

relating to soil. The first paper, written by the 

editors, is an introduction to the volume, 

describing the basic principles of soil science, 

and relating the other contributions in the 

volume to these soil properties and functions. 

It is well written, concise and easy to read. 

This is followed by a paper by Feller, Manlay, 

Swift and Bernoux looking at soil organic 

matter (SOM), including a historical look at 

the changing perceptions of SOM. It focuses 

on the evaluation of SOM and soil organic 

carbon (SOC) and models for assessing carbon 

sequestration and loss in soils, with a possible 

view to assigning a monetary value to this 

important soil resource. It too is lucid and 

easily understood, though it only gives a brief 

description of the manifold functions of SOM. 

The third and fourth papers look at substances 

released from soils. ‘Soils as sources 

and sinks of greenhouse gases’ by J Leifeld, is 

an in-depth review of the atmospheric emissions 

from soils in both natural environments 

and in agricultural systems. It looks at the 

current estimates for emissions of greenhouse 

gases (CO 2 , CH 4 and NO 2 ) from soils, and 

potential reduction of emissions by changing 

management practices. It is well-researched 

and written, and many readers may find it the 

most interesting and informative paper in the 

volume. 

In ‘Soil as an important interface between 

agricultural activities and groundwater: 

leaching of nutrients and pesticides from the 

vadose zone’ by Bergström and Djodic, the 

physico-chemical factors affecting transport 

and leaching of solutes in the soil solution 

are assessed. Different farming methods are 

compared and the factors that farmers should 

take into consideration when applying nutrients 

or pesticides to crops are described. The 

authors then make suggestions for minimising 

losses into groundwater, so as to reduce the 

potential risk to water systems and increase 

agricultural efficacy. It is a 

succinct and well-rounded paper, but does 

not consider all aspects of leaching in soil 

systems, such as transport of colloids through 

soils. 

The papers in the rest of volume are slightly 

jumbled, with case studies mixed with 

reviews and basic research. I found the collation 

somewhat puzzling and would have 

grouped these papers quite differently. Menzi 

and Gerber’s analysis of nutrient balances 

would have followed nicely on from 

Bergström and Djodic’s look at leaching. 

The analysis provides a good overview of the 

importance and limitations of nutrient balances 

in agriculture. It presents the mature 

Swiss model of N and P calculations for crop 

requirements at the farm level, which is 

linked to payments with farmers whose farming 

practices and fertilisation do not exceed 

the crop requirements, and a newly-developed 

model for calculating the nutrient 

excesses and deficiencies in south-east Asia, 

both on a national and farm-sized level. 

Luster et al describe the enrichment-depletion 

pattern of heavy metals in soil horizons in 

Switzerland, and their paper should have 

been presented with Inácio’s assessment of 

element distribution in the A- and O-horizons 

of Portuguese soils. These two papers were 

both difficult to follow, the former due to 

poor selection and presentation of data with 

far too many results presented, the latter due 

to poor editing. Dosso et al present a case 

study of a French vineyard and show how an 

understanding of pedogenic processes and 

geology can be used to describe a soil system, 

enabling better agricultural practices and preventing 

plant mortality. It should have been 

grouped with the case study on the reuse of 

agricultural drainage water in central 

California (Bañuelos and Lin), which looked at 

the use of different crops for managing geologically-derived, 

high salt loads in irrigation 

and drainage waters. 

Following this, Jansa, Wiemken and Frossard 

look at ‘The effects of agricultural practices 

on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi’ (AMF). This 

paper describes AMF, their evolution, occurrence 

and ecological relevance. It then 

reviews agricultural practices (tillage, crop 

rotation, fertilisation…) and tries to find links 

between AMF development, diversity and 

composition, and agricultural management of 

soils. It is in-depth and thorough but at times 

tedious due to the extensive references to 

species names, which will be of little relevance 

to most readers. 

The last third of the volume focuses mainly 

on human societies, soils and their impacts 

on each other. Burghardt looks at sealing soils 

and the losses this brings to the environment 

and human societies (as well as the economic 

growth). Hazelton looks at Australian soil 

properties and land use and assesses the risks 

for human health and the environment associated 

with a poor understanding of soil and 

lack of sufficient management practices. Both 

papers argue the need for soil conservation 

and a greater awareness of the importance of 

soils to humans and the environment, and for 

legislation to protect this essential natural 

resource. Montanarella then reviews the history 

of soil conservation policies looking at 

case studies from America and Europe. 

Although several different approaches to soil 

conservation in legislation can be taken, 

extensive knowledge of soil properties and 

functions are required before any approach to 

soil conservation can be decided upon. 

Well’s contribution, ‘Cultural soilscapes’, is a 

slight anomaly in the volume, as it is the only 

paper not concerned with soil ecological/agricultural 

functions and soil conservation. 

Instead, it looks at the influence of 

human cultures on soil formation, leading to 

the idea of a ‘cultural soilscape’ as an area of 

the Earth’s surface defined not only by geological 

and pedogenic, but also cultural 

processes. An example of this is chemical 

analysis of soils being used to interpret the 

historical use of areas at archaeological sites. 

I found this paper fascinating as it presented 

an aspect of soil science seldom mentioned in 

mainstream soil science, one that I hadn’t 

contemplated previously. 

To summarise, I found this volume informative 

and interesting. Some contributions were 

poorly edited and tedious to read, and the 

collation left me puzzled, but many of the 

papers were very well-written, easy to understand 

and fascinating. Readers of this volume 

without a background in soil science would 

be advised to read it with the aid of a dictionary. 

On the whole, it gives a good 

overview of soil science, including the current 

state of knowledge of soil functions, its applications 

and meaning for human societies and 

the environment and the challenges soil scientists 

and environmentalists will face in the 

future. 

ELEANOR HOBLEY 


Tectonics of strike-slip 

and releasing bends 

WD Cunningham and P Mann (Eds) 

Geological Society, London, Special 

Publications 290 

2007 

I have had the privilege over the years to 

review several Special Publications of the 

Geological Society. In every case I have found 

them to be professional works of high quality 

and this volume is no exception. Such volumes 

are making increasing use of colour 

figures, and these are particularly useful in 

this work, which covers strike–slip fault systems 

in all crustal environments from the 

regional to the outcrop-scale. I noted only 

one typo, where the term “stop-over” has 

been substituted for “step-over” at the top of 

every page for one of the papers. 

