Feature: Uncovering Australia: minerals exploration in WA Henry ...

The Geological Societyof Australia IncNewsletter Number 146March 2008Feature: Uncovering Australia: minerals exploration in WAHenry William Beamish Talbot: Pioneering Geologistof Western AustraliaSpecial Report: AuScope and National Transects

The Australian GeologistNewsletter 146, March 2008Registered by Australia PostPublication No. PP243459/00091ISSN 0312 2471Guest Editor: Bill BirchProduction Editor: Heather CatchpoleSend contributions to: tag@gsa.org.auCentral Business OfficeExecutive Director: Sue FletcherSuite 706, 301 George StreetSydney NSW 2000Tel: (02) 9290 2194Fax: (02) 9290 2198Email: info@gsa.org.auGSA website: www.gsa.org.au22 From the President23 Honorary Editor’s Comment24 Society UpdateBusiness ReportMembership UpdateFrom the AJES Editor’s DeskEducation & Outreach11 News from the DivisionsSpecialist Group News20 Feature23 In FocusDesign and typesetting The Visible Word Pty LtdPrinted by Ligare Pty LtdDistributed by Trade Mailing & Fulfilment Pty Ltd25 Special Report29 News37 Letters to the Editor41 Book Reviews48 Obituaries50 Calendar51 Office BearersRottnest Island, 20 km west ofFremantle, Western Australia.Most of the island is built of latePleistocene dune limestone,deposited during the last glacialmaximum, when the shorelinewas 12 km west of the island.In addition, the island displays alate Pleistocene coral reef anda history of fluctuating sea levelduring the Holocene.52 Publishing DetailsPhoto courtesy of Phil Playford.

From the PresidentWe are now well into the International Year of PlanetEarth and, with only a few months to go to the AESC2008 in Perth and the end of my term as President,I thought I might reflect on the current state of the GSA.Accompanying the December issue of TAG, membersreceived a copy of the latest Register of Members of the Society(2007-2009). In addition to being a valuable directory forfriends and colleagues across the Society, the summary statisticsand demographics provide an up to date snapshot of theGSA as it is today, and, perhaps more importantly, the trends inmembership patterns over the last few years. As a Society wecan take some satisfaction that the membership decline thatwas of such major concern a couple of years ago has beenarrested, and even modestly reversed over the last two years.Total membership has risen by about ten percent from a lowpoint in 2005, although the total is still below the levels of afew years earlier. Importantly, the number of new membersrecruited to the Society is significantly higher than a few yearsago and this is an encouragement, although no cause for complacency.The causes for this reversal are, of course, complexand include factors external to GSA, including the resourcesboom and the effect this is having on employment of professionalgeoscientists. However there is also no doubt in my mindthat a significant factor has been the diligent attention givento recruitment issues by the Divisions and our ExecutiveDirector. The efforts of all involved are greatly appreciated.Membership of GSA has increased across all of the majormembership categories over the last three years including fullmembers, retired members and student members. It is alsopleasing to see that a steady increase in membership has beenISSUE COPY FINISHEDARTINSERTSJUNE 2008 30 Apr 9 May 16 JuneSEPTEMBER 2008 31 Jul 6 Aug 15 AugDECEMBER 2008 30 Oct 3 Nov 10 NovMARCH 2009 30 Jan 5 Feb 16 Marrecorded across all Divisions and almostall of our Specialist Groups. The growthin retired members is in line with trendsin our ageing population as the ‘babyboom’ demographic bulge begins tomove out of the active workforce. This particular trend is likelyto be with us for another decade yet. Yet we have also seena significant growth in Student membership, which is mostencouraging, but provides a challenge to us right across theSociety to ensure that these student members see value inretaining their membership beyond their student days.Attracting young professionals is obviously vital for the futurehealth of the GSA and needs to remain a priority across allparts of the Society.One of the strengths of our Society is its breadth, with ourmembers’ interests covering the full spectrum of the geologicalsciences. In terms of employment, our members cover a rangeof sectors, mainly in two broad clusters–education/research/government and minerals/petroleum/consulting– thatare roughly equal in size. Our most important means of cateringfor this diversity is, of course, through our 13 SpecialistGroups, which organise their own conferences, symposia, fieldtrips and publications etc. Reports on some of these activitiescan be found elsewhere in this edition of TAG. The SpecialistGroups provide an excellent opportunity for members to beinvolved with others of like mind in areas that interest themmost.Over many years of interacting with geoscientists aroundAustralia I have always been struck by the level of fascinationand passion that we as a group maintain for our particularbranch of science. I have found that those involved industry arealso fascinated by aspects of the fundamental science, andthose in a more research-oriented environment also find muchinterest in the more applied aspects. If we as a Society can providea forum not only for fostering our specialist interests butalso for contributing to the geosciences as a whole, then Ibelieve we are in good shape and moreover will have much tooffer to the wider community. The IYPE provides an opportunityfor the contribution of the geosciences to society to bemore clearly recognised and the AESC 2008 in Perth next Julywill be our premier event for the year. The Convention organisershave arranged a superb program that caters for all sectionsof the GSA and will be a magnificent showcase of all thatis best in what we do. I trust that as many as possible will beable to participate.ANDY GLEADOWPresident2 | TAGMarch 2008

Editor’s CommentAbstract thoughtsJanuary is not a good time to write an editorial. Holidaymode has kicked in and unless a public controversy withvague connections to the geosciences erupts, there islittle to stir the imagination. The ‘cricket and racism’ controversybriefly had me considering something on the geosciencebehind variations in cricket pitch behaviour, but that got nofurther than a heading! So, at a time of abstract thinking, mythoughts turned to abstracts. Let’s face it, abstracts are anecessary evil! We like reading those prepared by others, butloath writing our own. Just when you think that manuscript isfinished, you remember the abstract. If it’s a joint paper, youtry and persuade the junior author to write it. How manymanuscripts are gathering dust, unsubmitted, for want of anabstract? Then there’s those abstracts demanded by conferenceorganisers 12 months in advance!For me, January is ‘review and tick off’ time and one of mytasks in this category is the preparation of abstracts for paperspublished in AJES over the previous year. Not all papers, justthose with a mineralogical component of sufficient weight tobe sent off to Mineralogical Abstracts, as published bythe Mineralogical Society of Great Britain. Some older GSAmembers may recall the print version of ‘MinAbs’, discontinueda few years ago in favour of the entirely on-line option. Whileon-line access with search/browse facilities has made thingsmuch easier for the enquirer, it’s not as simple as just uploadingthe existing authors’ abstracts. Most are too long andcomplicated in their present form, requiring a fair bit ofediting and shortening, so I regard abstracting as a duty ratherthan something I look forward to doing. Hence, when theHonorary Editor proudly announced there would be two extraissues of AJES in 2007, my heart sank slightly while I murmuredcongratulations to Tony, as his initiative meant more abstracts.Fortunately, the availability of AJES abstracts on-line to GSAmembers through the Taylor and Francis connection makes mytask much easier, but the appropriate papers still have to beselected. My criteria are quite strict; a paper has to at leastmention a mineral name, describe or show an image of amineral, or use a mineralogical technique. For 2007, I chosesome 19 papers out of a total of 64, a healthy proportion whichindicates that mineralogy is not quite dead. When I first tookover this job from Robin Oliver, I was sufficiently enthusiasticto overlook each abstract lovingly crafted by the authors,instead preferring to read each paper and then write my ownabstract. That approach lasted only a year. Now mostlyI abstract the abstracts, greatly appreciating those that areshort and succinct. So when you prepare your next abstract, ordownload one from the Internet, spare a thought for usabstractors!That reminds me; what is the deadline for abstracts for thePerth AGC? What, I’ve missed it!All the best to TAG readers for 2008.BILL BIRCHMuseum VictoriaTAG March 2008| 3

SocietyUpdateBusiness ReportAs I write this column Sir Edmund Hillary’s state funeralis being conducted and recently two youngAustralian men crossed the Tasman by kayak. Themedia reminded me of Sir Edmund’s triumphs, which has methinking about other pioneers: Mawson, Shackleton, Stillwelland others from a different time with no GPS units or solaroperatedsatellite phones to assist them. These pioneers madesignificant contributions in their field – I can only imagine howthey struggled to find funding, benefactors or champions fortheir missions; how did they rally their support when they knewso little about where they were going and if there would be anytangible benefits in going there and coming back? Recently, thefirst official flight to the Antarctic on the glacial WilkinsRunway, near Casey was made – we don’t yet know how thiswill influence the scientific research done in the Antarctic, butwe do know that in the future it will be seen as a turning point.The GSA was previously described to me as a broad churchencompassing many geoscience disciplines; our members workin the Antarctic, Alice Springs, in remote and distant locationsand in the major cities that ring the Australian coastline. Unlikescientists (and adventurers) from earlier times, GSA memberscan stay in touch with their colleagues via the many telecommunicationsoptions available and can continue their on-goingprofessional development through their GSA membership.Specialist Groups focus on specific areas of geoscienceexpertise, leading to the creation of GSA sub-communities thatprovide opportunities to share ideas and communicate withlike-minded scientists. Whether it is an interest in volcanology(the drama that easily captures the youngest student), economicgeology, mining and exploration, older geological time,or one of the many other fields – GSA membership providesopportunities to understand and promote Earth processes,systems and products for on-going professional development.During March/April, local Division and Specialist Groups’committees hold their Annual General Meetings, vote for newoffice bearers and commence planning for upcoming activities.Early in the year is a great time to contact your local Divisionto contribute to your Division’s activities. This is your opportunityto influence how your membership dues are spent. Youmay want to see more workshops, field trips, symposia or miniconferences;or closer local links with other geoscience organisations,joint events, publishing ventures, student recognitionand encouragement nights or education and outreach activities.Now is the time to get involved. Whether you are close toretiring and bring a wealth of experience and contacts, or anearly careerist looking for professionaldevelopment and opportunities toconnect with the Earth Science community, getting involved ata local level benefits you. You can be involved at the level youwant – it isn’t just stamp licking!The ways we communicate about the geosciences havechanged in the past 50 years, but even with technologicalchanges the coming together of like-minded geoscientists toshare ideas, explore critical debate and to go into the fieldto examine first-hand still provide major opportunities forprofessional development.Throughout the year GSA Divisions and Specialist Groupsorganise many opportunities for learning. One of these, theAustralian Geological Convention (AGC) held biennially willtake place this year. It is a significant opportunity for geoscientiststo come together to present, listen and learn about theirfield or to keep abreast of developments outside their area ofexpertise. This year the 19th AGC will be held jointly with theAustralian Institute of Geoscientists as the Australian EarthScience Convention (AESC) 2008.Our major focus for 2008 is the AESC which will be held atthe Perth Convention Centre from Sunday 20 July to Thursday24 July. The conference’s five key themes will encompass cutting-edgescience under the heading ‘New Generation inGeosciences’. International speakers will include Mike Gurnis(Geophysics, California Institute of Technology), Jeff Taylor(Institute of Geophysics and Palaoentology, University ofHawaii), Donald Singer (Development and Application ofQuantitative Assessments, USGS), Phil Commander(International Association of Hydrogeologists) and PeterMcCabe (American Association of Petroleum Geologists) aswell as Australia’s Barry Drummond (Earth Monitoring Group,Geoscience Australia), all sure to inspire you. Dynamic fieldtrips will be organised for Palaeozoic Geology of the CanningBasin, the northern Pilbara Craton, Eastern Goldfields, SharkBay, the Halls Creek Orogen, Kalgoorlie, Meckering Fault Scarpand, of course, Mines and Wines of south-west WesternAustralia.This is your conference, get involved, register, go to Perth,present and develop yourself professionally.SUE FLETCHERExecutive Director4 | TAG March 2008

New membersThe GSA welcomes thefollowing new members tothe Society. May you allhave a long and beneficialassociation with the GSA:ACTR ETIRED M EMBERDavid TrailSAM EMBERXian TaoS TUDENT M EMBERRachael SkinnerVICM EMBERDavid HollowayWAM EMBERMatthew BaggottKristine DudgeonJames TyrrellS TUDENT M EMBERLoren BargievAlistair BarrettLylah BlampeyMargaret BrocxMatthew EllwoodBen HamesAlexander HewlettAlexandra MaskellJamie McArthurTim McCormackJonathan RideNicholas VinciulloTarna WerndlyMembership ProfileThe Register of Members included statisticalinformation about the GSA membership. Inthis edition of TAG we have reproduced someof those graphs for your interest. Measuringmembership renewals, membership categoriesand Specialist Group affiliation informs howwe are travelling today as a society; but comparingthat information against previous yearstakes that information to the next level and itbecomes useful data that demonstrate trends.Analysis of a trend can inform actions GSAtakes: for example the number of retiredmembers has increased from 324 members in2005 to 349 in 2007, full-fee paying membersare fewer in 2007 than it was in 2006 and aswe expected, student membership substantiallyincreased in 2007. The GSA’s subsidisedmembership categories are clearly increasing.What will that mean to the GSA in ten years ifthe trend continues? If you want to knowmore about some of the information we minefrom our database please contact the businessoffice.Total Members 2003 to 2007Looking at our membership over the past fiveyears, 2003 had the highest membership and2005 saw the greatest dip. Since then ourmembership has begun to creep up, althoughthe trend is modest. We do not know if this isa cyclical trend, or if joining the GSA hasbecome more attractive.New Membership 2004 to 2007Again 2005 saw not only the lowest numbersof membership renewals but also of newmembers, only 63 members joining the societycompared to 179 in 2007.(Continued on next page)Total Membership from 2003 to 2007 New Membership from 2004 to 2007Lost MembersThe following member is notreally lost, but his GSA mailcannot find him and is beingreturned to the office. If youknow the whereabouts ofthis member please let himknow we cannot find him orcontact the business office.Mr Chris MaysThank you to all members fortheir assistance with helpingus find ‘lost’ members.TAG March 2008 | 5

Employment Sectors 2007SHORT COURSES 2008CODESBROWNFIELDS9–20 JuneThere is no such thing as an abandoned mining field. All siteswhere metalliferous mining has occurred become the focus ofrenewed interest in times of economic prosperity.Exploration in data-rich environments close to existing mines hasbecome the preferred method of increasing company resourcesover the past few years.This CODES short course is designed to bring students up-to-datewith the latest techniques for exploring in data-rich environmentsand will cover cutting-edge technologies in geophysics,geochemistry and 3D visualisation and will use real data fromworld-class mineralised districts.ARC Centre ofExcellencein Ore Depositsat the Universityof TasmaniaORE DEPOSIT MODELS & EXPLORATION STRATEGIES27 October–7 NovemberThis short course is ideal for industry geologists who want tobroaden their knowledge of economic geology by gaining accessto the most up-to-date exploration models for key mineral deposittypes.Important features which relate to their genesis and explorationwill be discussed and exploration models will be presented foreach of the following deposit types: VHMS, Broken Hill type,Proterozoic Cu-Au, porphyry Cu-Mo-Au, orogenic gold, sedimenthostedmassive sulfides, epithermal Au-Ag, sedimentary Zn andCu, and magmatic Ni.A three-day pre-course workshop entitled Exploration onthe Edge will discuss real-life examples of exploration on theperiphery of mineralised systems and how to vector into the core.Day registrations to all CODES short courses are available.Employment SectorsIn 2007 the minerals industry was the largest employmentsector, followed by the tertiary, consulting sectors and thesurveys and CSIRO. This trend is consistent with data fromprevious years, as is the largest Specialist Group: EconomicGeology.For further information contactDr Tony Webster – Masters Coordinator, CODESTel: +61 (0)3 6226 1942 Fax +61 (0)3 6226 7662Email: awebster@utas.edu.auwww.codes.utas.edu.au/masters6 | TAG March 2008