The volume contains 18 contributions that 

address the tectonic complexity of strike–slip 

and releasing bends and is divided into three 

thematic sections: 1) bends, sedimentary 

basins and earthquake hazards; 2) restraining 

bends, transpressional deformation and basement 

controls on development; 3) releasing 

bends, transtensional deformation and fluid 

flow. However, the book is introduced by a 

separate paper that is topical review of fault 

bends and their global distribution. This 

introductory contribution, by P Mann, ranks 

as a section or mini-volume in itself, being 

approximately 130 pages long. 

Fault bends are remarkable in their environments 

of formation and their scale. In a simplistic 

sense, bends that accommodate local 

contraction are referred to as restraining 

bends, whereas those that accommodate 

extension are referred to as releasing bends. 

However, the complexities go much further 

than this, as the introductory paper shows. I 

found this paper one of the most significant. 

It is information-packed, and has an abundance 

of diagrams, many of them in colour. 

It also contains a global compilation of 

active and modern regional and global-scale 

releasing and restraining bends from both 

active and ancient environments. A very 

interesting comment in the abstract of this 

paper was that there is no consensus on how 

these structural features are named or classified, 

or how their wide range of morphologies 

are controlled by the tectonic settings in 

which they form. 

If anything, my criticism of the introductory 

paper, which sets the theme for all the others, 

is that there really needs to be an index 

to the large number of topics and subtopics 

covered. There are many of these, some only 

a paragraph long. Also, much of the information 

is at the global scale, and some local 

examples would have been useful, particularly 

for explorers and miners who deal with 

these features when mineralisation is 

localised in releasing or restraining bends of 

ten to 100’s of metres in scale. But then 

again, the message in the book is that the 

geometries and stress/strain configurations 

of these features are scale independent, so 

maybe this is a moot point. 

Although the remaining 17 papers can be 

divided into three main thematic sections, 

they commonly have multiple emphases and 

the division is a general guide to content 

only. All papers are case studies of different 

scales, varying from plate boundaries to 

studies of intracontinental transform faults. 

Fault bends have long been recognised as 

important places for minerals deposits, or for 

forming basins that may contain energy 

resources, such as hydrocarbons or coal as 

well as evaporates and industrial minerals. 

From a societal point of view, fault bends can 

also provide zones of topographic uplift or 

depression that may provide rain catchment 

areas. Despite the recognition of these factors, 

there is only one paper that deals 

explicitly with mineral deposits, and two others 

that discuss fluid flow. 

From the Geological Society of London 

•April 2008 

•192 pages 

•Hardback 

Online bookshop 

code: SP288 

• Geological Society Special Publication 288: Climate Change and Groundwater 

Edited by W. Dragoni and B. S. Sukhija 

There is a general consensus that for the next few decades at least, the Earth will continue its warming. This will inevitably bring about serious environmental 

problems. For human society, the most severe will be those related to alterations of the hydrological cycle, which is already heavily influenced by human activities. 

Climate change will directly affect groundwater recharge, groundwater quality and the freshwater–seawater interface. The variations of groundwater storage 

inevitably entail a variety of geomorphological and engineering effects. In the areas where water resources are likely to diminish, groundwater will be one of 

the main solutions to prevent drought. In spite of its paramount importance, the issue of ‘Climate Change and Groundwater’ has been neglected. This volume 

presents some of the current understanding of the topic. 

•ISBN: 978-1-86239-235-9 •Prices: List: £75.00/US$150.00 GSL: £37.50/US$75.00 AAPG/SEPM/GSA/RAS/EFG/PESGB/TMS: £45.00/US$90.00 

•February 2008 

•430 pages 

•Hardback 

Online bookshop 

code: SP294 

• Geological Society Special Publication 294: West Gondwana: Pre-Cenozoic Correlations Across the 

South Atlantic Region 

Edited by R. J. Pankhurst, R. A. J. Trouw, B. B. de Brito Neves and M. J. de Wit 

Some 75 years after the visionary work of Wegener and du Toit, Neoproterozoic to Mesozoic geological correlations between South America and Africa are 

re-examined in the light of plate tectonics and modern geological investigation (structural and metamorphic studies, stratigraphic logging, geochemistry, 

geochronology and palaeomagnetism). The book presents both reviews and new research relating to the shared Gondwana origins of countries facing each 

other across the South Atlantic Ocean, especially Brazil, Argentina, Cameroon, Nigeria, Angola, Namibia and South Africa. This is the first comprehensive treatment 

to be readily available in book form. It covers the common elements of cratonic areas pre-dating Gondwana, and how they came together in late Precambrian 

and Cambrian times with the formation of the Pan-African/Brasiliano orogenic belts (Dom Feliciano, Brasília, Ribeira, Damara, Gariep, Kaoko, etc.). The subsequent 

shared Palaeozoic and Mesozoic sedimentary record (Karoo system) prior to Gondwana break-up is also reviewed. 

•ISBN: 978-1-86239-247-2 •Prices: List: £95.00/US$190.00 GSL: £47.50/US$95.00 AAPG/SEPM/GSA/RAS/ EFG/PESGB/TMS: £57.00/US$114.00 

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I would consider the publication as useful for 

both academics and for industry professionals. 

In both cases I think it is time for people 

to go back and reassess their understanding 

of how fault bends form and evolve. Too 

many times I have seen people in industry 

simply explain the location of mineralisation 

as due to a releasing bend. Too often socalled 

project generation ‘gurus’ infer fault 

bends and intersections to define sites to 

explore when they have no idea of the evolution 

of the structures, the kinematics, the 

stress and strain regimes and magnitudes 

etc. In all cases, this volume would be a worthy 

read for these people, particularly the 

introductory review paper. 

BRETT K DAVIS 

Dundee Precious Metals Inc 

Rescuing science from 

politics: regulation 

and the distortion of 

scientific research 

W Wagner and R Steinzor (Eds) 

Cambridge University Press 

2006 

303 pages 

ISBN-13-978-0-521-5400-4 

To put the book’s themes into the context of 

this geoscience newsletter you merely have 

to read the innumerable social and scientific/technological 

debates and controversies 

about numerous global industrial, resource, 

energy, and environmental problems. Earth 

Sciences are quite frequently involved 

(for eg see page 47). Start by reading the 

recent articles by Lowe (2007), Pockly (2007), 

and Pearce (2007). Perhaps a lengthy article 

is in order; here only a few comments are 

possible. 

The contents, plus the index entries, offer a 

quick glimpse of the basic importance of 

the 12 chapters’ information to geoscientists 

who may be compelled to defend certain 

aspects of their opinions, theories/ 

hypotheses, and even policies, in various 

settings such as those listed above. More 

specifically, there are for example disputes 

and controversies about exploration rights, 

resources (conservation, estimations, quality 

control, allocations, investments), environments/ecology 

(eg global warming, mining 

pollution, hydrology), geo-hazards (eg engineering 

geology: subsidence, erosion, waste 

disposal, and health), government policies, 

research priorities, professional ethics, peer 

review differences, methodological disputes 

(eg research misconduct, junk-science claims, 

extrapolations or inferences, factual and 

language/terminological and quantitative 

data disputes, misinterpretations, intellectual 

property, and malpractice), among others. 

Note: all these just-listed ‘variables’ apply to 

the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate 

Change, 2007 4th Assessment Report; the 

science-versus-politics type debates on global 

warming see-sawing for a long time! One 

conclusion (p xxiii): ‘ … though it is a good 

time for science, it is a perilous time for scientists’ 

— at least as experienced by those 

involved in various types of disputes (legal, 

scientific, social, political). Both the potential 

capabilities and the limitations of science 

and technology must be fully understood. 

The background of the 15 American authors 

is interesting: there are nine lawyers, two 

medical researchers, and three environmental 

experts. If these are crudely classified, this is 

because in detail all are very broadly educated 

and pragmatically experienced in a host 

of knowledge domains covering, for instance, 

several scientific disciplines. All (quoting) 

‘explore ways that the law can be abused by 

special interests to intrude on the way scientists 

conduct research. The high stakes and 

adversarial features of regulation create the 

worst possible climate for the honest production 

and use of science, especially by those 

who will ultimately bear the cost of the 

resulting regulatory standards. Yet the academic 

or popular literature has paid scant 

attention to efforts by dominant interest 

groups to distort the available science in 

support of their positions. The book begins by 

establishing what should be non-controversial 

principles of good scientific practice. 

These principles serve as the benchmark 

against which each chapter’s author explains 

how science is misused in specific regulatory 

settings and isolates problems in the integration 

of science by the regulatory process.’ 

The well-chosen titles of the four parts 

and chapters provides a good overview 

(in contrast to some books which use 

meaningless metaphors as titles) of the 

fundamentally important topics of the book: 

Part 1: Freedom and Independence, Part 2: 

Transparency and Honesty, Part 3: A Public 

Infrastructure for Science and Part 4: 

Recommendations and Conclusions. 

This ought to be sufficient to convince us of 

the book’s crucial importance in situations 

demanding our ability to overcome some distortions 

of science perpetrated on us. 

It is rather interesting that most philosophers 

of science have ignored the many publications 

of the legal system as exemplified by 

the few below. For example, the ‘different 

definitions of truth in the legal sense versus 

the scientific sense, and even differences 

among the various fields of science’, among 

many more aspects, indeed demand attention 

by various disciplines. The ever-controversial 

interface between science and the law is 

merely one research domain. 

REFERENCES 

Faigman, D L et al, 2001 (2nd ed), ‘Modern 

Scientific Evidence: the law and science of 

expert testimony’ West Publication Co. 

Faigman, DL, 1999, ‘Legal Alchemy: 

the Use and Abuse of Science in the Law’ 

W H Freeman and Co, New York. 

Faigman, D L, 2004, ‘Laboratory of Justice’ 

Times Books. 

Golan, T, 2004, ‘Laws of Men and Laws of 

Nature: the history of scientific expert 

testimony’ Harvard University Press. 

Lowe, I, 2007, ‘Science, politics and the state 

of the environment’. Australasian Science, Vol 

28, No 3, p35–36. 

Pearce, F, 2007, ‘Climate report ‘was watered 

down’ New Scientist, issue 10, March 2007, 

p10. 

Pockly, P, 2007, ‘Global warming: worse than 

forecast’. Australasian Science, Vol 28, No 3, 

p28–31. 

KARL H WOLF 

Fossil earthquakes: 

the formation and 

preservation of 

pseudotachylytes 

Aiming Lin 

Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences Volume 111 

Springer Verlag, Heidelberg and New York 

2008 

248 pages 

ISBN 978-3-540-74235-7 

This fascinating book addresses a whole 

range of Earth Scientists involved in theoretical 

(eg experimental) and applied work (eg 

surface- and underground-mapping, including 

core-examination as highlighted in the 

book). In particular, this includes seismologists, 

structural geologists, plate-tectonicists, 

mineralogists and geochemists, hydrologists, 

ore petrologists, and geomorphologists 

researching landslides, as the book summarises 

much widely distributed information 

on pseudotachylytes (PTL hereafter). 

To ascertain recognition, identification, and 

thus progress in understanding PTLs, it is 

naturally fundamental to first know what 

they are. Here from the Glossary of Geology 

(5th edition): ‘A dense rock produced in the 

compression and shear associated with 


intense faulting movements, involving 

extreme mylonitisation or partial melting. 

Similar rocks, such as the Sudbury breccias, 

contain shock-metamorphic effects and may 

be injection breccias emplaced in fractures 

formed during meteoritic impact.’ 

Further PTL ‘… typically occurs in irregularly 

branching veins … showing evidence of having 

been at high temperature … with 

miarolitic and spherulitic crystallisation in 

the extremely dense base or matrix … Some 

behaved like an intrusion and have no structures 

obviously related to local crushing … 

also glass or devitrified glass along or adjacent 

to a fault; the melt is produced by frictionally 

generated heat which generally 

requires sliding velocities consistent with 

slip.’ 

The diverse data presented in the book cannot 

be dealt with adequately in a short review. 

An all-too-brief introduction is followed by 

coverage of terminology and origin of PTLs; 

classification of fault rocks, mylonites, 

cataclastites, S-C fabrics; seismogenic fault 

zone strength and model; tectonic environments 

and PTL-veins’ field occurrences, 

chilling-margin and crack textures, generation 

zones, relation between fault vein 

thickness and slip amount; PTL matrix: 

micro-characteristics, textures, matrix, flow 

structures, vesicles, amygdules, X-ray analysis, 

glass and crystalline quantitative analysis, 

effect of frictional melt on fault strength, 

formation of depth; microlites: texture, 

morphology, chemistry, magnetic properties, 

mechanism of formation; fragments within 

PTL veins: terminology, resembling conglomerate 

clasts, grain-size-analysis (fractals), 

within-melt origin, fragments’ degree of 

rounding, formation of fragments; chemical 

composition and melting processes of PTL: 

eg temperature and role of water during 

friction; PTLs in the brittle and plastic 

regimes: eg Woodroffe Thrust (Central 

Australia) PTLs; crushing-origin PTL and veinlet 

cataclastic rocks: landslide-related PTL: 

occurrences of landslides PTLs with examples; 

experimentally generated PTL: high-velocity 

friction experiments, microstructures, X-ray 

analysis, chemical composition, vein 

geometry, melting textures, non-equilibrium 

processes, melting temperature, high-velocity 

slip weakening. References (18 pages: recommended!) 

and an index are available also. 