SocietyUpdateFrom the AJES Hon Editor’sOn hyphenation andother mattersIrealise that I am somewhat pedantic when it comes tohyphenation. After all it makes quite a difference whetheryou say ”the debutant married a used-car salesman” or ”thedebutant married a used car salesman” and ”man eating lion”does not conjure up the same image as ”man-eating lion”:compound adjectives are important. However there is anotheruse for the hyphen. Given that most published works have fullyjustified columns, there is the frequent need to insert a hyphento split a word at the end of a line of type (‘soft hyphen’ inprinters’ jargon) and not enough attention is paid to this aspectof hyphenation. When proof reading AJES I try to ensure thatsuch end-of-line hyphens are put in the most suitable place.The inelegant word splits I have had to change include:‘explora-tion’, ‘effec-tive’, ‘ap-proach’, ‘mineralisa-tion’,‘se-quences’. Fortunately these word breaks have not been inthe same category as one I came across in a recent issue ofTime where it was stated (name changed to protect theperson’s identity): ‘John Smith’s small arse-nal was….’.Of course hyphenated words are frequently a ‘half-wayhouse’ between two non-hyphenated words and one longerword: eg ‘sea floor’, ‘sea-floor’ and ‘seafloor’. Keen-eyedreaders of AJES will have noticed that I have jumped from ’seafloor’ to ‘seafloor’, mainly because I got tired of adding thehyphen in ‘sea-floor spreading’. Those who want to read furtherabout the joys of hyphenation should look at New Hart’s Rule(Oxford University Press).Breaking and joining words can be a fascinating game. TheBritish comedian (and this dates me!) Nosmo King explainedthat his stage name came from a notice on the two halves ofbackstage doors– NO SMO KING. Dylan Thomas’ play UnderMilkwood originally had the suitably Welsh-sounding titleLlareggub until an eagle-eyed publisher noticed how the wordread backwards. Author CL Inker (remember those climbingbootnails?) in his short story The Ascent of F# has a number ofinteresting place names: Pushbar Toopen and Nsil (the signto which reads ‘To Nsil’). I suppose some of our geologicalcolleagues demonstrate a similar sense of humour in thetitle of their papers, witness the ’SWEAT’ hypothesis or, myparticular favourite, ‘Genesis of longitudinal and oghurd duneselucidated by rolling upon grease’.TONY COCKBAINHon Editor AJESAnnual Citation forExcellence in Reviewingfor the Year 2007It is my pleasure to commend the following persons forconsistently providing constructive and thoughtful reviews:Mal Kneeshaw, Dick Morris, Franco Pirajno and David Taylor.Reviewers 2007The Editor would like to thank the following people whoreviewed manuscripts submitted to, or published in, theAustralian Journal of Earth Sciences during 2007.Ravi AnandPeter Alt-EppingSteve AppleyardDennis ArnePeter BaillieBasil BalmeRon BerryTrevor BestowPaul BlakeRichard BlewettBill BoydBrendan BrookeAlan ButlerCharles ButtBob CarterPeter CawoodAllan ChivasTony CrawfordAndrew CrossBill CollinsPhilip CommanderPatrick De DeckkerMike DentithShawan DogramaciPhil FerencziChris FergussonAndrew FitzpatrickLarry FrakesGeoff FraserRaphael GarciaAndrew GliksonJohn GorterSteffen HagemannAnthony HarrisPeter HainesLyal HarrisAndrew HeapGraham HeinsonCharles HendersonPaul HesseGuy HoldgateMiaki IshiiJim JacksonJim JagoSimon JohnsonBrian JonesTony KempMal KneeshawRussell KorschXian-hua LiBernd LottermoserPatrick LyonsRoland MaasJoe McCallMike McWilliamsKingsley MillsDick MorrisEmma NelsonInakwu OdehAlan OrpinGordon PackhamColin PainJohn PandolfiDave PhillipsBrad PillansFranco PirajnoJohn PrescottAnya ReadingAnthony ReidMichael RoachJohn RobertsLachlan RutherfordScott SamsonPhil SchmidtIan ScrimgeourRussell ShawGraham ShieldsRay SmithKeith SircombePeter SouthgateRick SquireAlastair StewartJuergen StreitLin SutherlandIan SweetDavid TaylorGeoff TaylorChristine ThomasAlan ThorneLin SutherlandJohn VeeversMalcolm WallaceJohn WalsheMalcolm WalterSimon WildeWally WittJonathan WynnKarl-Heinz WyrwollBob YoungGavin YoungTAG March 2008 | 7

SocietyUpdateForthcoming PapersAJES 55/3REVIEW PAPERBLN Kennett and H Tkalcic:‘Dynamic Earth: crustal and mantle heterogeneity.’RESEARCH PAPERSSJ Mills, WD Birch, R Maas, D Phillips and IR Plimer:‘Lake Boga Granite, northwestern Victoria: mineralogy, geochemistryand geochronology’.BPJ Stevens, RW Page and A Crooks:‘Geochronology of Willyama Supergroup metavolcanics,metasediments and contemporaneous intrusions, Broken Hill,New South Wales’.R Offler and D Foster:‘Timing and development of oroclines in the southern NewEngland Orogen, New South Wales’.NG Direen, HMJ Stagg, PA Symonds and JB Colwell:‘Architecture of volcanic rifted margins: new insights from theExmouth–Gascoyne margin, Western Australia’.I Metcalfe, RS Nicoll and RJ Willink:‘Conodonts from the Permian–Triassic transition in Australiaand position of the Permian–Triassic boundary’.D Clark, M Dentith, KH Wyrwoll, Y Lu, V Dentand W Featherstone:‘Hyden Fault Scarp, Western Australia: paleoseismic evidencefor repeated Quaternary displacement in an intracratonic setting’.P W Haines, RM Hocking, K Grey and MK Stevens:‘Vines 1 revisited: are older Neoproterozoic glacial depositspreserved in Western Australia?’BE Cohen, KM Knesel, PM Vasconcelos, DS Thiedeand JM Hergt:‘40Ar/39Ar constraints on the timing and origin of Mioceneleucitite volcanism in southeastern Australia’.A Reid, M Hand, E Jagodzinski, D Kelsey and N Pearson:‘Paleoproterozoic orogenesis in the southeastern GawlerCraton, South Australia’.G A Kew, RJ Gilkes and CI Mathison:‘Nature and origins of granitic regolith in bauxite mine floorsin the Darling Range, Western Australia’.M Raiber and JA Webb:‘Tectonic control of Tertiary deposition in the Streatham Deep-Lead System in western Victoria’.KE Parker and JA Webb:‘Estuarine deposition and palaeoecology of a mid-Viséan tetrapodunit, Ducabrook Formation, central Queensland: implicationsfor tetrapod dispersal’.M Raveggi, D Giles, J Foden, M Raetz and K Ehlers:‘Source and significance of the felsic magmatism in thePaleoproterozoic to Mesoproterozoic Broken Hill Block, NewSouth Wales’.A D Heap and PT Harris:‘Geomorphology of the Australian margin and adjacentseafloor’.JA Salisbury, AG Tomkins and BF Schaefer:‘New insights into the size and timing of the Lawn Hill impactstructure: relationship to the Century Zn–Pb deposit’.Forthcoming Thematic IssuesGeochronology in AustraliaEvolution of the Bowen, Gunnedah and Surat BasinsWhere waters meet (hydrogeology issue)Know your geologist...Do you know these geologists?Hint: they were photographed in outback South Australiaduring an excursion, prior to the 1976 InternationalGeological Congress in Sydney. (See page 51.)AJES 55/4REVIEW PAPERH Tkalcic and BLN Kennett:‘Core structure and heterogeneity: a seismological perspective’.RESEARCH PAPERSAG Rossiter and CM Gray:‘Barium contents of granites: key to understanding crustalarchitecture in the southern Lachlan Fold Belt?’8 | TAG March 2008

SocietyUpdateEducation&Outreach2008 promises to be as busy as 2007 forEducation and Outreach activities. The International Year ofPlanet Earth (IYPE) will no doubt bring numerous activities tothe fore and provide many of us with a good excuse to dust offsome golden oldies for re-use in open days, schools programsand public liaison activities. However, IYPE is also the perfectvehicle for building new relationships with educators, governmentagencies and corporate Australia. Doing this will ensurea vibrant, ongoing and sustainable program of exciting, stimulatingand rewarding activities to foster greater interest in thegeosciences and associated careers into the future. Membersare urged to seize the opportunities IYPE-presents.GSA plans to be part of these developments throughimproving and extending existing activities and products aswell as the continuing development of new and dynamic materialsfor use in education and outreach programs.Fact-ites and QuizziclesAdditional Fact-ites and Quizzicles will be added to the GSAwebsite at www.gsa.org.au/resources/education throughoutthe year. If you have an idea for a particular subject make sureyou write it down and send it in. Not only will you be helpingdevelop these useful teaching tools, your authorship will beacknowledged on the product.EarthCachingEarthCaching is a growing phenomenon world-wide and feedbackfrom players has been very positive. There are not manyAustralian EarthCache sites so far but to show the impact theycan have on students and the wider public, this quote from arecent player who found and logged a site in Victoria makesthe point: “Our first EarthCache – and what a great way tolearn something about the local geology! We really enjoyed theview of the area from the vantage point at the posted co-ordinates,along with learning something interesting. Two membersof (our team) attended in discovering this EarthCache today”.GSA will continue to generate EarthCaches and review allAustralian EarthCache nominations, but members are againencouraged to submit proposals for their own EarthCaches.Follow the guidelines provided and submit your ownEarthCaches via the website: www.earthcache.org.Conferences: AESCThe Australian Earth Science Convention(AESC) conference theme'Geoscience in the Service of Society'will have education as a sub-theme with an excellent range ofpresentations. It will be the largest session of its type at a GSAconvention in many years. If you are planning to attend AESCmake sure you also attend these presentations and supportthose working on Education and Outreach who are working tomake a difference in the public understanding of geoscienceand career outcomes for future generations.Conference of the Australian Science TeachersAssociation (CONASTA)GSA will attend this year’s conference at the Gold Coast in July.Feedback and interest from teachers at the 2007 CONASTA wasvery encouraging and we plan to build on that good relationshipthis year with workshops, displays and one-on-one discussionswith teachers, principals and administrators.Global Geotourism2008 will see the inaugural Global Geotourism conferenceheld at Perth in August. Tourism is an important and evergrowingsector of the economy and geotourism is a burgeoningcomponent of this thriving industry. The conference willbring together geoscientists, tourism operators, academics,TAG March 2008 | 9

SocietyUpdateparks managers and others in the sector to discuss the futureand sustainable development of the industry. The synergiesbetween geology, tourism, education and outreach are obviousand anyone with an interest in these developments is urged toattend this conference.TESEP developmentsThe Teacher Earth Science Education Program (TESEP) now hasan advisory board of senior personnel from all sectors of thegeoscience community, a business plan to develop and delivera series of eight teacher professional development workshopsacross Australia over the next two years and the imprimatur ofthe Australian Science Teachers’ Association (ASTA) underwhose auspices it will be operated.The Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (PESA) notonly provided seed funding to start the program off but hasalso stepped up to become a principal partner to fund theprogram over the next three years. Several other major corporations,smaller companies and university groups have alsopledged support. However, TESEP will need significantly morefunding to operate and many more partners will be needed toensure it is a success. In order to avoid the program stumblingat the first hurdle the 2008 commencement of the program hasbeen rescheduled to the second half of the year to allowadditional partners to come on board. If you think you are ableto contribute in any way then please contact Greg McNamaraat geoservices@geoed.com.au or Jill Stevens at jill.stevens@exxonmobil.com to discuss your ideas or proposals further.Congratulations: Lachlan O’BrienAustralia's National Committee International Year of PlanetEarth judged the Australian International Year of Planet Earth(IYPE) student competition. Lachlan O’Brien is the winner andwill represent Australia at the IYPE global launch to be heldon 12 and 13 February 2008 at UNESCO Headquarters inParis. Geoscience Australia and the Geological Society ofAustralia are delighted to jointly send Lachlan to Paris.Thank you to all the competition entrants and to GeoscienceAustralia and the Geological Society of Australia for jointlyfunding this initiative.Further developmentsGSA Education and Outreach is always looking for new opportunitiesto connect with students, teachers and the wider community.The GSA membership is diverse and dynamic and I amhopeful you will use IYPE as a springboard. If you have thoughtof new and innovative approaches to education and outreachlet us know and together we can make them happen.Send all comments to Greg McNamara atgeoservices@geoed.com.auGREG McNAMARAEducation and Outreach Consultant10 | TAG March 2008

Newsfrom the DivisionsSouth AustraliaNOVEMBERCONFERENCE PERIOD28-30 November 2007The end of November has become aperiod of meetings and conferences inAdelaide organised and co-ordinated bythe various Earth Science organisations.Last year proved to be a bigger andbetter affair than ever.5th Sprigg Symposium,29 NovemberGSA (SA Division) working in collaborationwith the Co-operative Research Centre forLandscape, Environments and MineralExploration (CRC-LEME) organised thisSymposium at the University of Adelaideunder the theme ‘Regolith: Mineral Depositsand Environment’. The OrganisingCommittee included Graham Taylor(Convenor), John Keeling, Barry Cooper,Steven Hill, Adrian Fabris, Jessie Davey andAnna Petts.Approximately 110 registrants participatedin a day-long symposium at which 16papers were presented. A keynote addresswas given by Dr Steve Roger, ChiefExecutive of CRC-LEME, which was followedby papers by CRC-LEME members from theGeological Survey of South Australia andthe University of Adelaide. A poster sessionfeatured projects by university studentscompleting their Honours degrees. Notablewere presentations that described the geologyof the newly discovered Beverley 4-Mileuranium deposit, Australia’s largest uraniumdiscovery in more than 30 years.A volume of extended abstracts for themeeting has been published as GeologicalSociety of Australia Abstracts No 87.Additional copies of this volume are availablefrom the GSA Central Office. Thisvolume contains previously unpublisheddata on ’Beverley 4-Mile’.Paper and Poster presentations were asfollows:Brown, AD and Hill, SM‘Soil vs Biogeochemical expression of mineralisationburied by transported regolith:White Dam, Cu-Au, Curnamona Province,SA.’Cooper, BJ‘Sedimentary uranium: how it was firstdiscovered in the Frome Embayment.’Dart, RC, Hill, SM, Barovitch, KM andChittleborough, DJ‘Improving the reliability of Au-in-calcreteanomalies through the use of regolith-landformmapping and detailed assay analysis.’Davey, JE and Hill, SM‘Incorporating surficial geology and thesedimentary record into tectonic drivenlandscape evolution models.’Dubieniecki, CD and Hill, SM‘Constraints on the 4-Mile uranium mineralisationresulting from neo-tectonic activityin the northern Flinders Ranges.’Fabris, AJ, Keeling, JL and Fidler, RW‘Surface geochemical expression of bedrockbeneath thick sediment cover, CurnamonaProvince, South Australia.’Fidler, RW‘Reduce, reuse, recycle: the Gawler calcretereanalysis project.’Gallasch, DJ and Hill, SM‘Uranium mineralisation expression anddispersion in the regolith carbonate–bedrock–plant system near the 4-Mile Westuranium prospect.’Hector, AN and Hill, SM‘Upper 4-Mile Creek palaeosediments andassociated palaeolandscape reconstructions,Eromanga Basin, northern Flinders Ranges,South Australia.’Jennings, MF Hill, SM, Wright, C and Kirby, J‘Biogeochemical trace element cycling overthe 4-Mile West Uranium mineralisation byinvertebrate soil biota.’Joseph, J, Fabris, A and Worrall, L‘Electromagnetics for mineral explorationand environmental studies: results fromSouth Australia and Northern Territory.’Keeling, JL and Hore, SB‘Dr RC Sprigg – Contributions to geology andinsights into landscape evolution.’John Keeling (Assistant Director, CRC–LEME)to the left with Jim Jago, (Secretary GSA SADivision) to the right.Photo courtesy of Graham Taylor.CRC-LEME geologists at the 5th Sprigg Symposium. From the left are Steve Rogers (ChiefExecutive) with Ian Roach and Steve Hill. Photo courtesy of Graham Taylor.TAG March 2008 | 11