Many publications of pseudotachylytes have 

not been mentioned; eg only one of several 

in the recent special 168-page issue in 

Tectonophysics (Vol 402, June 2005). There 

are others, of course, some only marginally 

related to those PTLs associated with earthquakes 

(see JE Spray, 1998, Localised shockand 

friction-induced melting is response to 

hypervelocity impact Geological Society, 

London Special Publications, Vol 140, 

p195–204; for S- (shock dominated-) and 

E- (endogenic-) type PTLs associated with the 

Sudbury ore district and Vredefort meteorite 

impact structures). The internet offers quite a 

few additional older and recent references. 

This book is well written: absolutely no 

problem to follow the descriptions and 

many convincing genetic interpretations and 

extrapolations, all supported by 217 figures 

(many in colour), several models, and 33 

tables. New research methodologies are 

mentioned: eg complexity theory, fuzzy logic, 

chaos theory, self-similarity (pages 145, 

150–151, 334), and fractals (pages 145, 148, 

150–151). Insofar as the book preferentially 

deals with PTLs associated with earthquakes, 

researchers of meteoric impact structures 

(eg some with world-renown ore deposits) 

must do additional literature search. This 

applies also to those researching slickensides, 

grooving, foliations, gouges, breccias, 

cataclasites, mylonites, and various other 

structures, textures and fabrics useful, for 

instance, as directional-movement indicators. 

The data add to our knowledge of the 

effects of earthquakes and some other 

geological phenomena exemplified by 

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landslide-generated PTLs. Interpretations 

of ancient (eg Precambrian) PTL features, 

frequently misidentified, are mentioned 

(eg Alpine overthrusts were for a time 

mapped as sedimentary contacts). Further 

fundamental research in finding methods to 

study earthquakes, for example, is strongly 

supported by the book, but a geologist must 

know how to recognise PTLs! Questions 

remain: for example, since research has 

concentrated mainly on certain types of 

lithologies (eg granites, granulites, gabbros, 

amphibolites), what are the PTL characteristics 

in carbonate rocks; and what are the 

mineralogical and chemical stabilities of PTLs 

in Precambrian terrains? 

KARL H WOLF 

Non-marine Permian 

biostratigraphy and 

biochronology 

SG Lucas, G Cassinis, and JW Schneider (Eds) 

Geological Society, London, 

Special Publication 265 

2006 

344 pages 

ISBN-10: 1-86239-206-9 

The title of this volume invoked the initial 

and perhaps unrealistic expectation of a 

reasonably comprehensive coverage of the 

contributions of non-marine faunas and 

floras to the correlation and dating of their 

host Permian strata. What the volume 

instead contains, however, following the two 

introductory chapters, is an assortment of 

13 review-type articles dealing mostly with 

particular palaeontological–biostratigraphic 

characteristics of mainly Euro-American 

terrestrial successions. 

In the first chapter, Lucas, Schneider, and 

Cassinis provide a historical conspectus of 

the biostratigraphy and biochronology of 

non-marine Permian successions, with brief 

notes on the correlative efficacy of various 

fossil groups preserved therein, and a concise 

summary of the volume’s contents. Their 

conclusion — that much remains to be 

achieved in effective cross-correlation 

with the system’s marine timescale and in 

integration with radiogenic-isotope and 

magneto-stratigraphic data — is certainly 

well taken, and presages the prospects of 

considerable improvement via appropriately 

targeted researches. 

The second chapter, by Steiner, constitutes 

a thoroughly-sourced summation of geomagnetic 

polarity reversals around the globe 

during the Middle Permian–Early Triassic 

interval. She stresses the importance, indeed 

pre-eminence, of terrestrial and igneous 

sequences in providing geomagnetic field 

information more reliably than marine 

sequences; and underlines the catastrophic, 

mass-extinction consequences of the 

magneto-stratigraphically-dated Siberian 

volcanism manifested by the Siberian Traps 

and the Emishan Basalts. 

Of the remaining bulk of the volume that 

deals with more specific topics, more than 

one-quarter of its text is devoted to Permian 

tetrapods (tracks and body fossils). This may 

seem somewhat disproportionate vis-à-vis 

the lesser attention given to other nonmarine 

fossil groups, some of greater 

stratigraphic import, and is presumably a 

reflection of the editors’ own research 

predilections (particularly Lucas’s). However, 

the three footprint contributions (by Gand 

and Durand, Hunt and Lucas, and Lucas and 

Hunt), and the contibution on amphibian 

and reptilian body fossils (by Werneburg 

and Schneider), came to this (admittedly 

tetrapod-untutored) reviewer as something 

of a revelation, in that they authoritatively 

and persuasively document the importance — 

actual and potential — of tetrapods in 

Permian non-marine biostratigraphy. 

Roscher and Schneider’s multifaceted 

synthesis of the Early Pennsylvanian–Late 

Permian climate of central Europe includes a 

detailed correlation chart of the European 

basins, the Sous/Argana Basin (Morocco), 

and the Karoo Basin (southern Africa). 

Interpolated in the chart are five successive 

wet phases that punctuate the overall 

aridisation trend of the period in North 

Pangaea and were evidently linked to the 

waxing and waning of the Gondwanan icecap. 

The climatic inferences are well 

constrained and well balanced by pertinent 

stratigraphic, palaeogeographic, sedimentological, 

and palaeontological evidence. 

Two remarkable examples of Early Permian 

petrified forests (in Germany and in Brazil’s 

north–eastern state of Tocantins, and hence 

palaeogeographically remote from one 

another) are the subject of Rössler’s wellillustrated 

contribution, which correlates and 

compares the two forests taxonomically, and 

provides insights into the nature and dynamics 

of their respective wetland ecosystems. 

The two-page taxonomic checklist underscores 

the fact that the Tocantins occurrence, 

though long-known, awaits sufficiently 

detailed palaeobotanical analysis compared 

to the much more comprehensively 

documented German megafloral association. 

Stamberg presents an overview of 

actinopterygian fishes that are well represented 

in Pennsylvanian–Lower Permian 

freshwater strata of the Bohemian Massif in 

the Czech Republic. He emphasizes a close 

affiliation with faunas known from the 

French Massif Central. The contribution by 

Hmich, Schneider et al is somewhat misleadingly 

titled ‘New continental Carboniferous 

and Permian faunas of Morocco: …’, in that 

floras as well as faunas (notably insects and 

tetrapods) from the intramontane 

Pennsylvanian–Permian basins are documented 

and discussed. Biostratigraphic, palaeobiogeographic, 

and palaeoclimatic implications 

are explored; this leads the authors to characterise 

Morocco as important for understanding 

the development of ecosystems, 

under the influence of the changing 

environmental circumstances evidenced 

across Pangea during the late Palaeozoic– 

early Mesozoic interval. 