Lintern, MJ‘Gold in calcrete – 20 years on.’Mauger, AJ and Keeling, JL‘Spectral mapping mineral alteration in theCentral Gawler Gold province –Tarcoola casestudy.’McMahon, JMP and Hill, SM‘Biogeochemical and geochemical expressionsof uranium prospectivity across the 4-MileCreek catchment, South Australia.’Neimanis, M, Hill, SM and Hore, S‘Plant biogeochemical expression of the4-mile uranium mineralisation – FromeEmbayment, South Australia.’Petts, AE and Hill, SM‘Termitaria as regolith and landscapeattributes: a case study from Titania Auprospect, Northern Territory.’Pontual, S‘Spectral characteristics of regolith materialsand application to mineral exploration.’Reid, N, Hill, SM and Lewis, DM‘Biogeochemical prospecting in the TanamiDesert.’Rogers, SL‘Recent developments in regolith researchwith application to mineral exploration andenvironmental management.’Sheard, MJ‘Gawler Craton regolith benchmarking:Origins, types, utility and where.’4th South AustralianExplorers Conference30 November 2007The 4th Explorers Conference, held at theAMF Centre, Glenside was extraordinarilysuccessful, a fact that can be attributed tothe current mining boom.This one-day conference was sponsored byGSA (SA Division), AIG (SA Branch), AusIMM(Adelaide Branch), ASEG and the SouthAustralia Chamber of Minerals and Energy.Over 300 delegates attended with numberssufficiently great that potential registrantswere turned away due to the limited capacityof the venue. Members should register earlyfor future SA Explorers Conferences.In a keynote address, Dr Paul Heithersay,Executive Director, Primary Industries andResources SA announced new supportingfunding for exploration drilling in SouthAustralia.12 | TAG March 2008This was followed by 22 presentations, whichfocused on new explorations programmes,exploration in progress, mining feasibilityassessment and extant mine geology.A CD of presentations is available fromKevin Wills at 08 8132 7950 or email:kwills@flindersdiamonds.comWestern AustraliaHenry WilliamBeamish Talbot:Pioneering Geologist ofWestern AustraliaOn 16 November 2007 a memorial to one ofWestern Australia’s pioneering geologists wasunveiled in the small town of Nannup.Despite having no formal qualifications ingeology, Henry Talbot had a long career as ageologist working for extensive periods withthe Geological Survey of Western Australia(GSWA) and Western Mining Corporation Ltd(WMC). The unveiling of the memorial at hisgravesite was the culmination of an at-timesfrustrating ten-year effort by Talbot’s grandson,Len Talbot and the Western AustralianDivision of GSA to have the contributions ofthis unique explorer duly recognised.Henry William Beamish Talbot was born inCounty Cork in Ireland on 29 September1874. His family emigrated to New Zealandabout 1882, moving to Western Australia in1893. Talbot and his father joined the goldrush to Kalgoorlie but their efforts to findgold were unsuccessful and in the midninetiesthey turned to farming in the southwest. At about this time Talbot marriedTeresa Arnold and in 1896 she bore him ason, the first of their four children.In the late 1890s Henry Talbot and his youngfamily returned to the goldfields, where hewas employed at the government camel farmin Coolgardie. In 1899 he began his longcareer with Geological Survey of WesternAustralia (GSWA) as a field assistant. In 1901he was one of four GSWA staff to join theBrockman Expedition to explore theKimberley. The Government Geologist,Andrew Gibb Maitland, was a member of theexpedition and no doubt Talbot learned muchabout field observations and the science ofgeology from him during this and subsequentsurveys that the pair carried out together.In 1908, Talbot was seconded to join theCanning Expedition whose task was to surveya possible stock route from Wiluna in thenortheastern goldfields to Halls Creek in theeast Kimberley. Talbot’s instructions stated, inpart, ’Your trip will be a long and arduousone and doubtless you will have to enduremany hardships and privations but at thesame time you should feel proud that youhave been selected to undertake a pieceof work which will bring your name intoprominence throughout the world...’ Talbotreturned to Perth 426 days after setting out.Although this was his longest expedition, hegenerally spent seven to eight months a yearin the bush in the most remote areas of thestate. While he was surveying in theMurchison goldfield, his wife died suddenlyof a heart attack and he was unable to reachPerth until two days after her funeral,emphasising the isolation in which ourpioneer geologists carried out their duties.Talbot enlisted in the army at the end of1914 but was rejected for overseas servicebecause of a heart complaint. He became anarmy censor, but rejoined GSWA as a FieldGeologist in March 1916. Later that year heled a party of six men and 16 camels on areconnaissance excursion from Laverton tothe Warburton Range. While on a flying tripnear Mt Gosse, Talbot, geologist Edward deCourcy Clarke and camp hand JW Johnsonwere attacked by aborigines. Talbot wasslightly injured in the arm and chest butJohnson was more seriously wounded,ultimately dying from his injuries.In 1920 the heart ailment that had first beendiagnosed when Talbot joined the armycaused his compulsory retirement fromGSWA. On the advice of his doctor, Talbottook his entitlements as a lump sum (£336)in lieu of a pension (£100 pa) as, accordingto the doctor, he most likely would not havelong to enjoy it. Talbot seems not to havebeen too discouraged by this advice asshortly after he resigned he married hissecond wife, Elizabeth Elliot, a widow andsister of his first wife Teresa.

Talbot spent 1921 as a Pastoral Lease inspector,then joined the Freney Kimberley OilCompany exploring for oil in the CanningBasin. He spent nine years on this veryinteresting and exciting, if ultimatelyunsuccessful, venture.In 1930-31 the nation was buzzing withstories of Lasseter’s reef, the fabulously richgold reef found, then lost again, by Lasseterin 1897. An expedition in 1930 to re-locatethe reef had ended with Lasseter’s death andno sign of the reef. In 1931 a second searchwas mounted and two geologists, Talbotand his friend Torrington Blatchford,accompanied the expedition to the WesternAustralian border. Again, no indications ofgold were found but the lure of Lasseter’sReef endured.In 1933 Talbot joined WMC as its first seniorgeologist. WMC was a vibrant new companycommitted to using the latest explorationtechniques including aerial photography.Nonetheless, Talbot’s attributes were ideallysuited to their needs: he had an extensiveknowledge of the goldfields and its peopleand was a skilled interpreter of the highlyoxidised rocks which cover most of theprospective areas. Although Talbot wasnearly 60, few of the younger geologistscould keep up with him in the field. Hisroutine on mapping expeditions was to getup at about four in the morning, have agood breakfast and fill himself up withcopious quantities of tea. He would set outmapping at about five o’clock and keep goingwith nothing further to drink until hereturned to camp at about noon, his day’swork done. He retired from WMC in 1947 atthe age of 73. Obviously his heart conditionwas not as serious as originally thought!Talbot moved to Perth in 1953, then toNannup where he died in 1957.In about 1998, Len Talbot contacted theWestern Australian Division of GSA for supportto erect a memorial to recognise hisgrandfather’s pioneering contribution to thegeology of Western Australia. The committeeagreed to help, but also decided to approachWMC Resources to co-sponsor the project.The proposal was approved by the Shire ofNannup in 2000, and it was agreed that anatural cooling column of Bunbury Basaltshould form the center-piece of thememorial. There followed a protracted andfrustrating period: obtaining quotes and lettingcontracts, only to have the contractorsleave Nannup before the work could beundertaken. Finally, in October 2006, a quotefrom Hancock Memorials in Bunbury wasaccepted. Readymix Australia supplied theprism of basalt, and with financial supportfrom GSA and BHP Billiton (which had takenover WMC Resources), the memorial wascompleted, some fifty years after HenryWilliam Beamish Talbot’s death.The unveiling of the memorial was attendedby about 35 people including members of theTalbot family, GSA members, and representativesof BHP Billiton and the Shire ofNannup. Talbot’s working life was recountedby Phil Playford (GSWA) and Roy Woodall(WMC) and finally Len Talbot spoke about hisgrandfather, relating some of Talbot’s famousstories. The quotation on the memorialplaque, from Andrew Gibb Maitland on theoccasion of Talbot’s retirement from GSWA,reads: “Few men have contributed more toour knowledge of the inaccessible and aridregions of the state”, a fitting epitaph forone of the pioneers of Western Australiangeology.Henry Talbot on an expedition to an unknown location on an unknown date.TAG March 2008 | 13

Specialist Group NewsReport on the 2ndBi-annual Conference ofthe Geological Society ofAustralia Specialist Groupin Geochemistry,Mineralogy and Petrology(SGGMP)The second bi-annual SGGMP conference(the first being held in Port Macquarie, NSWin 2005) was held in Dunedin, New Zealandfrom 14–19 October, 2007. Some 30 attendeesfrom most Australian states and boththe North and South islands of New Zealandmade their way to a very cold, wet andwindy Dunedin for what was to be a mostenjoyable and successful field conference.This diverse group included university,government and museum researchers, alongwith a number of postgraduate studentsfrom both countries.The first event of the conference was a fieldexcursion investigating various outcropsassociated with the ~ 16–10 Ma intraplateDunedin volcano. This was held in Antarcticlikeconditions (with gale-force winds,driving rain and even sleet) on Sunday 14October and attended by most participants.We met at the Dunedin Gardens Motel andall got into two University of Otago minibuses,ably driven by the leaders for the day,Richard Price from the University of Waikato(who did his PhD on the Dunedin volcano atthe University of Otago) and Alan Cooperfrom the University of Otago. We drovethrough the city of Dunedin and out to NorthHead (mapped by Marshall in 1914), stoppingalong the way to examine and sample importantoutcrops in very difficult weather conditions.Due to the inclement weather, we thenhad our packed lunch in a café in PortChalmers. After lunch we visited the ScottMemorial and nearby outcrops of PortChalmers Breccia, then very briefly visited afew other outcrops of phonolite near MountCargill before heading back to our accommodationdue to the worsening weather. Then,after only being back in our motel rooms foran hour, the sun came out, though it wasstill cold. In the early evening we had an icebreakerin the staff room of the GeologyDepartment of the University of Otago. Weall warmed-up with fine New Zealand winesand beers and an assortment of snacks.The next day and a half were devoted to themore formal part of the conference, thetechnical program. Talks covered a widerange of topics from descriptions of newmineral species, to western Fiordland granulites,with everything in between including,to name but a few, gem-quality variscitewith gold inclusions from WA, carbonatitesfrom lamprophyre dyke swarms in southwestland, granite formation in extensional accretionaryorogens, the Dun Mountain Ophiolite,and in-situ isotopic analysis of zircons. Thus,the talks covered the fields of geochemistry,mineralogy and petrology, exactly what theSGGMP is all about. That night, most of usattended the conference dinner, consisting ofexcellent local New Zealand produce andwines in a nearby, very fine restaurant. In theearly hours of Tuesday morning, MilfordSound experienced a substantial earthquakeof around magnitude six on the Richter scale.The half-day on Tuesday 16 October wasdevoted to student presentations, and around10.00 am we all felt the aftershocks of theMilford Sound earthquake and ran to theGeology department’s seismometer just toverify that we had actually experienced aseismic shock! As a memento, some of us gotphotocopies of the seismograph. The studentpresentations were a credit to those involved,and it was good to see that we have a newgeneration of excellent geochemists, mineralogistsand petrologists coming through.Because of the high quality of these presentations,and efforts of the students involved,we have decided to have a prize at the nextbi-annual SGGMP conference for the beststudent presentation.After lunch on the Tuesday, those who hadregistered set off on the post-conferencefieldtrip to Southland, led by Richard Price,Michael Palin of the University of Otago, andIan Smith of Auckland University, who drovethe three mini-buses. Between Dunedin andInvercargill, sheep dominated the rolling hills,though dairy cattle are steadily replacingthem in this part of New Zealand. On theway, we passed through the towns of Clintonand Gore (though apparently not namedafter the two illustrious US politicians withthe same surnames). The weather wasn’tpromising, with rain and a cold wind, buthad improved by the time we reachedInvercargill, where we had a fine meal ina local restaurant.We woke up to, would you believe, evenbleaker weather on the Wednesday morningand so it was decided to change the programfor the day and head out to eastern Fiordlandfirst. Here we did a section along BorlandRoad to investigate outcrops of LateCretaceous orthogneiss and the BorlandGranite, with snow steadily falling and stoppingus from progressing further along theroad. The snow really highlighted the landscapein this part of the world, creating amountainous winter wonderland of snowcoveredtrees and glacial valleys. Numerousphotographs were taken and there was evenenough snow to make snowmen! A finepacked lunch was then had indoors in aroom at Borland Lodge. In the afternoon,Lava sequence, North Head Otago Peninsula.Photo courtesy Ian Graham.14 | TAG March 2008

we investigated well-exposed pillow lavasand breccias within the Brook Street Terraneon the coast at Howells Point near Riverton.With the weather getting worse we alldecided to head back to our accommodationearly. Another very good meal, supplementedby fine New Zealand wines, was had thatevening at a local restaurant just out ofInvercargill.The next morning saw the sun out and muchwarmer weather. The day’s activities beganwith a spectacular scenic overview fromBluff Lookout (composed of the ~ 260 MaBluff gabbro), followed by Stirling Point(tourist spot with a famous signpost) toinvestigate complex intrusive relationshipswithin the Bluff Intrusion. We then brieflyvisited Greenhills Group sedimentary rocks atOmaui Road quarry, before doing a traversethrough the Greenhills layered mafic-ultramaficcomplex of the Brook Street Terranealong coastal exposures at low tide. Onceagain the day culminated in a fine meal, thistime in a Thai restaurant in Invercargill.The final day of our trip saw us heading backtowards Riverton to investigate variouscoastal exposures of the Permian to JurassicLongwoods Igneous Complex between Orakaand Pahia points. Once again, the tide waslow and enabled us to safely traverse thenumerous boulders that dominate this coastline.Highlights of this morning were thecomposite dykes and a lone dozing NewZealand fur seal at Pahia Point, and the spectacularmafic-enclave-rich quartz diorite atKawakaputa Bay. Appropriately, this was alsoour final stop for the trip, and after a packedlunch at the final outcrop, we all headedback to the mini-buses for our drive back toDunedin.Overall, the second bi-annual SGGMP conferencewas a great success, especially in forgingstronger ties with our colleagues acrossthe Tasman and in giving postgraduate studentsa chance to present their results in amore informal and less stressful conferencewith positive feedback. To further this, wehave decided to set aside the small profitfrom this conference to help fund NewZealand students to attend future SGGMP biannualconferences.I would like to thank our New Zealandcolleagues, Alan Cooper (for arranging thevenue, catering, conference dinner, lunches,fieldtrips etc etc), Richard Price (for his generalorganizational skills, running of thefieldtrips, production of the field-guide etc),Michael Palin (for his coordination of theminibuses and running of the fieldtrips) andIan Smith (for his idea of holding this conferencein New Zealand, handling of finances,and expertise in finding superb food anywherein New Zealand) for help with makingthis a highly successful field conference.John Foden kindly offered to organise thethird bi-annual SGGMP field conference forKangaroo Island, South Australia in 2009.Copies of both the Extended ConferenceAbstracts (Geological Society of AustraliaAbstracts No. 86) and field guide (Guide bookfor field excursions Dunedin Volcano andigneous rocks of the Southland coast andeastern Fiordland) are available from theGSA Sydney Office.IAN GRAHAMSchool of Biological, Earth andEnvironmental SciencesUNSW, Sydney, NSWGroup at Borland Road, Fiordland, NewZealand. Photo courtesy Ian Graham.Otago University geology department.Photo courtesy Ian Graham.Redefining the ‘Newerand Older Volcanic(s) ’:an update.Cainozoic volcanic rocks in southeasternAustralia are historically recognised by theterms ‘Newer and Older Volcanic(s)’. TheNewer Volcanic(s), in particular, has internationalscientific and cultural significancebeing a global analogue for the diversegeomorphological features and products ofTAG March 2008 | 15

intraplate basaltic plains volcanism. Alongwith basaltic provinces in northernQueensland, it represents Australia’s mostrecent volcanic activity, contains Australia’syoungest volcanoes (Mt Gambier, Mt Schank)and is still considered as an active volcanicregion. Much of the western part of theNewer Volcanic(s) region is very likely tobecome Australia’s first UNESCO GlobalGeopark for geotourism (Joyce, 2007a). Boththe Newer and Older Volcanic(s) have alsobeen, and continue to be, important sourcesof construction materials for Victoria.Last year there was debate in TAG on theproblems with the definitions and terminologyof the ‘Newer and Older Volcanic(s)’.F VandenBerg raised the issue by arguingthat these conventional groupings were notbased on a sound lithostratigraphic definition,and adopted the approach of Price et al(2003) by subdividing the Cainozoic volcanicrocks of Victoria into provinces (cf igneousprovinces) (VandenBerg, 2007). In thisscheme, most parts of the conventionalNewer Volcanic(s) would constitute theWestern District Province (Price et al 2003),with the noteworthy exclusion of the lavaflows of the eastern Uplands. B Joyceresponded with a Letter to the Editor (Joyce,2007b) with supportive comments fromN Rosengren, R Cas and C Ollier. Furthercomment was invited through an emailforum-style discussion in LAVA News (Pittari,2007) with contributions from F VandenBerg,A Brakel, C Ollier, I Nicholls, L Sutherland andR Cas. The key issues are centred around theterms themselves, how the purpose of theterms is perceived (eg mapping unit, geographicregion or petrological grouping) andhow each of the groupings are defined. Thisreport is a summary of the key points of thediscussion from Joyce (2007b) and in LAVANews.‘Newer’ and ‘Older Volcanic(s)’As VandenBerg (2007) pointed out, the terms‘Upper/Newer Volcanic’ and ‘Older Volcanic’originate from the mapping of Melbourneand western Victoria in the 1860-70s, wellbefore the first Australian Code ofStratigraphic Nomenclature. A Brakel confirmedthat, because they were already wellknown, they were recognised and allowedusage in the first Code as stratigraphic units,despite not meeting essential requirements(eg formal definition, type section, geographically-derivedname). The majority of contributorsto this discussion are comfortable withthese historic terms, and it is now morepopular to use the plural ‘Volcanics’ in eachcase.Stratigraphic/Mapping UnitsAs A Brakel pointed out, the ‘Newer’ and‘Older Volcanics’ are accepted in theAustralian Code of StratigraphicNomenclature, although this does not necessarilypreclude future revision. An importantreason for categorising Cainozoic volcanicrocks into lithostratigraphic units is to satisfythe requirements of standard geologicalThank you GSA membersIn July 2007 the GSA Endowment Fund was created. Since then you gave$10,718.55 to the fund and your donations will be used to assist students with thecost of field and laboratory work and provide sponsorship for them to attend conferencesboth in Australia and overseas.The Endowment Fund can be included as part of your Estate planning. If you areinterested in making a bequest to the GSA please contact the Executive Director atthe business office.The GSA Endowment Fund is fully tax-deductible.Thank you GSA members – your gift makes adifference.maps and mapping reports. C Ollier notedthat “mapping units [should be distinct from]classification units based on a wide range ofgeological facts and interpretation”.F VandenBerg acknowledged that the ‘NewerVolcanics’ was a lithostratigraphic unit, andothers have also stated that this term ismore appropriate for this purpose than the‘Western District Province’ (A Brakel, C Ollier,R Cas). The ‘Western District Province’ is notonly defined by lithology, but also by age andgeography, and by definition, is not lithostratigraphic.In addition, “the word Provinceis no more stratigraphic than Basin orBatholith” (A Brakel). Whilst the ‘NewerVolcanics’ is more appropriate as a stratigraphicmapping unit, its formal definitionremains to be resolved. This problem, forexample, is the main obstacle towards decidingwhether the late Cainozoic lavas of theEastern Uplands should be included in the‘Newer Volcanics’ (F VandenBerg, B Joyce,N Rosengren).The ‘Older Volcanics’ is problematic becausethey “have many components of disparateage and are therefore not a discrete stratigraphicpackage” (R Cas). R Cas likens the‘Older Volcanics’ to a Supergroup and highlightsthe subdivisions of Day (1989).F VandenBerg prefers to refer only to individualdiscrete volcanic groups/formations (egPentland Hills Volcanics, Yaugher Group,Carrajung Volcanics, ‘Greensborough Phase’,Maude Basalt, Kerrs Road Basalt, PintadeenBasalt). It is also clear that rock units thatcould fit into the ‘Older Volcanics’ occuracross the NSW border (F Vandenberg, COllier; eg Monaro Volcanics, basalts in theSnowy Mountains), but the ‘Older Volcanics’are not recognised on NSW state geologicalmaps. If the ‘Older Volcanics’ are to continueas a stratigraphic mapping unit a cleardefinition must be agreed upon, includingthe various internal discrete volcanic packages,and any cross-border extent recognisedformally.16 | TAG March 2008

Various classification schemes for southeasternAustralian Cainozoic volcanic rocks areconceivable and even different styles of mapscan be drawn to represent the differentgroupings (C Ollier). “Debates about the definitionof Large Igneous Province [is] not avery distant topic from [this] debate...seeGillian Folgers website: www. mantleplumes.org/LIPClass.html”(C Ollier). The originalproblems raised by VandenBerg (2007)arose because of problems constructing standardgeological maps and reports for whichthe rules are more rigorous. For this purpose,the main challenge now is to devise “satisfactorydefinitions [for each grouping]…thatare practical, useful and follow the rules ofStratigraphic Nomenclature…[that] must saynot just what is in the basket, but also wherethe baskets’ limits are” (F VandenBerg).The Newer Volcanics have gone!”, exclaimed Bernie Joyce (left)“Oh, no! I didn’t mean to kill them!”, replied Fons VandenBerg (right)Northeast railway cutting at Royal Park, during the ESHG field trip, 30 November 2007.And there are indeed no Newer Volcanics in this cutting – and never have been – Royal Park istoo high above the adjacent NVP plains. Photo courtesy Craig Robertson.ADRIAN PITTARIEditor, LAVA NewsletterSchool of Earth and Ocean SciencesUniversity of Waikato, Hamilton,New ZealandGeographic andChronologic GroupingsGeographic and chronologic criteria, in additionto lithology, have been used to groupsoutheastern Australian Cainozoic volcanicrocks. I Nicholls suggested that ‘Newer’ and‘Older Volcanics’ could be replaced with‘Quaternary’ or ‘Late Tertiary-Quaternary’ and‘Tertiary Basaltic Provinces’, respectively, toprovide a “broad age framework” for the variousprovinces described in Price et al (2003).A more detailed age classification was suggestedby L Sutherland: Late Neogene volcanicfields (0-10 Ma), Early Neogene volcanicfields (10-23 Ma), Palaeogene volcanicfields (23-65 Ma), Late Cretaceous volcanicfields (65-105 Ma), Early Cretaceous volcanicfields (105-145 Ma) and Jurassic volcanicfields (145-200 Ma). This scheme wouldinclude in the Late Neogene field some olderbasalts found within the younger volcanicsprovince (eg Lady Julia Percy Island,Hamilton, Cosgrove), as well as

The Earth SciencesHistory GroupConference of theGeological Societyof Australia IncThe history of geology in the second halfof the nineteenth century: the story inAustralia, and in Victoria, from Selwyn andMcCoy to Gregory – 1853 to 1903.45 registrations were received for the recentESHG conference, held from Thursday 29November to Saturday 1 December 2007 inthe Fritz Loewe Lecture Theatre, School ofEarth Sciences, the University of Melbourne.On the first day 10 papers were presented,and during coffee breaks and lunch, participantswere able to inspect a display of volumesfrom the Earth Sciences Rare BookCollection, a selection of the GSA’s‘Australian Geology Hall Of Fame’ posters,and nine maps on loan from the GeologicalSurvey of Victoria’s exhibition for its 150thAnniversary in 2003 – see Beneath Our Feetby Peter O’Shea, Technical Record 2003/10www. tinyurl.com/3cqwu4.The Earth Sciences Rare Book Collection isheld at the Earth Sciences Library. It is animportant research collection of rare andearly geological and palaeontological texts.The collection includes many seminal worksfrom the 19th and early 20th centuries. Itincludes over 1,000 volumes and approximately65% of the items are the only knowncopy available in Australia (see EarthSciences Library web site at:www.lib.unimelb.edu.au/collections/earth/rarebooks/index.html.On the Thursday evening, at the Monthlymeeting of the GSA Victoria Division,Professor Geoffrey Blainey AC gave theFollowing his conference Keynote Address to a capacity audience at the November 2007 GSAVmeeting, Professor Geoffrey Blainey AC is presented with the conference volumes by ESHG ChairBernie Joyce. Photo courtesy Roger Pierson.Keynote Address on ‘Victorian Gold: A Bird’sEye View of the Victorian Goldfields, fromthe First Rushes to the First World War’. Afterenthusiastic discussion and comments, manymembers adjourned for an excellent dinnerat Café Italia in Carlton.On the second day five papers were presentedin the morning, and the ESHG BusinessMeeting was also held. Minutes of theBusiness Meeting will appear in a futureESHG Newsletter. In the afternoon 17 participantsattended the Royal Park field trip, ledby Bernie Joyce and Doug McCann.Twenty eight participated in the Deep LeadsField Trip to the Creswick area, led by GuyHoldgate on Saturday 1 December, beginningwith a tour of the Creswick Museum, followedby a field inspection of the Berry DeepLead system. After lunch at the historic miningtown of Clunes, the trip ended with aclimb up Mt Greenock scoria cone led byBernie Joyce, to locate and view MajorMitchell’s 1836 panorama of the localvolcanoes.Charles Lawrence talking on groundwater inVictoria, 1850-1900.Photo courtesy Roger Pierson.18 | TAG March 2008

New Australasian Mine mullock heap, nearCreswick. Photo courtesy Roger Pierson.The conference organisers wish to thankProfessor Geoffrey Blainey, Guido Tresoldi ofthe Earth Sciences Library, Peter O’Shea ofGeoscience Victoria, Sue Fletcher of the GSASydney office, Sandra McLaren, TomFromhold and Jonathan Giddings, Chairs ofthe conference sessions, as well as theSchool of Earth Sciences.The pre-conference details, originally on theweb site at: web.earthsci.unimelb.edu.au/Joyce/eshg.html will now be archived (witha link from the main website). A new frontpage reporting more about the conference,providing a compilation of conference presentations,and outlining future activities ofthe ESHG, will be made available.At the AESC 2008 meeting in Perth, we hopea new Committee will be taking over therunning of the ESHG, and be responsible fororganising a future conference, perhaps witha Western Australian emphasis!Two Melbourne conferencevolumes are for sale.Pierson, RR (Ed) 2007. The history of geologyin the second half of the nineteenth century:the story in Australia, and in Victoria, fromSelwyn and McCoy to Gregory – 1853 to1903. Earth Sciences History Group conference,Thursday 29 November to Saturday1 December, 2007. Volume of Short Papers,Special Publication No 1, Earth SciencesHistory Group, GSA Inc, Melbourne,Victoria. 70p.Holdgate, GR, 2007. Creswick deep leadsgoldfields tour ‘Buried rivers of gold’.Saturday 1 December, 2007; Earth SciencesHistory Group Field Guide Series No 1, EarthSciences History Group, GSA Inc, Melbourne,Victoria. 29p. (including Appendix 1: Joyce,Bernie. 2007. Volcanoes of the Creswick DeepLeads region in the Western Uplands ofVictoria, pp17-29.)Copies of these publications at $10 each pluspostage may be obtained from:The SecretaryEarth Sciences History Group, GSA Inc.(Address of current Secretary is available onthe GSA web site at www.gsa.org.au)ESHG CommitteeBERNIE JOYCE - ChairGuy Holdgate – SecretaryRoger Pierson – TreasurerDoug McCann – Newsletter EditorTAG March 2008 | 19

FeatureUncovering Australia: minerals exploration in WAWestern Australia (WA) is famed for its massive orebodies and huge mining operations, but with much ofthe state under deep regolith cover, geologists arelooking to new research technologies to discover the next generationof deposits.There is increasing recognition that WA’s mineral resourceboom cannot be limited to currently known mineral deposits.This is reflected in the relative drop-off in Australia’s share inglobal investments; while the amount of company expenditurein minerals exploration in Australia has gone up rapidly in thelast year (according to ABARE statistics), during 2005–2007Australia’s share of global industry expenditure decreased from19% to 13%.One of the reasons for this, according to Dr Steve Rogers,CEO of the Cooperative Research Centre for LandscapeEnvironments and Mineral Exploration (CRC-LEME), is thatAustralia is seen as a difficult landscape to explore because ofits deeply weathered surface. He cites the Yilgarn Craton, hometo rich greenstone-belt-derived gold deposits, iron mines at JackHills, Weld Range and Mt Gibson, as well as world-class nickelsulfidemining around Kambalda and much more. Around 90%of the Yilgarn is buried by in situ and transported (exotic)regolith and any further exploration of the area will have tocope with deep cover. This remaining area may be every bit asprospective as the Yilgarn mineral provinces we currentlyexploit, Rogers points out.Paul Roberts, Theme Leader – Discovering Australia's MineralResources, Minerals Down Under National Research Flagship atthe CSIRO, and part of the Australian Resources Research Centre(ARRC), says the government has recognised that it is necessaryto put money into this area.The Commonwealth government invested $34.6 million inthe newly-formed minerals National Research Flagship in theMay 2007 budget. Part of this contributes to a $20-millionper-yearresearch program headquartered at the ARRC, whosemain focus is on discovering new Australian mineral resources.“We are developing a suite of technologies aimed at helpingWest Australian and Australian geologists make the next generationof harder discoveries,” Roberts says.Traditionally geologists have operated in 2D using maps andcross sections, whereas techniques such as hyperspectral analysisof minerals in aerial surveys and down-hole mineral mappingare allowing geoscientists to operate in 3D, which is a significantchange, says Roberts.Hyperspectral analysisHyperspectral analysis utilises visible to near infrared (VNIR),short-wave infrared (SWIR) and thermal infrared (TIR). Newinstruments developed by CSIRO in Sydney and tested for thefirst time in WA are providing a new toolset for explorationgeologists and have further applications in environmental andstructural geology.Although gathered at different scales for decades, therehave been several advances in hyperspectral analysis technologywhich are improving our capacity to map for minerals. CSIROis working with State Geological Surveys to update and completenew maps, while the company HyVista, which conductsaerial hyperspectral surveys, late last year (October 2007) completedacquiring data for a 17,000 km 2 survey in Queensland aswell as for surveys in the Northern Territory and WesternAustralia. Further surveys have been contracted from the Pilbarato Kalgoorlie.Dr Tom Cudahy, a geoscientist with CSIRO Exploration andMining, notes that the first demonstration of the aerial component,HyMap TM , was at Kalgoorlie in conjunction with theGeological Survey of Western Australia. The 1:100,000 mapsheet created provides mineralogy of the regolith and superimposedalteration associated with Archaean gold mineralogy.Congratulations: Peter CawoodAustralian Academy of Science 2008 Awardwon by Western Australian scientistProfessor Peter Cawood from the University of WesternAustralia has been announced as a winner of a distinguishedaward for scientific excellence from the Australian Academyof Science, Australia’s peak science body.Professor Cawood will receive the 2008 Mawson Medal andLecture for significant contributions to understanding thehistory of the Earth’s structure. He is an international leaderin the application of structural geology, tectonic processesand geochronology.The Mawson Lecture will be delivered at the 19th GeologicalConvention, a joint conference of the Geological Society ofAustralia and the Australian Institute of Geoscientists to beheld in Perth from 20–24 July 2008, known as the AustralianEarth Sciences Convention (AESC).Further information on awards and recipients:www.science.org.au/awards/index.htmCourtesy Australian Academy of Science20 | TAG March 2008

“We have to know what’s at the surface very accurately.While this has been done previously using magnetics, gravityand EM by geophysicists, exploration geologists haven’t had thistechnology,” says Cudahy.“Today we rely on geologists poring over cores,” says CSIRO’sPaul Roberts. “While geologists will still need to pore over cores,technologies such as HyLogger TM will provide quantitative informationon what minerals are there.”Using spectroscopic methods, HyLogger TM and partner technologyHyChipper TM can determine mineralogy, clay mineral‘crystallinity’ and alteration for rocks and regolith.HyLogger TM is particularly useful in fine-grained samples orclay-rich regolith where mineral information can be difficult toget, says Roberts. It’s also able to log an average of 700 m ofcore per day, according to CSIRO statistics, and is being used ondiamond drill cores and drill chips.CSIRO is also developing a sensor for demonstration inWestern Australia that works in the thermal infrared(5,000–14,000 nanometres) and is capable of mapping frameworksilicates. The TIR (Thermal Infra Red) HyLogger TM(TIR-Logger) can be used to diagnose quartz/silica, feldspars,garnets, olivine, pyroxenes and carbonates.While CSIRO, in conjunction with CRC LEME and thePredictive Mineral Discovery CRC (pmd*CRC) are still working onthe technology and adding new features, Roberts notes therehas been “lots of interest in Australia and overseas”. He alsohopes that creating a series of instruments for most StateGeological Surveys in Australia will increase appetite andaccess.Learning from leavesDrilling and aerial mapping still come with costs, however.Predictive mineral exploration techniques can help to narrowthe search by utilising hydrogeochemistry to understandgroundwater mineral footprints using existing networks ofgroundwater bores, and sampling of native plants.Using plants to indicate mineralisation was first developedin Africa in the 1950s and 60s, but over time, analytical techniquesfor detecting trace elements and minerals in planttissue have improved and become more sensitive. Researchersare also taking a closer look at deep-rooted Australian nativeplants as opposed to more shallowly-rooted NorthernHemisphere plants, says CRC-LEME CEO Steve Rogers.Primary or supergene mineralisation potentially dissolves intothe groundwater and deep-rooted natives translocate these signaturesinto their above-ground organs (leaves, twigs, phylodesand seeds). Anomalous trace metal signatures in plant structurescan therefore indicate buried or ‘blind’ mineralisation.The river red gum has a tap root that goes down 40 to 50 m,for example, while the humble spinifex may reach down as faras 30 m underground. CSIRO geoscientist Dr Ravi Anand, CRC-LEME Program Leader (Mineral Exploration in areas of cover)has also led investigations into using the deep-rooted mulga inidentifying gold and base-metal deposits under cover in theYilgarn Craton.Anand is currently project leader for the Australian MineralsIndustry Research Association (AMIRA) P778 project: ‘Predictivegeochemistry in areas of transported overburden: mechanismsof anomaly formation’. The project description states thatresearchers will apply techniques such as vegetation analysis,isotope analysis to establish source of metal in plants and soil,groundwater geochemistry and redox analysis, as well as lookingat the role of microbes in gas generation and mineral-traceelement biotransformation (solubilisation/precipitation)throughout the profile.CRC-LEME will produce a phyto-exploration field guide byJune 2008.Andrew Hacket, Hylogger operator, loading a iron ore core trayon the HyLogger XY table. Photo courtesy Erick Ramanaidou.HydrogeologyDr David Gray, Stream Leader of the Minerals Down UnderNational Research Flagship, whose research also forms part ofthe AMIRA P778 predictive geochemistry project, is focusing onhydro-geochemical signatures to uncover underlying mineralisation.Gray is currently working on projects utilising the thousandsof bore holes from mineral exploration drilling, farm dams, productionbores and so on. Like the plant-sampling, the borewatersamples cover a large area of WA, providing regional mineralisationpatterns. The technique has already been used in theUS to create a database of specific geochemical signals usefulfor minerals exploration as well as environmental work, and isso far looking promising for Australian minerals exploration,particularly for base metals exploration.Many dissolved elements, including gold, can be used forexploration, as Gray pointed out in LEME's June 2006 MineralsBrief. Gray has examined hydrogeochemical expressions overmany deposits in WA, including Granny Smith, Sunrise Dam andLawlers, where he showed that dissolved gold, and otherTAG March 2008 | 21