Various aspects of Permo–Triassic successions 

of south–western Europe are discussed in 

three substantial contributions. Virgili, 

Cassinis, and Broutin focus on primarily 

continental domains in a synthesis of the 

geological history between the final stages of 

the Variscan orogeny and the onset of the 

Alpine sedimentary evolution (“Alpine Cycle”). 

The transitional Upper Permian–Lower 

Triassic strata of the Iberian Ranges and the 

Balearic Islands are examined by Arche and 

López-Gómez, their placements of the P/T 

boundary relying mainly on spore-pollen 

evidence. (Note that here, and in some places 

elsewhere in the volume where palaeopalynological 

data are cited, the use of the 

term “microflora” is inapposite, given its 

long-established, purely microbiological 

application; accordingly, “palynoflora” is the 

appropriate designation, as used in Durand’s 

article.) The latter advances a possible 

solution, via sedimentary climatic evidence, 

to resolving the problematic placement of 

the P/T boundary within so-called 

“Buntsandstein” alluvial deposits of Provence, 

south–eastern France. This is a contribution 

that should prompt critical reconsideration of 

evidence utilised elsewhere as bases for 

determining the systemic boundary in 

continental sections. 

The volume is well-indexed and stands 

overall as a very useful addition to Permian 

literature and to the Geological Society of 

London’s admirable Special Publications 

series. 

GEOFFREY PLAYFORD 

Earth Sciences, University of Queensland 


Books for review 

The following books are available from the Geological Society 

of London, www.geolsoc.org.uk/bookshop: 

Re-advertised 

TMS002 – Deep–Time Perspectives on Climate 

Change 

M Williams, AM Haywood, J Gregory, DN Schmidt & JR Young 

SP289 – The Relationship between Damage 

and Localization 

H Lewis and GD Couples 

SP291 – The Geodynamics of the Aegean 

and Anatolia 

T Taymaz, Y Yilmaz and Y Dilek 

SP292 – Structurally Complex Reservoirs 

SJ Jolley, D Barr, JJ Walsh and RJ Knipe 

Key Issues in Petroleum Geology: 

Stratigraphy 

P Copestake, J Gregory and JM Pearce 

The Neoproterozoic Timanide Orogen of 

Eastern Baltica 

DG Gee and V Pease 

EGSP21 – Clay Materials used in Construction 

GM Reeves, I Sims and JC Cripps 

SP244 – Submarine Slope Systems: 

Processes and Products 

DM Hodgson and SS Flint 

SP257 – Geomaterials in Cultural Heritage 

M Maggetti and B Messiga 

SP263 – Fluid Flow and Solute Movement 

in Sandstones 

RD Barker and JH Tellam 

SP264 – Compositional Data Analysis 

in the Geosciences 

A Buccianti, G Mateu-Figueras and V Pawlowsky-Glahn 

SP271 – Building Stone Decay 

R Prikryl and BJ Smith 

SP274 – Coastal and Shelf Sediment 

Transport 

PS Balsom and MB Collins 

SP276 – Economic and Palaeoceanographic 

Significance of Contourite Deposits 

AR Viana and M Rebesco 

SP277 – Seismic Geomorphology 

RJ Davies, H W Posamentier, LJ Wood and JA Cartwright 

SP281 – The Role of Women in the 

History of Geology 

CV Burek and B Higgs 

SP283 – Mapping Hazardous Terrain using 

Remote Sensing 

RM Teeuw 

SP284 – Rock Physics and Geomechanics in 

the Study of Reservoirs and Repositories 

C David and M Le Ravalec-Dupin 

Mining environmental 

library on offer 

A large mining environmental library consisting of conference 

proceedings (AMIRA, AMIC, MEND, ACMER etc), journals, 

workshop manuals and textbooks has become available. 

Much of the collection relates to Acid Mine Drainage. 

The whole library is immediately available FREE to an 

individual, university or company. 

The purchaser need only pay transport costs from Adelaide. 

New this month 

In the Heart of the Desert 

M Quentin Morton 

www.greenmountainpress.co.uk 

The Evolution of Clastic Sedimentology 

H Okada and AJ Kenyon-Smith 

www.inbooks.com.au 

A Guide for mineral exploration through the 

regolith in the Cobar Region, Lachlan 

Orogen, New South Wales 

KG McQueen 

If you are interested please contact Dr Graham Taylor 

on 08 8339 2138 or preferably by 

email: grahamandcarol@bigpond.com 


(Continued from page 8 – Publicity & Media) 

Radio 

21 July 

ABC NSW Statewide Drive, 

ABC 936 Hobart Drive, 

ABC North & West SA (Port Pirie) News 

GSA President calls for funding increases. 

ABC 936 Hobart - Afternoons 

Geothermal energy research. 

ABC North West WA (Karratha) Statewide Afternoons 

Dr Jon Hronsky: how the world works. 

22 July 

ABC 720 Perth Mornings 

The AESC will be held in Perth this week. 

ABC Darwin, ABC 702 Sydney and 

ABC 720 Perth News 

Peter McCabe: fossil fuels for energy generation and 

storing carbon dioxide. 

WIN Mildura, Gippsland, Sale, Shepparton, WIN 

Ballarat News and Bendigo News 

$32b worth of gold estimated in Victoria in Bendigo and 

Murray region. 

ABC Newcastle Drive 

Dr Peter McCabe on energy generation and the future of oil. 

ABC North West WA (Karratha) Statewide Drive 

Dr Barry Drummond: tsunami event is a hazard and a risk. 

ABC 720 Perth (Perth) Drive 

WA Chief Scientist: exploiting natural resources in a 

sustainable way. 

ABC Victoria Statewide (Regional Victoria) 

Statewide Drive 

Fuels of the future — society decides how much will be nuclear. 

23 July 

BAY FM (Geelong) News 

90-minute warning before tsunami hits. 

ABC Gippsland (Sale) Mornings 

Clean coal technology at the AESC and geothermal technology 

development. 

ABC Gippsland (Sale) Mornings 

Geoscience at the core of issues facing the world. 

ABC Western Queensland (Longreach) Mornings 

Estimated 65 years of oil supply left and enough coal and 

natural gas for decades. 

ABC Newcastle Breakfast 

Infrastructure likely to be exposed to a tsunami. 

ABC 720 Perth Breakfast 

One tsunami can have two to five peaks with hollows in between. 