David Gray from CSIRO, Patrice de Caritat from GeoscienceAustralia and others have been developing methods for regionaland prospect scale exploration using hydrogeochemistry.Photo courtesy David Gray.pathfinders such as arsenic, correlated closely with gold mineralisation.In the Harmony nickel deposit, 11 km northeast ofLeinster, groundwater metal concentrations "reflected theunderlying lithology with nickel and chromium-enrichedgroundwaters encountered near mineralised zones," Gray wrote.Modelling and mappingTwo areas in which the pmd*CRC has been concentratingresearch efforts are numerical modelling, and a large,multi-scale integration of 3D data over the Yilgarn, includinggeophysics, geochronology, metamorphic and intrusive events,Coming soon in anAJES near youFor the first time, the distribution of seabed geomorphicfeatures has been systematically mapped over much of theAustralian margin and adjacent seafloor. In their paper‘Geomorphology’ of the Australian margin and adjacentseafloor’, Andrew Heap and Peter Harris of GeoscienceAustralia map some nine million km 2 of the seabed surroundingthe Australian mainland and the island territories ofChristmas, Cocos (Keeling), Macquarie and Norfolk. A totalof 6,702 individual geomorphic features was mapped.The area mapped comprises 7% of the ocean area covered byglobal exclusive economic zones. Compared to other regions,the Australian area is relatively under-represented in shelf andabyssal plain/deep ocean floor area and over-represented inslope area. Marginal plateaus represent 20% of the totalworld area of marginal plateaus and the area contains 1% ofthe total number of seamounts identified in the world ocean.The area is subdivided into 10 regions defined on the basisof assemblages of diagnostic geomorphic features. Such asubdivision is a useful starting point for defining seabedenvironments, and coupled with high-quality biological datacan be used to develop strategies for ecosystem-basedmanagement of Australia’s ocean resources.AD Heap and PT Harris 2008. ‘Geomorphology of theAustralian margin and adjacent seafloor’. Australian Journalof Earth Sciences 55 (4).mineralisation events and fluid-flow paths. The result, accordingto Paul Roberts, who has worked extensively with the CRC,is an understanding of gold mineral systems in an integratedway that is second to none, from the top of the crust to theMoho.Numerical modelling techniques have been applied extensivelythroughout WA to understand and target ore systems,particularly the relationship between deformation and fluidflow and thermal evolution. Some of the deposits in WA wherethe system has been applied are the Wallaby gold deposit in theLaverton district, Sunrise Dam, Kundana, west of Kalgoorlie, andthe St Ives goldfield, as well as uranium and gold deposits inSouth Australia.The future of minerals explorationWhere are we heading with these new techniques, and how isthe future looking for minerals exploration in WA?Despite the closure of both pmd*CRC and CRC-LEME (inJune 2008) Rogers believes a lot of the new research will be ableto carry on through the CSIRO minerals flagship, the CRC-LEMEuniversity partners and State government geoscience agencies.He said that AMIRA is currently seeking industry interest for anew CRC in exploration undercover.Roberts agrees that in the short term, research will revertback to CRC partner organisations, but that there will be a gapof at least one year before a new minerals CRC is up andrunning.In terms of exploration, predictive geochemical techniquesare proving promising in the test bed of resource-rich WesternAustralia. Australia’s deep weathering profile is ideal terrain forexploration at a regional scale and new projects looking athyperspectral analysis, plant and groundwater sampling areshowing some promising results. In terms of promoting investmentin minerals exploration, these sorts of techniques — whichmay yield the next generation of major discoveries — may proveto be exactly what is needed to further expand Australia’smining and minerals industries.HEATHER CATCHPOLEHeather Catchpole is production editor for The AustralianGeologist and a freelance science writer who writes regularlyfor the ABC, Cosmos magazine and CSIRO, and has appeared inprint and online publications internationally. She is author offive children's science books and has a BSc in Earth Scienceand Masters of Science Communication from the AustralianNational University.REFERENCES‘Minerals Brief: Regolith Science in Minerals Exploration’,CRC-LEME, June 2006 Ed 10.www.crcleme.org.au/Pubs/PubsOther/LEME%20Minerals%20Brief%20June2006%20(2).pdf22 | TAG March 2008

In FocusMore about Earth Science in Western Australia forAESC visitors: the University of Western AustraliaOn the banks of the Swan River, within sight of Perthcity and a mere six kilometres from the beautifulbeaches of the Indian Ocean, lies the tranquil gardencampus of the University of Western Australia (UWA) (listedas housing one of Western Australia’s geological institutions inthe Feature Article in TAG 145). The School of Earth andGeographical Sciences occupies colonnaded heritage as well asmodern buildings at the north end of the campus and anothermodern building with extensive laboratories at the south end ofthe campus. It enjoys well-equipped lecture theatres and stateof-the-artcomputing and analytical facilities and access to allthe extensive infrastructure of one of Australia’s premieruniversities.The UWA campus itself is well worth visiting if you havetime. There is a direct bus route from the Convention Centre, butmore energetic delegates might enjoy a four-km scenic riversidestroll on a dual-use path. Wander through UWA’s grounds andsee resident peacocks, a Japanese Garden, the Tropical Groveand the Sunken Garden. There are four theatres (including anoutdoor cinema), eleven libraries, an Art Gallery and two museums,one anthropological and one an Earth Science Museum.This latter is an important part of the School of Earth andGeographical Sciences. As well as the galleries (used to enhancethe undergraduate learning experience), the collections of over140,000 curated specimens and extensive unregistered materialare a vital teaching and research resource and include all theavailable material from the thousand or so geology researchtheses kept in the Museum’s thesis library. Much of the State’sgeological heritage is thus preserved for future generations.The original geology building at the University of WesternAustralia. Photo courtesy JC Bevan.Earth Science MuseumThe Museum will be open on ALL days of the AESC in July,from 9.30 am to 5.00 pm. Normal opening hours are:Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9.30 am to 5.00pm, and on Sundays from 2.00 pm to 5.00 pm, althoughthe Curator is there full-time, and can open the Museumby special request.Contact details: Mrs JC Bevan, Senior Curator,E de C Clarke Earth Science Museum, School of Earth andGeographical Sciences, the University of Western Australia,M004, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley WA 6009Tel: 08 6488 2681 Fax: 08 6488 1037Email: jbevan@ cyllene.uwa.edu.au or see the iinformative and interesting web site at:www.earthmuseum.segs.uwa.edu.auThe E de C Clarke Earth Science Museum (named for one ofUWA’s early Professors) is entered through an Eocene Garden,which includes flora typical of those existing in the area whenWestern Australia was still joined to Antarctica. The main museumarea has colourful didactic displays covering many aspectsof Earth Science, from diamonds to soils, with special referenceto WA. There are smaller displays in the adjoining Geologybuilding foyer, and another reference gallery of rocks andminerals. In contrast to many larger museums, here there is awell-informed Senior Curator (with a research background) onsite, who is happy to discuss geological topics with everyonefrom dinosaur-obsessed tots to senior international researchers.She also runs educational programs for school students and forEarth Science teachers and many other outreach initiatives suchas a ’Friends of the Earth Science Museum‘ group. Adjunct toTAG March 2008 | 23

the museum is the Earth Science Discovery Centre with 3D projectionand 3D computer facilities, used by the school and alsoavailable for outreach activities.Undergraduate degrees and programs offered reflect thewide-ranging expertise available and include Geology,Geography, Soil Science, Environmental Geoscience, EarthScience, Geochemistry, Petroleum Geoscience, MineralGeoscience, Physical Science, Geology and Resource Economics,Marine and Coastal Management and Land and WaterManagement, Environmental Science, Marine Science, NaturalResource Management, Land Rehabilitation, Horticulture andViticulture, Urban and Regional Planning and Agriculture.The Geology Building at the University of Western Australia.Photo courtesy JC Bevan.Postgraduate options include Graduate Certificates andDiplomas, and Masters of Science or Regional Development, allby coursework, and research-only degrees including MSc andPhD in all disciplines. Students undertake fieldwork throughoutWA and abroad, including China, India, Africa, Madagascar and,nearer home, in Indonesia and East Timor.JENNY BEVANThe School of Earth and Geographical Sciences was created in 2002 by merging three existing Departments:Geology and Geophysics, Geography, and Soil Science and Plant Nutrition. Staff here carry out research in all areasof the Earth and geographical sciences, including resource-based studies for mining and oil which may includetectonics, fluid inclusion work, biostratigraphy, sedimentology, geophysics and geochemistry; environmental andgeomechanical studies and study of soils, particularly in terms of agriculture and mine rehabilitation as well as‘blue sky’ scientific discovery in many fields. Human Geography and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are alsoimportant. The school includes, or is associated with, four major resource centres funded by government and theresource industry, which gives them close links with other universities and research institutions Australia-wide. Asmentioned in the Feature article in the last issue of TAG, the school incorporates the new and vigorous Centre forExploration Targeting. The strong research culture, benefitting from funding associated with Western Australia’spowerful resources and agricultural sectors, underpins undergraduate and postgraduate teaching, providing anenriching experience for students.24 | TAG March 2008

Special ReportAuScope and National TransectsThe 2003 National Strategic Plan for the Earth Sciencesadvocated that: ”That the nation invest in a major geotransectstudy to gain fundamental information about theAustralian plate, from its basic structure and evolution through toits mineral and petroleum systems and surficial processes.”The establishment of the AuScope initiative, funded under theNational Collaborative Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), helps to meetthis recommendation. There is funding for Earth Imaging, including theestablishment of data infrastructure through transects across regionsof major scientific interest.In 2003 the necessary resources needed to undertake even a fractionof such a Geotransect program were not available, but subsequentmajor investment by the Australian Government means that, with suitableco-ordination, we can now make significant progress. The OnshoreEnergy Security Program at Geoscience Australia will be making amajor investment in seismic reflection profiling, of the order of 2,500line km, with the aim of improved understanding of energy resourcesin less explored areas. The AuScope Earth Imaging funding should besufficient for three 200-km segments of seismic reflection work, withassociated collection of other geophysical information.Figure 1: Configuration of geotransect corridors acrossthe Australian continent. Courtesy: Brian KennettTAG March 2008 | 25

Figure 2: Current and potential reflection profiling. Orange linesindicated data acquired with explosive sources, and red lines dataacquired using vibrators. The dark red lines show lines acquiredusing the OESP program, together with the trial AuScope segmentin north Queensland (dark green). The remaining segmentsrepresent concepts from OESP (pink), AuScope (turquoise) andNSW (light blue).Courtesy: Geological background from Geoscience Australiadata base.Through the National Committee for Earth Sciences, a GeotransectWorking Group chaired by Prof. Brian Kennett (ANU) has been established.As a basis for planning, this working group has endorsed theconcept of designating a suite of corridors across the continent thatcross major geological features (Figure 1). Collectively, the results fromsuch corridors provide major insight into both the scientific issuesassociated with the structure and evolution of the continent, and theassociated resources. Within each corridor a full range of geophysical,geological, geochemical and geochronological information should beassembled building on existing and planned data sources (see Figure 2).The transect corridors are of the order of a couple of hundred kilometresacross, but certainly nothing should exclude taking in nearbyinformation. For convenience, each corridor has been named. It ishoped that identification of the corridors will help to focus activity, inparticular the framing of important geological questions and the coordinationof existing information of all types.A trial AuScope transect of 200 km of reflection profiling was carriedout in July 2007, in conjunction with Geoscience Australia and theGeological Survey of Queensland, which conducted 1,250 km ofreflection work on three lines from Cloncurry to near Croydon, acrossthe Georgetown Inlier and from Mt Surprise through Charters Towers.The AuScope component from just south of Mareeba to MtSurprise adds a further crossing of the expected location of theTasman Line and hence improves three-dimensional coverage in thisarea.In July 2007, the Earth Imaging component of AuScope issued acall for proposals for data infrastructure in the form of acquisition ofdata along transect segments during the next three years. The proposalswere to be directed at elucidating the structure and evolution of thecontinent. Six detailed proposals were submitted and after carefulreview for both scientific and technical merit, a number of priorityprojects can be now identified (Figure 3).26 | TAG March 2008

Figure 3: Endorsed transect projects from AuScope Earth Imaging.Most data infrastructure projects are larger than can be fundeddirectly by AuScope and so co-investment will be needed to gainthe maximum benefit.Courtesy: Geological background from Geoscience Australiadata base.The highest priority has been given to a profile across the northernedge of the Gawler Craton into the Musgrave Block crossing fromSouth Australia into the Northern Territory (Gawler-Musgrave in Fig 3),and to a profile from the Pilbara to the northern edge of the YilgarnCraton in Western Australia (Capricorn in Fig 3). At the next level ofpriority is a profile across the Newer Volcanic Province and theDelamerian Orogen connecting from near Stawell in Victoria to MtGambier in South Australia (NVP in Figure 3). Other endorsed projectsare the installation of passive seismic recording around the recentreflection profiles in northern Queensland (Isa-Coast SP in Figure 3), aprofile across the southern edge of the Mt Isa Block into the ThompsonOrogen (Diamantina in Figure 3) and a profile through the Halls CreekFold Belt in the Kimberley Block (Halls Creek in Figure 3).Current planning is based on linking the AuScope experiment in northernSouth Australia with work under the Onshore Energy Security Programduring 2008, thereby minimising the mobilisation costs for the survey.The configuration of data infrastructure acquisition by AuScopeEarth Imaging in 2009–2011 will depend on the availability of seismicreflection crews and sufficient co-investment in funding to enable thescientific objectives to be fully met.The greatest challenge is how we can organise the full range ofcomplementary studies (geophysical, geological, geochemical andgeochronological) needed for each geotransect, and obtain the necessaryco-investment required to make this happen.The Geotransect Working Group invites expressions of interestaimed at forming Project Definition Groups for each of the prioritytransects. These groups should then work towards formulating workplans and specific proposals for funding from ARC, or wherever elsemight be appropriate.BRIAN KENNETTTAG March 2008 | 27

NEWSA volcano on ourdoorstep – helping ourneighboursWaiting for the next volcanic eruption inSouth Australia, Victoria or even Queensland isproblematic for Australians wanting to view anactive volcano, and Heard Island is too faraway. Australian volcano enthusiasts musttravel outside Australia and the most accessibleand affordable active volcano is just threehours’ flying time from Sydney.Port Vila is the capital of Vanuatu, a 900 kmlong chain of volcanoes in the southwestPacific. Vanuatu straddles the Australian Plateboundary where the Pacific Plate is subductedto the west beneath the Australian Plate.Subject each year to tropical cyclones, thelocals are also threatened by destructive earthquakes,tsunamis and active volcanoes.Mt Yasur, an active volcano on the island ofTanna is a one-hour flight south of Port Vila ina Twin Otter and another two hours by 4WDacross the island from the airport. Several touroperators in Port Vila offer this trip subject toweather. One operator suggested that if therehas been no rain, and the volcano shows nosign of activity they don’t offer tours, and if itis raining the volcano is enshrouded in mist soagain they don’t offer tours. As can be seenfrom the pictures, we were lucky on bothcounts. The volcano was active and the weatherclear.With our hired guide (part of the tour package)we set out from the village where we hadbooked accommodation for the night, to climbthe 360 m peak. The access road to the summitpasses through beautiful rainforest pastthe base of a giant banyan tree where a tollcollector sits. Incredibly, near the summit, theclimber is confronted by a post-box, in themidst of a barren landscape strewn with ejecta,some of them metres across.Explosions were audible earlier in the afternoonin the village 10 km away; dull at thatdistance but with a view of the summit.We could see an accompanying puff of ashfollowing each boom. At the summit theexplosions were much more frequent, minutesnot tens of minutes apart and incredibly loud.We could also see that the ash cloud wasdosed with glowing bombs and we sat on thesummit for a while to see which way the windwas taking them. Only then did the guiderelax but asked us not to go downwind andsuggested we not run when partially moltenrocks rained down but stand and watch andget out of the way if one looked as if it wouldland on us. Scary advice knowing that twoguides and a tourist have been killed on thevolcano in recent years. None of us plannedon being enveloped in the acrid gas cloud thatdrifted downwind even though it was fromthat northern side of the crater that the lavalake would have been visible.As the sun set, the temperature plummetedand we were quite cold in the wind but theviews just kept getting better. The whole craterglowed fiercely for a second then with a veryloud explosion ejected hundreds of glowing redbombs hundreds of metres into the air, someup to a metre across, swirling end-over-endlike soft dough which landed with a loudcrump as close as 100 m from where we sat.Then the ash cloud enveloped everything.There were two craters visible separated by anarrow ridge and we learned to distinguishwhich explosion came from which crater eventhough the ash from the previous blast oftenobscured the view.After four hours or so, we tore ourselves awayand headed off the mountain walking downthe track with torchlight in pitch dark, glad toput a safe distance between us and themountain but reluctant to leave the beautifulfireworks display. (See page 39.)It rained all the next day and we lost ourviews of the volcano but did manage to finda seismograph used to warn of impendingeruptions. It had a satellite uplink and the datawas transmitted back to Port Vila and France.Next day back in Port Vila I took the opportunityto visit the centre responsible for monitoringthe earthquakes and volcanoes only to findthat vandals had burned down their office afew months before. They lost all their data,reports and, even worse, their equipment andTourists and local guide (note footwear) at the summit of Mt Yasur, 17 October 2007.Photo courtesy Kevin McCue.TAG March 2008 | 29

computers. There was not a single operationalseismograph. They currently rely on the Frenchto issue warnings of the volcano status byemail and have no information on earthquakeactivity or the threat of tsunamis. As I left theywere writing applications for foreign aid, toFrance and New Zealand, to help rebuild theirinfrastructure.Surely this has to be a very good cause forAustralian overseas aid to help restore goodwillin the southwest Pacific. The AustralianGovernment could provide aid to install anearthquake operations centre and develop along-term training program. Rapid dataexchange would provide an early warning forAustralia either the next time a tsunamigenicearthquake originates in the southwest Pacificor when aid officials have to visit to providerelief after the next destructive earthquake orvolcanic eruption there. This would cost a fractionof what the April 2007 false alarm over apossibly damaging tsunami striking Sydneyharbour cost.KEVIN MCCUEAustralian Seismological CentreTESEP calls for partnersThe PESA initiative known as the Teacher EarthScience Education Programme (TESEP) is currentlycalling for partners. TESEP is endorsedand supported by the Australian ScienceTeachers Association (ASTA) and is assisted byan advisory board comprising senior personnelfrom all sectors of the Australian geosciencecommunity.PESA is pleased to announce it will be aPrincipal Partner ($30,000/year for three years)and that several major corporations are likelyto join as principal partners in the near futurein this eastern states education programme.Other committed funding partners are theUniversity of Sydney, the Australian NationalUniversity and Macquarie University. Notionalintent to commit has been received from severalother organisations and in-kind supportintent has also been promised by several otherinstitutions and companies.‘The Challenging Earth‘ professional developmentworkshop series 2008–2010, due tobegin in March this year, has been delayed toAugust so sufficient funding can be raised toguarantee appropriate levels of teachingresource development and workshop facilitationat multiple centres.A very supportive science teacher audiencewas present at the international ScienceTeachers’ Conference (CONASTA) held in Perthin July last year when the concept of TESEPwas launched. The five TESEP state coordinatorteachers and the TESEP Executive Officer havereceived enthusiastic response from Australianteachers of secondary Earth and Environmentalscience across the country. Lists of teacherskeen to participate in the workshops in thestates and territories have been compiled.Participating in this Professional Developmentprogramme will have a significant effect onsourcing tertiary entry students and traineesfor Energy/Minerals and Sciences industriesand has the potential to broaden theeducation of Australian youth significantly.Please give the funding of TESEP your consideration.Contact Jill Stevens (Chairperson)jill.stevens@exxonmobil.com orGreg McNamara (Executive Officer)geoservices@geoed.com.au, to discuss yourparticipation further.Australia and theIntegrated Ocean DrillingProgram (IODP): we finallycaught the boats!Australia will join the Integrated Ocean DrillingProgram (IODP) in early 2008, five years afterthe Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) (of whichAustralia was a member) ended in 2003. Asa country with one of the largest marinejurisdictions in the world, Australia is an importantmember of the worldwide marine geosciencecommunity. Neville Exon explains howwe finally succeeded in joining IODP and outlinesthe opportunities that opens up forAustralian geoscientists and microbiologists.At last Australia is joining the IODP(www.iodp.org), which is the world’s largestmultinational geoscience program and includesalmost all OECD countries. IODP carries outdeep scientific coring in all the world’s oceansusing a variety of platforms, and provides‘ground truthing’ of global geoscientific theoriesthat are often based largely on remotesensing techniques. New technologies andconcepts in geoscience are continuously beingdeveloped through IODP. As it is a long-termprogram, IODP membership will have importantscientific outcomes for us.The road to membershipAustralia was a highly successful member ofIODP’s precursor, the Ocean Drilling Program(ODP). In TAG 138 of March 2006, HelenBostock and Neville Exon gave a broad outlineof Australia’s involvement and (to some extent)its predecessor, the Deep Sea Drilling Project(DSDP) so I will not repeat the details here.I refer interested scientists to the book FullFathom Five, available from the AustralianIODP Office. This gives details of ODP achievementsin the Australian region over 15 yearsfrom 1988 to 2003. As well as numerouspublications available on-line at wwwodp.tamu.eduand www-odplegacy.org, there isa vast repository of existing ODP (and DSDP)cores available to bona fide researchers onwww-odplegacy.org. When ODP ended in2003, no funding mechanism could be foundfor Australia to join IODP, despite its morediverse coring capabilities.The TAG 2006 article was written while asubmission for funding for Australia to joinIODP through the National CollaborativeResearch Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) waswith the Department of Education, Science andTechnology. This submission was preparedlargely by Helen Bostock with widespreadsupport from the members of MARGO(www.margo.org.au), a grouping of scientistsfrom most institutions involved in marinegeoscience. It went through the system withgood support, but failed at the last hurdle (late2006) when it was included in the IntegratedMarine Observing Systems (IMOS) group, inwhich it was a poor fit.Having learned from this failure, MARGO (ledby Helen Bostock until late 2006, and methereafter) set about building a broad, wellfinancedcoalition, led by the AustralianNational University (ANU) and theCommonwealth Scientific and IndustrialResearch Organisation (CSIRO) and consistingof a group of university science departmentsand government agencies, plus MARGO.Following a successful application for anAustralian Research Council’s ‘LinkageInfrastructure, Equipment and Facilities’ grantin September 2007, we will receive $6 millionover five years and the grouping itself will add$2.85 million to that sum. We will become anassociate member of IODP in early 2008. AnAustralian IODP Secretariat is being set up atANU, to carry out overall planning of theAustralian effort, to deal with our internationalpartners and to support all the necessary30 | TAG March 2008

travel. The ARC bid was supported by the USNational Science Foundation and leaders ofthe Japanese, European and Korean IODPgroups. 14 universities, plus two CSIRODivisions, AIMS, ANSTO and MARGO, are nowin our grouping, which will join IODP as anAssociate Member at 25% of the cost of fullmembership. This is a workable scientific levelfor Australia and will give us six to sevenshipboard places per year (Chris Fergusson ofthe University of Wollongong was the firstAustralian to sail under IODP – to the NankaiTrough on Expedition 316 in December 2007),plus membership of several IODP committees.We are in discussions with New Zealandgeoscience institutions about joining a consortiumwith us, initially at the 5% level, whichwould increase our access to IODP activitiesconsiderably.The advantages of membershipAustralian scientists will gain through shipboardand post-cruise participation in cuttingedge science, by building partnerships withoverseas scientists, by having research proponentsand co-chief scientists who can steerprograms and outputs, and by early access tokey samples and data. They will also have theopportunity of science training for post-doctoraland doctoral students in marine sciencethat could not be obtained in any other way.Our region is the best in which to addressvarious global science problems, and some ofthem cannot be addressed elsewhere. Being amember of IODP will help us maintain ourleadership in Southern Hemisphere marinegeoscience research.Australia has a vast marine jurisdiction and ispresently making a case to maximise this jurisdictionthrough the United NationsCommission on the Limits of the ContinentalShelf. This will extend our sea-bed jurisdictionwell beyond the 200-nautical-mile limit of ouralready very large Exclusive Economic Zone.Having claimed this marine jurisdiction, weneed to increase our marine research efforts,thereby deploying a full range of scientifictools. The coring capabilities of IODP provide agreat variety of tools, including some capableof sampling sub-bottom environments, wherekey biogeochemical transformations, such asthe formation of methane hydrates, occur.Australia will benefit from IODP’s array ofdrilling vessels, which are now capable of takingcontinuous cores of sediments and rocks inalmost all our marine environments, and up tofive kilometres below the seafloor. The primarytools are Japanese and American coring vesselsthat are dynamically-positioned, withEuropean Union funds being used to providechartered coring platforms to deal with drillingin locations or for purposes for which theprimary vessels are not suitable. Unsuitablelocations include the Arctic Ocean, whereice-breaking capability is needed, and waterdepths of less than 100 m, for which floatingvessels are not suitable. Altogether, the valueof the coring platforms is nearly $US1 billion,and annual running costs for the program arenearly $US200 million. The Japanese vesselChikyu is a huge vessel, capable at this stageof riser drilling in 2,500 m water depth, with10,000 m of drill string. Because it has amarine riser, it is capable of drilling in regionswhere flows of oil and gas might occur andneed to be controlled. The ODP vessel did nothave this capability. Chikyu has recentlydrilled deep-water exploration holes forWoodside Petroleum. The American vesselJoides Resolution is well known as the formerODP drillship, but has been extensively refittedat a cost exceeding $US100 million. It is capableof drilling in water depths of 6,000 m andseveral kilometres beneath the sea-floor buthas no riser, so must avoid any region whereoil or gas might be encountered. Neither vesselis completely funded, so both are seeking commercialwork. Perhaps an industry groupingmight consider using one of them to drill astratigraphic hole in an Australian frontier areawhere little is known of the basic sequences –the Lord Howe Rise springs to mind.IODP drilling expeditions in our region will leadto huge scientific and monetary investmentsby scientists from other nations in our waters.For example, during the ODP program, theaverage drilling leg in our region producedabout 100 refereed publications. We encouragemembers of our science community to help inrefining existing proposals, and to gather internationalpartners to build new proposals tohelp resolve global science problems.Key IODP Research AreasThe key research areas are spelt out inIODP’s ‘Initial Science Plan’ www.iodp.org/ispand are:1. Deep biosphere and ocean floor.This research area deals with ‘extremophile’microbes that live below the sea-floor andcould be of industrial importance, and alsowith gas hydrates that are a huge potentialenergy resource and have been shown totrigger bursts of global warming in the past.2. Environmental changes, processesand effects.This research area covers rapid climate changeand extreme climates, climatic cycles andevolution of oceanic currents and boundaries.Ocean drilling has been, and will be, a key tounderstanding past climate change on all timescales and at many locations, and hence inhelping predict future climate changes.3. Solid earth cycles and geodynamics.This research area deals with continentalbreak-up and sedimentary basin formation,which are especially important in petroleumexploration; large igneous provinces; drilling tothe Earth’s mantle; and understanding earthquakesand the generation of tsunamis (importantto Australia in the context of Indonesiantsunamis).Existing Drilling ProposalsThe map (see next page) shows the manyexisting proposals for IODP expeditions in theAustralian region including Antarctic waters.Three of these expeditions are alreadyapproved, and those likely to be carried out inthe next few years are shown by boxes in themap. Australians are co-proponents of many ofthe proposals, and most are underpinned byAustralian geophysical survey data. An aim ofthe Australian marine geoscience communityand the ‘extremophile’ microbiological sciencecommunity should be to build IODP proposalsfor the Australian region, with internationalpartners. Microbiological programs will beconsidered for all expeditions, and will bedominant on some.Two scheduled expeditions in our region, eachtwo months long, are those to the CanterburyBasin in New Zealand (Expedition 321:November 2008 to January 2009) and toWilkes Land in the Australian AntarcticTerritory (Expedition 323: January to March2009). The first expedition will study changesin global sea level and climatic variations inthe last 35 million years. The second expeditionwill study the onset, the development, andthe waxing and waning of Antarctic ice sheetsin the last 40 million years, a subject of greatglobal significance in this time of globalwarming. A third expedition, to drill the GreatBarrier Reef, has been approved by IODP, butawaits Australian Government approval beforescheduling. It would follow several earlier ODPTAG March 2008 | 31

drilling programs in the reef, and aims to veryaccurately date the history of sea-level rise inthe 20,000 years since the Last GlacialMaximum.Australian consortiumarrangementsThe Australian IODP partners at thismoment are:Universities: Australian National, Adelaide,Curtin, James Cook, Macquarie, Melbourne,Monash, Newcastle, Queensland, QueenslandUniversity of Technology, Sydney, Tasmania,Western Australia, Wollongong;Government Agencies: CSIRO PetroleumDivision and Exploration and Mining Division,AIMS, ANSTO, and a peak body, MARGO(Marine Geoscience Office).Other universities and government agenciesare welcome to join at any time (minimumsubscription $20,000 pa).Representatives of some of the IODP partners,along with a representative from New Zealandand another from ARC, met at ANU in October2007 and agreed to establish a GoverningCouncil, an ANU-based Office, and a ScienceCommittee. The Governing Council met at ANUin December 2007, with its present membershipof Patrick De Deckker (ANU), Chris Yeats(CSIRO), David Falvey (ARC), Kelsie Dadd(Macquarie University), Will Howard (Universityof Tasmania) and chairperson Kate Wilson,Head of CSIRO’s Wealth from Oceans Flagship.Photo courtesy Neville Exon32 | TAG March 2008 JOIDES Resolution.Other attendees were Richard Arculus (primaryLIEF signatory), Neville Exon (Interim Head ofAustralian IODP Office) and Chris Hollis (GNS,NZ) representing New Zealand.We are presently working on several importantadministrative tasks:• (Australian Research Council (ARC) is responsiblefor a Memorandum of Understanding(MOU) with the main IODP partners: theAmerican National Science Foundation and theJapanese JAMSTEC and MEXT. We join IODPfrom 1 January 2008• ARC is also responsible for a MOU with NewZealand, bringing them into a ConsortiumTwo part-time AIO positions in Canberra aresoon to be advertised• Participants are being sought for theAustralian Science Committee, internationalIODP panels and committees, and shipboardplacesChikyu.Photo courtesy Neville Exon• A listing of all Australian geoscientists andmicrobiologists with a potential interest inIODP, with addresses and expertise, is beingprepared by AIO. It is intended that this willbe a continuously updated public documentavailable through AIO and MARGO. Pleasecontact me if you wish to be added to it.ConclusionsThere are exciting opportunities for Australianscientists in IODP research expeditions in ourregion and beyond. We encourage you tobecome involved both in developing proposalsfor drilling legs and in participating in drillinglegs as shipboard or shore-based investigators.There are also huge underutilised resourcesavailable through IODP in the form of archivedmaterial – the vast repositories of existingcores can be accessed by bona fide researcherson www-odp.tamu.edu andwww.odplegacy.org.You need not necessarily be from our memberinstitutions. Two expeditions are alreadyscheduled for our region starting late this yearand others are in advanced planning stages. Allnecessary background information is availablethrough the IODP home page at www.iodp.orgbut applications for shipboard or laboratoryinvolvement should be made through the nowformingAustralian IODP Office at ANU. Theprimary contacts for the Office in this initialphase are Neville Exonneville.exon@anu.edu.au, Richard Arculusrichard.arculus@anu.edu.au, Patrick DeDeckker patrick.dedeckker@anu.edu.au andWill Howard Will.Howard@utas.edu.auNEVILLE EXON