ABC Illawarra Drive 

Increasing geoscience awareness. 

ABC 936 Hobart Drive 

Understanding tectonic plate boundaries improves wave modeling. 

ABC North West WA Statewide Afternoons 

New geological guide of the East Pilbara. 

24 July 

6PR (Perth) Breakfast 

Possibility of man landing on Mars in the future. 

ABC 720 Perth Breakfast 

Recruiting the next generation of scientists and science 

communication. 

SBS Ethnic Radio (National Australia) News 

Prediction that humans could be living on Mars. 

ABC 612 Brisbane Breakfast 

Human life on Mars possible within 25 years. 

ABC Newcastle Drive 

90 minute tsunami warning: monitoring sea levels and hazards. 

25 July 

ABC North West WA Statewide Afternoons 

Termites benefit the environment. 

ABC North West WA Country Hour 

Hydro-geology a critical component in mine development. 

ABC Western Queensland (Longreach) Mornings 

Professor Jeff Taylor says we find Mars fascinating. 

ABC North West WA (Karratha) Rural Report 

Nature-based tourism and geological trails. 

ABC North West WA (Karratha) Statewide Afternoons 

Urban planning, goldfield development and geosciences. 

Television 

Channel 10 (Brisbane) News 

Fossil fuels for decades. 

Channel 10 (Perth) News 

Moving oil prices and renewable energy. 

SUE FLETCHER 

Jeff Taylor talking with the media. Image courtesy Patrick Daley, 

Patrick Daley Public Relations 


Rock Star: the story of outback 

legend Reg Sprigg 

Know your Geologist . . . 

From the best-selling author of Mailman of the Birdsville Track 

comes the story of another unsung Aussie hero. Oil; uranium; 

geology; conservation; these are the catch-cries of our times and (From page 22) 

Reg Sprigg embodies them all. Rock Star tells the life of this 

intrepid, determined and oft-times irreverent pioneering Australian 

renowned as one of our nation’s greatest geologists. 

Reg Sprigg discovered the (then) oldest fossils in the world and the 

deepest under-sea canyons by the age of 30. He helped found the 

Australian oil and gas exploration and production company 

SANTOS, and discovered the great Cooper Basin oil and gas fields — 

Australia’s largest on-shore petroleum province. By the time 

he was 50, Reg had driven the first vehicle across the Simpson 

Desert and crossed the continent from 

north, south, east and west. He had also 

launched Arkaroola Wildlife Sanctuary, 

one of Australia’s first eco-tourism 

resorts. Written in a lively narrative 

style, Rock Star will make you laugh 

and cry and introduce you to a 

fascinating world. 

Rock Star author 

Kristin Weidenbach 

Contact details: (08) 8440 0701 or 0400 600 840 

email: michaela@eaststreet.com.au 

44 | TAG September 2008 

Did you know them? 

Fons VandenBerg (left) and Karin Orth (right) 

Please send your ‘Know your Geologist’ to 

tag@gsa.org.au for the December issue. 

Field work isn't always tough. When the Geological 

Survey of Victoria decided to map the Devonian 

Snowy River Volcanics in the mid-1980s, there was 

no alternative to doing it the hard way, by river, in 

a raft. Conditions were ideal: low water, which 

meant plenty of outcrop (but also meant dragging 

the raft over all the rapids), great sandy beaches to 

camp on, and outcrops scoured clean by the granitic 

sand that the river carries during floods. Low water 

also meant that the current wasn’t strong, and long 

periods were spent paddling in the pools between 

the rapids. However, occasional rapids like these 

provided an opportunity to stop and enjoy the 

water. It was a great starting point for the 'real' 

work, which involved seemingly unending traverses 

up and down the 600+m high walls of the Snowy 

River valley.

GEOQuiz ANSWERS (From page 33) 

1. Eve – rest (not Ever – est). 

2. Sir Roderick Impey Murchison. 

3. Gates: hangingpost is where the hinge is; bangingpost is where 

the catch is. 

4. The name means ‘three-lobed’ and is based on the three longitudinal 

lobes of the body: central axial lobe, and two symmetrical 

pleural lobes that flank the axis. 

5. Bivalves. 

6. If you turn the map upside down ‘up’ reads ‘dn’ and ‘dn’ reads 

‘up’, this reverses the throw on the fault! 

7. Edward Suess. 

8. Mary Anning, who lived in Lyme Regis and is credited with finding 

the first specimen of Ichthyosaurus. 

9. Silurian. 

10. Arkell, Jurassic; Walcott, Cambrian; Lapworth, Ordovician. 

11. F R C Reed. 

12. Tannatt William Edgeworth David; Douglas Mawson; William 

Rowan Browne. 

13. Reinout Willem van Bemmelen. 

14. N L Bowen for his Reaction Series. 

15. Lamp shells. 

16. Upper Cretaceous (in New Zealand). 

17. Glowing clouds (from the French). 

18. The commonly used grainsize scale for sediments. 

19. The type of scale found on sharks and rays. 

20. Iapetus Ocean, which existed from 600 to 400Ma between 

Laurentia and Baltica. 

TAG apologies... 

The cover from TAG 147, showing the Classic Face at Windjana Gorge, 

Lennard River, in the Canning Basin was cropped from the original image 

supplied and therefore did not match the caption describing the image on 

the contents page (p1). TAG apologises for the error. The full image and 

matching caption appear here. 

Gifts to the GSA 

If you would like to make a gift or a 

bequest to the GSA, please contact the 

Executive Director, Sue Fletcher on 

(02) 9290 2194 or sue@gsa.org.au. 

Low-level aerial photo of the Classic Face (Aboriginal name Bangaldji) at Windjana 

Gorge, Lennard River, in the Canning Basin. The photo shows flat-lying Devonian 

reef-flat and back-reef limestones of the Pillara Limestone on the right, massive 

reef-margin limestone in the centre, and steeply dipping fore-reef limestones of the 

Napier Formation on the left. The steep dips are primarily depositional. 

This exposure came to be known as the 'Classic Face' among WAPET and GSWA 

geologists during the 1970s because it is generally acknowledged to be the world's 

best example of an ancient reef margin. Image courtesy Phil Playford. 