REFERENCESHelen Bostock and Neville Exon, 2006.‘Australia and the Integrated Ocean DrillingProgram: will we miss the boat?’ TheAustralian Geologist (TAG) 138, 27-29.Elaine Baker and Jock Keene, 2003. FullFathom Five: 15 years of Australian involvementin the Ocean Drilling Program. Australian ODPOffice, Sydney University, 65 p. (Copies areavailable free of charge from Neville Exon atthe Australian IODP Office, ANU.)IODP Planning Sub-Committee, 2001. Earth,Oceans and Life: IODP Initial Science Plan,2003-2013. International Working GroupSupport Office, Washington DCwww.iodp.org/isp, 110 p.Initial contact: Dr Neville Exon, Interim Head,Australian IODP Office, Research School ofEarth Sciences (now incorporating theDepartment of Earth and Marine Sciences),Building 47, ANU, Canberra 0200.Neville.Exon@anu.edu.au. Phone 02 6125 5131(afternoons); 02 6288 2034 (other times).In the footsteps of theFounding Fathers:Celebrating 200 years ofthe Geological SocietyLondon (GSL)On 13 November 2007 the Geological Societyof London celebrated 200 years since its formation.It was the culmination of a year ofcelebrations, with two international meetings– in September looking to the future, inNovember considering the Society’s past history.It was my privilege to attend the latterinternational meeting of geology historians.For the Bicentenary the Society has produced a‘warts and all’ history Whatever is under theEarth, for popular consumption at a decidedlydiscount price, written by the geologist/historian Gordon Herries Davies. It achieves itspurpose.The conference began with a weekend excursionto the Isle of Wight led by MartinRudwick and Hugh Torrens; the former notedfor his books including The Meaning of Fossils,Scenes from Deep Time and Bursting the Limitsof Time; the latter for his championing of thework of miners and surveyors such as JohnFarey and particularly William Smith. Torrens’work was the basis of Winchester’s The Mapthat changed the World.The field trip traced the work in 1811 and 1813of Thomas Webster, an early member, lookingat the rocks through Webster’s eyes, using hissketches and field notes.The November weather was bracing, and theexcursion involved challenging cliff scramblesand attention to tides along kilometres ofbouldery beaches, providing access to spectacularoutcrops, particularly near the famousNeedles. Here we kept a two minute silence for11.00 am, 11 November, the British equivalentof our Anzac memory. In addition to dinosaurfootprints in situ there was an after-hours visitto the Island’s fine Dinosaur Museum.The conference proper was held at theSociety’s rooms in Burlington House, Piccadilly,its home since the 1870s. The meeting wasremarkable, if for nothing else, in that all thespeakers stuck to time, without being badgeredby the Chair! The papers covered a wide range,some covering the 13 original members manyof whom are relatively little known or rememberedtoday.A key feature of the founding of the societywas the determination of a mixed group ofbusinessmen Quakers and medicos to begin ageological society, as opposed to a mineralogicalone as was the rage at the time. Papersdelivered drew little attention to the Society’slater, well-known figures, such as Lyell,Sedgwick, and Murchison, but concentrated onpeople such as Humphrey Davy and GeorgeGreenough (the Society’s first President andcompiler of a large geological map which hasequal pride of place with Smith’s map on themain staircase of the building).It was pleasing to see the quality of theresearch undertaken by young scholars fromvarious countries, while some of the ‘oldcodgers’ didn’t do too badly either. My presentationthreatened to be a disaster when mytrial of Powerpoint presented the pics in trueantipodean manner – upside down! However, aless recalcitrant computer solved the problem.My own paper discussed the links between theGeological Society and the Antipodes.The Geological Society was important toAustralian geology and geologists in a numberof ways. Notably in the 19th century therewere many Australian geologists who had noformal qualifications, and the letters FGS gavesome kudos. In the 1870s Australian geologistsRalph Tate, ARC Selwyn, WB Clarke and SirFrederick McCoy gained prestigious Societyawards, with Edgeworth David, EW Skeats andW Howchin recognised later.There was general surprise at the large numberof Society members’ names scattered aroundthe map of Australia. These include several MtsLyell and Murchison, with Greenough,Sedgwick, Geikie, and ‘homegrown’ memberssuch as Ayers, Chewings, Selwyn etc. Thisprompted GSL President, Richard Fortey to askif there might be any creek available for him!On the night of 12 November the History ofGeology Group (HOGG), hosting the conference,held a dinner at the site of the firstSociety function. For years the site was incorrectlyidentified as the Freemason’s Arms pubin Long Acre. We know now that the true locationwas the Freemason’s Tavern, 60 GreatQueen Street, Lincoln’s Inn, still a large hotel.The HOGG dinner attracted 200 members andfriends, about 75% coming in period costume,as the Brits can do so well. Speeches were fewand brief, but in true Russian style Dr IrenaMalakhova presented the Society, through thepresident, with formal documents, in Russian,a faint echo of the hundreds presented duringthe stiff formalities of 1907.Following the main course, and much to theastonishment of the locals, President Forteyaccompanied by a motley collection of moustachioedmilitary gentlemen, cardinals, nightwatchmen,French Legion of Honour (genuine,in fact), ladies and yours truly sporting somerevolutionary head gear and a few medals (Cityto Surf 1972, etc) ventured into the cold, darkGreat Queen Street to unveil a plaque containingcorrect information about the origins ofthe Geological Society. President Fortey,dressed as a gentleman of the period, was briefand to the point at the plaque unveiling (thetemperature was hovering well down in thesingle digit position). He had been equally briefat the dinner, reminding us that ”the present isthe key to the repast”.There were a few latecomers to the nextmorning’s session following that dinner! Aninteresting paper near the end of the meetingwas delivered by John Smallwood who, applyingcomputer modelling, took a new look atSchiehallion, Scotland where in 1774 NevilleMaskelyne attempted to measure gravity. Wewere brought back to the modern world with apreview by Iaian Stewart of a new BBC ScienceSeries Earth: A Biography. It has some extraordinaryfootage and hopefully will tell millionsof people about Geology – watch out for it.Five o’clock, 13 November 1807 was the originalwitching hour of the dinner we had commemoratedthe previous evening. At 5.00 pmTAG March 2008 | 33

on 13 November 2007 we toasted the bicentenaryon the dot, in the Society’s Lower Library,with a witty speech by Phillipe Taquet,President of the INternational (Commission forthe) HI(story of the) GEOlogical Sciences(INHIGEO) outlining the papers which had reallybeen given by the various speakers.Then into black tie (and other garments) andoff to the final event – the sold-out, SocietyDinner where 600 people were crammed in,under the eagle eye-socket of Diplodocus inthe main hall of the Natural History Museum,South Kensington.May the next two hundred years prove asinteresting…certainly they will be different.I express my gratitude to the GSA Executive,President Andy Gleadow, and the NSW Division(Chairman, Ron Vernon) for their generoussupport to me as the Australian representativeat the History meeting.DAVID BRANAGANIGCP 524ARC-Continent Collision:Benefitting Human Societythrough an enhanced understandingof Plate TectonicprocessesThis project was accepted by IGCP as a threeyear (2007–2009) project led by Dr DennisBrown, Instituto de Cierncias de la Tierra’Jaume Almera‘, CSIC Barcelona, Spain andProfessor Chi-Yue Huang Department of EarthSciences National Cheng Kung University. DickGlen of the Geological Survey of NSW (DPI) isthe Australian correspondent.Aims and background:One key aim of the IGCP project 524 is the studyof processes that occur in zones of collisionbetween volcanic island arcs and continentalmargins in both fossil and active settings. Thekey questions to be investigated include:processes taking place within the subductionchannel once the continental crust has enteredthe subduction zone; the continued evolution ofthe arc during collision; the response of continentalcrust to the collision; erosion of thedeveloping mountain belt and the formation offoreland and suture fore-arc basins; theemplacement of ophiolite massifs; and durationof arc-continent collision orogeny itself.A second aim involves investigation of theimpact of these collisions for human society interms of economic development. Zones of arccontinentcollision are producers of much ofthe world’s gold, copper, and molybdenum, andare primary targets for the exploration industry.Increasing exploration in accreted arcs indeveloping world countries in turn is speedingup their economic development by catalysingtransition to first world legal systems of tenementand mining law, thereby speeding upinfrastructure development; Mongolia is aclassic example. The IGCP project will investigatethe timing of mineral deposit formationwithin the context of arc-continent collisions,including the effect that the entry of the continentalcrust into the subduction zone had ondeposit formation.Recognising that zones of active arc-continentcollision are among the most seismically activeand highly populated in the world, a third aimof the project focuses on zones of potentiallyhigh geological risk associated with arc accretion.For example, seismic shaking and landCongratulations Professor Michael Archerand Dr Max RichardsAustralia Day Honours ListMEMBER (AM) IN THE GENERAL DIVISIONProfessor Michael ARCHER for service to science as a palaeontologist; the promotionof sustainable management of wildlife; scientific education and research; mentoringand administrative roles.Dr Max RICHARDS (Sydney Maxwell Richards) for service to geological science inthe areas of mineral exploration, mining and scientific research and throughcontributions to industry, public sector and professional organisations.sliding caused by the 1999 Chi-Chi earthquakein Taiwan killed an estimated 2,400 people andcaused widespread damage to infrastructure.The project will thus also investigate theresponse of the continental crust to subductionin terms of the distribution of seismicity inthe developing mountain belt, and the effectof the crustal response on the development oftopography and landslide risk.Activities to dateThe first meeting of the project was held inApril 2007, timed to coincide with the EGUmeeting in the Vienna InternationalConference Centre. This was essentially a planningmeeting although there were scientificpresentations (more later).I attended to raise the possibility that one ofthe activities of the project be an internationalconference on arc accretion held in NSW, coupledwith a field trip to the OrdovicianMacquarie Arc that was recently written up ina special issue of Australian Journal of EarthSciences this year. Such a field conferencewould fulfil two of the three aims of the conferenceand would have tectonic and economicthemes, given the copper and gold deposits in,and potential of, the arc.Future ActivitiesThree meetings are planned, designed to focuson collisions over geological time:• The currently active collision in Taiwan(January 2008)• The Palaeozoic Urals in July 2009, being heldas a pre-conference fieldtrip of the 33rd IGC inOslo. This will be followed by a symposium inOslo, EUR-19 Arc-continent collision processesin the Uralides and its modern analogues,chaired by Dennis Brown, Chi-Yue Huang,Richard Herrington and Richard Glen• A potential conference and field trip in NSW,focusing on Pacific examples of arcs, accretionand mineral deposits scheduled for 2009.It is planned that the integration of researchon both active and fossil arc-continent orogenswill provide key data for the understandingof how plate tectonics works today, andhow it might have worked in the past.TAG March 2008 | 35

Some technical presentations,EGU 2007 conferenceThis began with a keynote paper by JohnDewey et al on collisions of island arcs withcontinental margins, drawing on examplesfrom the western Irish Caledonides, Nevadaand New Guinea. Herrington et al drew attentionto the contribution to arc magmas andgold systems of continental crust entering inthe subduction system in the Banda arc. Therewere several papers on the Urals, including onepresenting evidence for Ordovician convergencefollowed by 410-415 Ma thrusting thatoccurred before onset of later convergencethat generated the main Uralian arc in theEarly Devonian. Glen et al presented a paper onthe Macquarie Arc.For more information contactdick.glen@dpi.nsw.gov.auIGCP 502Relationship betweenVHMS (Kuroko) deposits and theevolution of volcanic arcs symposiumand workshop in Japan,27 October 4 November 2007The aim of the project ’Global Comparison ofVolcanic-hosted Massive Sulphide (VMS)Districts‘ IGCP-502 is to study and compare anumber of the world’s important VMS districtsin order to define the key geological eventsthat control the distribution and timing ofhigh-value VMS deposits, and thereby developnew criteria for locating these ore deposits.Late in 2007 I participated in a workshop comprisinga one-day symposium in Tokyo followedby a seven-day field traverse in northernHonshu. The symposium was attended by 37people and 26 participated in the field trip.We were a group of field geologists, modernsea-floor specialists, igneous petrologists, oredeposit geologists and geochemists. The fieldtrip traversed the northeast Honshu volcanicarc from the arc front (Ou Backbone range)through the Hokuroku (kuroko) district to theback-arc side (Oga Peninsula) and emphasisedthe setting and timing of kuroko depositswithin the evolution of the northeast Honshuarc and back-arc rift. The reason I attendedwas that the theme of the workshop tied innicely with my project on the genetic andchemical characterisation of the ArcheanJaguar VHMS deposit.A symposium held at Tokyo University on thefirst day was divided into three themes:Tectonic and magmatic evolution of the northeastHonshu volcanic arc and setting of kurokodeposits;Implications of modern sea floor studies forthe tectonic setting, volcanic setting andgenesis of rhyolite-associated VMS in volcanicarc-back arc terranes;The tectonic-volcanic setting and timing offelsic-associated VMS in the evolution of otherplate margin terranes (other than Japan).Next day we travelled from Tokyo to theHokuroku district where we saw the LateMiocene to recent volcanism of the OuBackbone mountain belt (arc-front), and visitedthe Tamagawa hot spring hydrothermal system.Our first full day in the field concentratedon the Early-Late Miocene succession of theHokuroku district; including pre-subsidenceEarly Miocene terrestrial andesitic rocks,Middle Miocene lower pillow basalts(Hotakizawa basalt), footwall and hangingwallrhyolitic domes and pyroclastics. We alsovisited the Hanaoka core and ore sample storagefacility. Unfortunately there are no activeKuroko mines these days where ore can beseen in situ, so we visited outcrops, ore dumpsand archives.Next day we saw the Shijuhitaki basalt firefountain deposit which directly overlies the orehorizon in the central part of the HokurokuBasin, and then visited the old Kosaka-Motoyama open pit. We examined footwallalteration and mineralisation at Furutobezawa,then the eruption centre of the T2 tuffat Nakano-kozan followed by the T2 pumice.The T2 pumice breccia site was unusual, as itwas essentially an underground quarry wherethey mined by cutting the rock into dimensionblocks for later slicing.On the fifth day we concentrated on LateMiocene to Quaternary calderas. Late Miocenefelsic caldera magmatism and hydrothermalsystems mark the end of kuroko-relatedvolcanism, uplift of the arc, and change to aperiod of major felsic caldera volcanism. TheQuaternary Towada caldera is the youngestand best preserved caldera in the area. It isalso a spectacular sight. We visited the oldOsarizawa vein-Cu mine, now a tourist mine.The following day we travelled westward fromHokuroku to Akita and the Oga Peninsular.On the way we visited the Babame kuroko areaand other exposures of the Neogene volcanicsuccession including the Nanakura tuff. Later,we attended a short workshop at the MiningMuseum of Akita University where samplesfrom their archive of kuroko specimens wereon display.On the seventh day we visited the Oligocene-Late Miocene type area of the Green Tuff. Thekuroko time-stratigraphic interval at Oga ismainly shallow marine, and stratigraphy issomewhat different to the kuroko areasbecause Oga is on the back-arc side of, andoutside of, the main graben basins that containkuroko ores. The lower part of the Ogastratigraphy provides information about theearly development of back-arc rifting.On our last day in the field we examined drillcores of the Hokuroku district stratigraphy atAkita Prefecture Drill Core Archive. The coreholding has been much reduced over the yearsand the cores that remain are selected representationsthrough each unit. Unfortunatelythe Akita Prefecture has expressed its intentionto dispose of these last remaining cores andtherefore this resource will not be availablemuch longer.Many thanks to the IGCP National Committeefor an Australian Government-sponsoredgrant-in-aid, and Jabiru Metals for financialassistance to attend the workshop.Furtherinformation can be read on theproject website: www.ltu.se/tkg/avd/kgo/forsk/IGCP/d2525/1.6644SUSAN BELFORDCODESUniversity of Tasmania36 | TAG March 2008

Letters to the editorIntegrating Earth Sciences:an exampleThe continual modern developments orevolution of science and technology areaccompanied by – or unequivocallydemand – an integration of all relevantdisciplines. This applies also to the variousEarth Sciences, as is well known.Allow me to comment briefly on a morerecent aspect of the mega-scaled holisticinter-relationships between severalgeological and geophysical data sets andmethodologies as described by the followingbook:Wolf, D and Fernandez, J 2007.Deformation and Gravity Change:Indicators of Isostasy, Tectonics,Volcanism, and Climate Change.Birkhäuser and Springer, Boston, Basel,Berlin.(See also: Pure and Applied Geophysics,volume 184, 2007, No. 4.)Inasmuch as the book’s 14 chaptersaddress a group of highly specialisedexperts I will refrain from writing adetailed book review – yet wish to mentiona few specifics to those involved inintegrative studies of complex Earth systems.The following are dealt with underthe headings of Earth crust’s rebound(isostatic adjustments), glacial/deglacialinducedloading and unloading, magmatism/volcanism,surface (eg landslidestudies) and subsurface tectonic/crustaldeformation, geophysics (eg gravity,crustal stress, earth’s viscosity changes,seismic/microtremor studies), sea-leveland ocean-mass changes (owing to thermalexpansion, salinity and atmosphericvariations), hydrology (eg aquifer andgroundwater resource studies) and globalclimatology (in the context of glacialisostaticstudies). Various geodynamicalresearch methodologies and techniquesare deliberated and numerous modelsevaluated. The application of ‘fuzzy logicin analysing sea-level indicators withrespect to glacial-isostatic adjustment’ isparticularly interesting as this logic hasbeen applied to other Earth Sciencesrelatedproblems.As a final word: all the above globalsystemphenomena cannot be investigatedin isolation: they are part of a complexglobal whole – and must thus be tackledas such. Those engaged in research ofglobal warming (eg sea-level rise) may dowell to check the data in the book tofind what could be the consequence of‘natural’ in contrast to ‘anthropogenic’phenomena.KARL H. WOLFI refer to the Special Report by AndrewGlickson titled ‘Sea Change: Implicationsof the 4th IPCC report for 21st centuryclimate change‘ TAG 145 (December2007).The Report summarises the currentknowledge very well, but does not tell uswhat the current estimates may be for:Total tonnage of CO 2 already in atmosphere;Tonnage of CO 2 added to the atmosphereevery year from burning of fossil fuels;Tonnages of CO 2 and methane resultingfrom other human activities, added to theatmosphere every year;Tonnages of CO 2 and methane added tothe atmosphere every year from naturalsub-aerial sources such as decay of vegetation,gas emanations from fracturezones in maturated sedimentary rocks andvolcanoes, weathering of carbonate rocks,etc every year (a difficult question toanswer because isolated spot measurementscannot be used to estimate thetotal annual tonnage of gas emanationsfor the whole continental masses);Tonnages of CO 2 used in new vegetationgrowth every year and tonnages lockedup in peat swamps;Tonnages emanating into atmospherefrom oceans or else being absorbed fromatmosphere by oceans (estimates based onmeasurements, on annual basis)Tonnage of CO 2 added to ocean water bysubmarine volcanic and black smokeractivity (estimates based on repeatedmeasurements on many locations, onannual basis)Tonnage of CO 2 precipitated as carbonatecomponent of sediments on ocean floorevery year (estimates based on repeatedmeasurements on sea floor).Such checklist would provide a frameworkfor future intensive and extensivegeo-scientific field sampling programmesto obtain more reliable measurements forall parts of CO 2 equation. Based on dataas per 1 – 8 above, one would be able toprepare improved estimates on how muchof the recent average annual increase ofconcentration of CO 2 in atmosphere is dueto burning of fossil fuels and how muchto other sources.We need to know all that before we committo fundamental changes in sources ofenergy which are the foundation of currenteconomic system. There is urgentneed to greatly increase geo-scientificfield sampling programmes to obtainmore reliable measurements for all partsof CO 2 equation.In conclusion, discussion of the amountof CO 2 in the atmosphere and the needfor reductions of CO 2 emissions fromhuman activities must focus on totaltonnages, not on ppm CO 2 and percentagesfor reductions.RADO JACOB REBEKI enjoyed your Editor's Comment in TAG145, titled ’Thinking gold‘. However, Imust draw attention to your use of theterm 'hypergene', which refers to depositsformed in supergene or hypergene (secondary)blankets.In the context of deposits ’formed at thesame time as the quartz reefs‘, I'm surethat you meant to say 'hypogene'?PAUL BURRELL, GSA Member (NSW)Bill Birch responds:Thanks Paul for pointing out my error; acase of ‘gene confusion’. I can’t explainhow it happened, as the authors clearlyused hypogene.TAG March 2008 | 37