Calendar 

2008 

The International Year of 

Planet Earth 

www.esfs.org 

5–9 October 

Geological Society of America 

Annual Meeting 

Houston, Texas 

www.acsmeetings.org/2008 

8–10 October 

Australian Institute 

of Geoscientists 

Drilling for Geology 2008 

Conference venue: 

Royal on the Park 

Brisbane, Qld 

Email Mark Berry at 

mberry@amcconsultants.com.au 

17 October 

Terry Leach 

Symposium 2008 

Sydney, NSW 

www.smedg.org.au/LeachSymp08.html 

19-25 October 

The 2008 Collapse Calderas 

Workshop 

Queretaro, Mexico 

www.gvb-csic.es/CCW.htm 

29–31 October 

The Mining 2008 

Resources Convention 

Hilton Brisbane Hotel, Brisbane, Qld 

Email: info@verticalevents.com.au 

www.verticalevents.com.au/mining2008/ 

3-7 November 

Joint Australasian 

Mineralogical Seminar 

Zeehan, Western Tasmania 

www.tasmanianlapidary.org.au/jamss2 

008.htm 

12–14 November 

ACROFI-2, 

the Asian/Pacific Conference 

on current Fluid Inclusion 

research. 

An Asian location conference equivalent 

to the PACROFI (American) and 

ECROFI (European) conferences. 

Indian Institute of Technology, 

Kharagpur, India 

www.iitkgp.ac.in/ 


Fourth International 

Conference on the Geology of 

the Tethys 

Cairo, Egypt 

elsayedyoussef2005@yahoo.com 


Pacrim Conference 2008 

The Pacific Rim: Mineral Endowment, 

Discoveries & Exploration Frontiers 

Gold Coast, Qld 

Email: alisonm@ausimm.com.au 

www.ausimm.com.au 

28 November 

5th SA Explorers’ Conference 

email: kwills@flindersdiamonds.com 

2009 

22–26 February 

ASEG Brighter 

Deeper Greener 

Geophysics in a Changing 

Envronment 

Adelaide Convention Centre 

www.sapro.com.au/ASEG/home.htm 

Contact: aseg09@sapro.com.au 

14–17 April 

3rd International Maar 

Conference 

Marlargue, Argentina 

www.3imc.org 

22–26 June 

Goldschmidt 2009 — 

Challenges to our Volatile 

Planet 

Davos, Switzerland 

www.goldschmidt2009.org 

Contact: info@goldschmidt2009.org 


Geological Society of Australia Inc. Office Bearers 2008/2009 

MEMBERS OF COUNCIL 

AND EXECUTIVE 

President 

Peter Cawood 

University of Western Australia 

Vice President 

Brad Pillans 

Australian National University 

Secretary 

Myra Keep 

School of Earth & Geographical Sciences 

Treasurer 

Fons VandenBerg 


Past President 

Andy Gleadow 

University of Melbourne 

Hon Editor 

Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 

Tony Cockbain 

COUNCILLORS OF THE 

EXECUTIVE DIVISION 

Administration Officer 

Dr Simon Turner 

GEMOC 

Co-opted Members 

Jenny Bevan 

E de C Clarke Earth Science Museum 

Allan Collins 

University of Adelaide 

Jon Hronsky 

Western Mining Services, LLC 

Russell Korsch 

Geoscience Australia 

Marc Norman 


Jim Ross 

Ian Scrimgeour 

NT Geological Survey 

Greg Webb 

Qld University of Technology 

Chris Yeats 

CSIRO Australia 

STANDING COMMITTEES 

Geological Heritage 

National Convenor 

Susan White 

Australian Stratigraphy 

Commission 

National Convenor and 

External Territories Convenor 

Cathy Brown 


STATE CONVENORS 

ACT 

Cathy Brown 


New South Wales 

Lawrence Sherwin 

Geological Survey of New South Wales 

Northern Territory 

Pierre Kruse 

Northern Territory Geological Survey 

Queensland 

Ian Withnall 

Geological Survey of Queensland 

South Australia 

Wayne Cowley 

Primary Industries & Resources 


Tasmania 

Stephen Forsyth 

Mineral Resources Tasmania 

Victoria 

Fons VandenBerg 


Western Australia 

Roger Hocking 

Geological Survey of Western Australia 

DIVISIONS AND 

BRANCHES 

Australian Capital Territory 

Chair: Brad Pillans 


Secretary: Michelle Cooper 

New South Wales 

www.nsw.gsa.org.au 

Chair: Ron Vernon 

Macquarie University 

Secretary: Craig O’Neill 

Dept of Earth & Planetary Science, 


Northern Territory 

Chair: Christine Edgoose 


Secretary: Julie Hollis 


Queensland 

www.qld.gsa.org.au 

Chair: Greg Webb 

Queensland University of Technology 


www.sa.gsa.org.au 

Chair: Ian Clark 

University of South Australia 

Secretary: Jim Jago 

University of South Australia 

Tasmania 

Chair: Nick Direen 

FrOG Tech 

Secretary: Andrew McNeill 

CODES 

Victoria 

www.vic.gsa.org.au 

Chair: David Cantrill 

National Herbarium of Victoria 

Secretary: Adele Seymon 


Western Australia 

www.wa.gsa.org.au 

Chair: Chris Yeats 

CSIRO Exploration & Mining 

Secretary: Catherine Spaggiari 

Geological Survey of Western Australia 

Broken Hill Branch 

Chair: Barney Stevens 

Geological Survey of New South Wales 

Secretary: Kingsley Mills 

Hunter Valley Branch 

Chair: Valerie Smith 

Secretary: Phil Seccombe 

University of Newcastle 

SPECIALIST GROUPS 

Applied Geochemistry Specialist 

Group (SGAG) 

www.sgag.gsa.org.au 

Chair: Louisa Lawrance 

Secretary: Craig Rugless 

Association of Australasian 

Palaeontologists (AAP) 

www.es.mq.edu.au/mucep/aap/index 

Chair: Glenn Brock 

Department of Earth and Planetary 

Sciences 

Secretary: John Paterson 

University of New England 

Australasian Sedimentologists Group 

(ASG) 

Chair: Bradley Opdyke 


Secretary: Sarah Tynan 


Coal Geology (CGG) 

www.cgg.gsa.org.au 

Chair: Wes Nichols 

Secretary: Mark Biggs 

Earth Sciences History Group (ESHG) 

www.vic.gsa.org.au/eshg.htm 

Chair: Peter Dunn 

Secretary: John Blockley 

Economic Geology Specialist Group 

sgeg.gsa.org.au 

Chair: Frank Bierlein 


Secretary: Oliver Kreuzer 


Environmental Engineering & 

Hydrogeology Specialist Group 

(EEHSG) 

Chair: Ken Lawrie 


Secretary: Vanessa Wong 

Geochemistry, Mineralogy & 

Petrology Specialist Group 

(SGGMP) 

http://www.gsa.org.au/specialgroups/ 

sggmp.html 

Chair: Chris Clark 

Curtin University 

Secretary: Nick Timms 

Curtin University 

Geological Education (SGE) 

Chair: Greg McNamara 

Geoscience Education & Outreach 

Services 

Planetary Geoscience Specialist 

Group (SGPG) 

Chair: Graziella Caprarelli 

University of Technology 

Solid Earth Geophysics Specialist 

Group (SGSEG) 

www.gsa.org.au/specialgroups/sgseg. 

html 

Chair: Brian Kennett 


Secretary: Bruce Goleby 


Tectonics & Structural Geology 

Specialist Group (SGTSG) 

www.sgtsg.gsa.org.au 

Chair: Nathan Daczko 


Secretary: Cameron Quinn 

Geological Survey of NSW 

Volcanology (LAVA) 

www.es.mq.edu.au/geology/volcan/ 

hmpg.htm 

Chair: Rick Squire 

Monash University 

Secretary: Karin Orth 

Monash University 


The Australian Geologist 

Publishing Details 

Background Information 

The Australian Geologist (TAG) a quarterly member magazine which includes society news, 

conference details, special reports, feature articles, book reviews and other items of interest to Earth 

Scientists. Each issue has a long shelf-life and is read by more than 3,000 geologists, geophysicists, 

palaeontologists, hydrologists, geochemists, cartographers and geoscience educators from Australia 

and around the world. 

Schedule and Deadlines for 2008 / 2009 

I SSUE C OPY F INISHED ART I NSERTS 

December 2008 30 October 3 November 10 November 

March 2009 30 January 5 February 16 February 

June 2009 30 April 5 May 25 May 

September 2009 31 July 8 August 16 August 

Artwork 

Material can be supplied electronically via Email (if attachments, total to less than 2Mb) or mail 

CD (MAC or PC). The advertisements or photographs can be sent as jpeg, eps or tiff. Word files 

are not accepted as finished art (please convert to pdf). Do not embed logos, images/pictures in 

Word documents. If artwork cannot be supplied in any of the preferred formats listed above, an 

additional production/typesetting fee will be charged. Material must be minimum of 300 dpi for 

JPEG, EPS or TIFF formats. Logotypes or line symbols 800dpi or larger, eps or tiff. If advertisements 

are two colour, black plus one spot colour, please supply as black and magenta. If finished art is 

to be provided for the advertising material supply by the copy deadline (see above). CD’s will be 

returned upon request only. Please contact the Geological Society of Australia for more 

information or to discuss other options. 

Advertising Rates and Sizes 

Full colour advertising is available for inside-front and inside-back covers as well as the middle 

spread. Advance bookings are essential for colour advertising. Spot colour for other pages is 

available on request. Basic rates quoted are for finished art supplied in one of the file formats 

specified above. Discount rates apply where the same material is run in two issues within a calendar 

year. Where typesetting is required, only one typesetting fee is charged for multiple advertisements. 

Please note that an additional 10% GST applies to all advertising. 

DETAILS 1 ISSUE 2 ISSUES TYPESETTING 

Full Page 

250mm deep x 180mm wide (Type area) 

Full page Trim 275mm x 210mm plus 5mm Bleed 

Colour $1,350 $1,280 $tba 

Spot colour Price on request 

Black and White $750 $703 $tba 

1/2 Page Vertical 250mm deep x 88mm wide 


1/4 Page 125mm deep x 88mm wide 


1/2 Page Horizontal 125mm deep x 180mm wide 


1/3 Page Horizontal 80mm deep x 180mm wide 


2 Column Horizontal 125mm deep x 119mm wide 

(3 Column Page) Black and White $410 $390 $tba 

1 Column Vertical 250mm deep x 57mm wide 

(3 Column Page) Black and White $410 $390 $tba 

INSERTS (as supplied) PER ISSUE 

PER ISSUE 

A4 size $1,285 $1,180 

Colour Advertorials or Feature Articles 

Three to four page colour advertorials are accepted at a negotiable cost. 

It is requested however that these articles have a geological theme. 

Black and White Advertorials Cost negotiable. 

Contact Sue Fletcher, Executive Director Geological Society of Australia Inc 

Suite 706, 301 George Street Sydney NSW 2000 

Tel: 02 9290 2194 Fax: (02) 9290 2198 Email: info@gsa.org.au 

GENERAL NOTE 

The Australian Geologist is published by the Geological Society of 

Australia Inc four times a year, March, June, September and December. 

COPYRIGHT 

The Publication is copyright by the GSA Inc unless specifically stated 

otherwise. However, material in this issue may be photocopied by individuals 

for research or classroom use. Permission is also granted to use 

short articles, quotes, figures, tables, etc, for publication in scientific 

books and journals or in other scientific newsletters provided acknowledgement 

is made. For permission for any other use or publication of 

longer articles please contact the Honorary Editor. 

Every effort has been made to trace and acknowledge copyright 

holders of material in this publication. If any rights have been omitted, 

apologies are offered. 

The Geological Society of Australia Inc is a learned Society. The 

Australian Geologist is published by the Geological Society of Australia 

Inc, to provide information for the members and a forum for the 

expression of their professional interests and opinions. Observations, 

interpretations and opinions published herein are the responsibility of 

the contributors and are not necessarily supported by the Geological 

Society of Australia Inc or the Hon Editor. 

While the Hon Editor and the Geological Society of Australia Inc 

have taken all reasonable precautions and made all reasonable efforts 

to ensure the accuracy of material contained in this publication the 

aforesaid make no warranties, expressed or implied with respect to any 

of the material contained herein. 

BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE 

Advertising/Membership: All business enquiries and correspondence 

relating to advertising space, inserts and/or subscription matters, 

should be addressed to the Business Manager of the Society. 

EDITORIAL MATTERS 

Contributions: All editorial enquiries or contributions should be sent to 

tag@gsa.org.au or mailed to the GSA business office. 

Contributions are preferred as email. MS WORD documents for PC 

(or compatible) are the preferred file attachment. Photos, maps, etc, 

should be submitted as separate files and saved as either a .tif .pdf or 

.jpg at a resolution greater than 300 dpi. If contributors produce a 

file greater than 3MB it would be appreciated if they could be copied 

to CD and forwarded to the Hon Editor. Short clearly typed 

contributions (up to ~1000 words) are accepted, should a member be 

unable to send an email. The editor reserves the right to reject, revise 

and change text editorially. 

Photographs: Cover photograph submissions should preferably be 

digital taken at a resolution greater than 300dpi. Web resolution 

images and colour prints (unless exceptional) are not of sufficient 

quality for full colour printing. 

Colour transparencies are also acceptable. Photographs for articles 

may be prints, slides or digital images; they may be black and white 

and colour. 

48 | 

TAG September 2008

Feature - Geological Society of Australia

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