AGC Summit and the Supplyof GeoscienceI notice that according to TAG 144, theAustralian Geoscience Council will convenea summit on ’The Plight ofUniversity Geoscience Education and theSupply of Geoscience‘. I’ve been an economicgeologist for many years and theissue of supply of geoscience is nothingnew to me.According to TAG, one of the purposes ofthe summit will be to ’obtain an overviewof issues all are confronting at the presenttime (my emphasis), including thesupply of geoscience graduates‘. I assumethat this purpose will deal with the currentshortage of geoscience expertise, andif this is the case I suggest the purpose bebroadened to also include the oversupplyof geoscientists that regularly scourge ourprofession during economic busts.I’ve seen the boom and bust cycle manytimes, and every boom we hear bleatingfrom our professional institutions/associationsabout the shortage of expertise, justas during each bust we hear about thetragedy of the unemployed, highly-trainedgeoscientist – shock/horror. There is nothingnew in the current skills shortage, buttackling the supply problem only from theperspective of the current industrial boomis narrow-minded and short-sighted.A partial solution to geoscience supply –demand imbalances is to control thenumber of geoscientists being trained. Itis impossible to anticipate at least threeyears in advance (the minimum time thatit takes to train a geoscientist) thedemand for geoscientists, so the best wecan hope for is to control the supply ofgeoscientists to reasonable and consistentlevels over the long term that encompassesperiods of both high and low demand.This will not completely remove the hugepeaks and troughs of supply-demand butmay help smooth it out a little.During times when enrolment numbersmight fall below reasonable levels incentivesto study geoscience may be necessarysuch as the reduction of HECS fees.During times of high geoscience enrolmentthe number of new Earth Sciencestudents could be reduced by, for example,raising the academic levels intogeoscience courses or raising HECS forthose subjects.38 | TAG March 2008The identification of ‘reasonable levels’ ofenrolment may be problematic but letsnot get sucked into thinking of the currentgeoscience supply problem as uniqueto today, otherwise, whatever the solution,it will not last the next bust.During career selection we should extolto young people not only the benefits ofworking in the geosciences but also thepitfalls. And the pitfalls within thecontext of this discussion are the hugecontrasts between demand for one’s servicesas a geoscientist that might lead to sporadicemployment and possibly unemployment,regardless of the quality of work.Anyway, the problem is not only to dowith graduate intake but also to do withretention (or lack thereof) of practisinggeoscientists. It was only during the lastbust that many geoscientists, quite reasonably,left the industry never to return,thus exacerbating the current shortages.Retention of geoscientists during economicslumps might also be addressed in thesummit.All this aside and regardless of the skilldemand, to maintain an enthusiastic poolof prospective candidates to choose fromwe need to enhance the common (poor)perception of mining so as young peoplefeel comfortable professionally associatedwith the geosciences and mining inparticular.Cheers,DAVID THOMASMAusIMM(CP), MAIGdvthomas@ozemail.com.auARC 2008/2009Hi everyone, further to a few brief commentsin the last issue I should like to addto the discussion about the ARC andEarth Sciences in Australia. I’m back onthe panel this year due to ill health of oneof the others. We have got ourselves collectivelyinto a downward spiral and thegood will of the entire geoscientificresearch community is needed to get itgoing in the right direction again.First, if you are asked to do reviews forthe ARC, please do them and do a goodjob! If you have ever applied to or beensuccessful with ARC you have anobligation to act as a reader if asked –read the fine print and it will tell youthat.If you are an Ozreader you have beenselected by the Panel’s chairperson, whomay choose to receive advice from thepanel if there are, for example, conflictsof interest that aren’t picked up at first. Ifyou are an Intreader you have beenselected by panel members as a personmost likely to have specific expertise relevantto the proposal. Intreader selection isin April. The panel tries its best (butadmittedly sometimes fails) to get the bestfit of Intreaders for each proposal – weload in four, on top of the one or twoOzreaders, and with the two panellists thismeans a grant could receive up to eightreviews, of which six have comments thatcould come back to the applicant. (TheGAMS system provides an ‘autofit’ basedon keywords and RFCD codes but this isonly used by us as a guide. We wouldnormally check the profile of potentialreviewers before assigning them – includingwhether they have been ‘good’ or‘bad’ at doing their reviews in recentyears. The worst thing for any applicantis to find that there are only two reviews(or, rarely, only one). This means that theIntreaders have let the team down.It is rare that all the Intreaders do theirreviews – very annoying for us. Eventhough the Intreader- ranked scores donot count heavily in the overall rankingprocess, the comments and match of comments-to-scoresare absolutely crucial forthe panel to see so decisions can be madeor adjusted. So please, do as many ofthese as you can, for the sake of everyone.And be nice! If you think a proposalis not very good, offer some constructivecriticism. Very few reviewers fill in thatsection about ‘what could be done toimprove this proposal’. Don’t be lazy – itonly takes a minute.Second, there have been some complaintsabout the make-up of the panel and whomakes the decisions as to who gets to beon the panel. Some have complained thatcertain institutions have been over-represented.Well, folks, there is only one solutionto this. If you feel your sub-disciplineneeds representation (eg there hadnot been an economic geologist on thepanel for about 20 years when I offered)then stick your hand up to do the job! Ifyou are Senior Lecturer or below, you are

not eligible, in which case you shouldprod a Professor or Associate Professor!The number of applications to be EarthScience panellists that have arrived at theARC in the last few years has only been afew more than were actually acceptedonto the panel. This is not good enough.Decisions about panel make-up have beendriven mostly by common-sense in theface of very few applications having beenreceived. The panel job is difficult thefirst time around, but not so bad in Yearstwo and three and by serving on thepanel you will certainly gain an appreciationof the system that you cannot findany other way.Finally, many people become discouragedby the failure of their applications. Thesuccess rate for Discovery Projects in2008 was low for Earth Sciences, but itwas above the average for the panel andthe ARC overall the year before that. Weare certainly receiving fewer applications– which means less money comes to thepanel – which means fewer grants arefunded. Nasty circle. Again, only one wayout of it in the short term. Keep applying!Do not give up. Recast the proposal; makesure it is peer-reviewed; get yourProfessors to pull their finger out andtake a close look at it and remember thata failed proposal should be convertible tothe essence of a publication or perhaps,with industry support, a Linkage Projectgrant.Let’s hope 2009 is a better year for EarthSciences!NICK OLIVER, JCUA fair go for sceptics?The Editor's Comment in TAG 144 makesseveral generalisations which should notbe unchallenged.You claim that it is undeniable that the’vast majority of scientists‘ agree thathumanity is responsible for ’humaninduced‘warming and you then agreewith the figure of 98% support which yousay ’is bandied around‘. What is the evidencefor these generalisations? Also, itshould be obvious that if there is ’humaninduced‘warming then who, other thanhumans, would be responsible? Surelythis statement is not an attempt to begthe question?Night-time pyroclastic eruption of Mt Yasur 17 October 2007.Photo courtesy Kevin McCue. (See page 29: A volcano on our doorstep.)TAG March 2008 | 39

Recently over 400 scientists, hardly a triflingnumber, are quoted in a US SenateReport as having disputed ’man-madeglobal warming claims in 2007’.For more information go to:epw.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Minority.SenateReport orwww.jennifermarohasy.com/blog/archives/002641.html. For a critique of the expertsused by the IPCC for one of their reportsgo to this website:www.climate-resistance.org/2007/12/physician-heal-thyself.htmlRead a detailed analysis of the way theIPCC has assembled its various reportsand their drafts and you may come to adifferent view on the experts used, themanner in which the opinions of dissentingreviewers have been ignored, andwhether the author is far from being a’majority' of scientists are even ’a largenumber’: scienceandpublicpolicy.org/originalswhytheipccshouldbedisbanded.htmlThe editorial disparages Martin Durkin bylikening him to a ’creation scientist‘ butfails to demolish his arguments. On theother hand I may have mis-read the articleand perhaps it is Tony Jones who youliken to a ‘creationist’. In particular Jonesseemed to be determined to move theinterview on when Durkin attempted toexplain why he had not used recent temperaturedata which he considered unreliable.Presumably this would have includedthe Hockey Stick which was one of thepillars of the IPCC case but the validity ofwhich is now debateable. It was thereforesurprising that during the following ABCdebate that when one of the globalwarmers claimed that the Hockey Stickhad been validated, Tony Jones did notask for further evidence to support this. IfABC staff read TAG then perhaps youmight consider offering space to enablethe rehabilitation of the Hockey Stick. Forcriticism of the Hockey Stick visit thesetwo sites: www.john-daly.com/hockey/hockey.htm and www.uoguelph.ca/~rmckitri/research/papers.htmlFinally, in what appears to be an attemptto establish a fall-back position the editorialclaims that global warming scepticsshould explain how Earth is dealing withincreased CO 2 . But if there are no observableeffects then why would an explanationbe necessary? Atmospheric CO 2 atpast geological times has been far higherthan at present; indeed, this was admittedby a supporter of global warming duringthe ABC debate and in the TAG editorial.Why did those high CO 2 levels not reachthe dreaded and oft-quoted ’tipping point‘and plunge Earth's climate into a Venusianhell-hole? The point is the climate did notreach such a point. Historical records alsoindicate that periods of warmth have coincidedwith prosperous times for humanity.So what then is to be feared from higherlevels of CO 2 and greater warmth? Perhapsthat is the appropriate question that needsto be answered by those who fear globalwarming.JOHN ELLIOTBill Birch responds:I thank John for his challenge, but I amnot going to attempt a detailed reply. Atthis stage of the discussion over globalwarming, I don’t think it’s possible, ornecessary, for either side’s arguments tobe ‘demolished’. Time will tell eventually,as it has for millions of years past. As Iargued in part, sceptics’ appeals to thegeological past (ie greater CO 2 contents atvarious times) to support their case maynot be appropriate. So what if they werehigher? Presently we are dealing withrapid CO 2 increase over a time period ofabout 100 years, an interval beyond resolutionon the geological time scale beyonda few tens of thousand years or so ago.We can’t determine what effects such arapid increase might have had in the distantgeological past. In this situation, it isbetter to examine and discuss what’soccurring today in terms of parametersthat we can measure and correlate directly.As for John’s questioning what there isto fear about greater warmth and higherCO 2 , I guess a Greenland dairy farmerand a Bangla Deshi family abandoningtheir flooded coastal village may givedifferent answers to that question.40 | TAG March 2008

Book ReviewsTAG received a record number of book reviews for the March issue (clearly a lot of reading was done in December and January). Unfortunatelywe do not have enough advertisers to cover the extra pages required for so many reviews. Please accept our apologies if your review does notappear in this issue. We value your contribution and anticipate publishing more in the upcoming issue(s) and please remember the shorter thereview the more likely it will be published as TAG aims to publish a cross-section of our members’ views.Basic Environmentaland EngineeringGeologyFG Bell2007Whittles Publishing UK384 pagesISBN 1904445020www.whittlespublishing.comor www.inbooks.com.auAs the title suggests this is a basic text forstudents – primarily at an advanced level andfor post graduates. However it is also avaluable book for the experienced professionalwho wishes to revise the basics of theapplication of geology, to engineering andenvironmental investigations and studies.The book covers basic concepts and also runsthrough topical subjects such as geo-hazards,water resources, environmental issues ofsoils, mining, waste management and construction.It is a worthwhile addition to otherbooks on these subjects as it provides anup- to-date compendium on the appliedgeosciences. The wealth of information isquite remarkable and this is aided byProfessor Bell’s lucid, readable style. However,with so much information to cover, it is difficultto re-locate particular passages and theindex is not detailed enough. Students andexperienced geologists alike would need toheavily mark up or provide their own summariesfor the book to be used as a readyreference.The first chapter re-introduces ‘BasicGeology‘ (such a pity that the printed chaptertitle has such a glaring, major typographicalerror). For experienced professionalsthere is a temptation to pass over thischapter but upon reading, it provides welldescribed, useful definitions and covers manyissues, such as the difference betweenschistosity and foliation. The next chapter,‘Geology and Planning’ provides an introductionto the latest methods of mapping andsources of remote sensing data and GIS. Inaddition, the definitions of hazard and riskare set out for the purpose of assessmentand planning.‘Natural Geohazards’ is a topic covered inmany texts but the author has focused onthe essential geological issues for each hazard,covering most of the hazards that affectour lives and the world at large in sufficientdetail to alert the reader to the particularpertinence of these issues.The essentials of hydrology and hydrogoleogyare covered in the chapter, ‘Water Resources’and this leads into a discussion of aspects ofengineering geology (such as dam sites) andenvironmental geology. There is sufficientdetail to prompt awareness in this subject.‘Soil and the Environment’ follows, bringingbasic pedology to the fore with discussionson soil conservation, soil erosion, desertificationand irrigation.‘Mining and the Environment‘ follows as aseparate topic with the emphasis on theimpacts of mining on the environment andthe relevance of the geosciences to assessand handle specific issues such as mine subsidence,waste management and contamination.This leads to ‘Waste, Contamination andthe Environment’ that presents an issueaffecting all societies: handling our waste,quality of water and contamination of varioushabitats, such as urban areas and estuaries.The chapter ‘Land Evaluation and SiteAssessment’ provides the reader with a briefrun-down of the latest technology in remotesensing, aerial photography, site investigationtechniques, applied geophysical methods andin situ testing. These form the basis for gainingknowledge of the ground conditions uponwhich geotechnical design parameters can beobtained.The book then emphasises the essentials ofengineering geology with a comprehensivesummary of ‘Engineering Aspects of Soils andRocks’.The final chapter, ‘Geology and Construction’is likely a summary of Professor Bell’s comprehensivestand-alone text book on thesame subject in which he covers a wealth oftopics that are a valuable reference for studentsand practicing professionals. Basicinformation and commentary only are providedin this chapter and more detailed guidancewould have to be taken from othersources, such as are listed in the section‘Further Reading’.The illustrations do not match the standardof Professor Bell’s fine writing. They arepoorly presented; photographs are smallblack and white images and the landscapesquite indistinct. With so many excellent newphotos and graphics now available the bookwould have been improved greatly withclearer photographs and more illustrations.In summary, as this book is expected to be atext for students and professionals alike andthe subjects enter areas of socially responsibleengineering, it should be widely availablein order to add to the awareness of theissues.ROBERT GOLDSMITHEuropean LithosphereDynamicsGeological SocietyMemoir No 32DG Gee and RA Stephenson (Eds)2007Geological Society of London668 pagesISBN: 1-86239-212-9www.geolsoc.org.uk/index.htmlThe publishers are to be congratulated forthe excellence of the presentation, more acoffee-table book than one to hide on alibrary shelf. This is large format (230 x 310mm), hard cover volume with some 38contributions totalling 662 pages includingan index. There are numerous colour figureswhich contribute greatly to the clarity andcomprehension.The book is in four parts starting with anintroduction which includes four big-picturearticles, the first encapsulating the topic ofthe book: Deep Europe today: geophysicalsynthesis of the upper mantle structure andTAG March 2008 | 41

lithospheric processes over 3.5 Ga. Thefollowing three parts are time differentiated;Europe: Alpine to Present, Mesozoic –Palaeozoic Europe (the largest part) andPrecambrian Europe. Many papers in the latterthree parts focus on discrete areas suchas the Iberian Peninsula or Southern Urals.The book is a culmination of projectEuroprobe which focused on understandingthe state and origin of European lithosphereby integrating geological, geochemical andgeophysical data. According to the editors,many hundreds of geoscientists from morethan 30 countries contributed to the projectover its lifetime of more than 20 years. It is atribute to the political acumen of the organisersand of the International GeologicalCongress and International LithosphereProgram that so many countries were ableand willing to participate, and a fortunatecoincidence with perestroika and glasnostproviding a framework for closer cooperationbetween east and west.I admit I haven’t quite read every word, thereare so many, but one of the first papers I didturn to, by Wilson and Downes, is concernedwith Tertiary-Quaternary intraplate magmatismin Europe and its relationship to mantledynamics. Here at last was a readable andbelievable explanation of the origin of recentvolcanism in intraplate Europe including theEifel field in southwest Germany that Irecently visited. Unfortunately not theanswer for the origin of the Newer Volcanicsis southeast Australia as I had hoped but awell-written story.This book will appeal strongly to geologists(in the wider meaning of the word) anywherewho may be involved with understandingcrust and upper mantle structure, platereconstructions or rheology of the lithosphere.In particular the smaller group whouse or rely on seismic methods in the mainwill probably want to rush out and buy theirown copy of the book rather than wait in thelibrary queue. Hopefully it may influencethem to use S waves and Rayleigh waves inaddition to P waves in their analyses andextend the scope of their data sampling togreater depths.Surprisingly few of the authors use earthquakesources to constrain their models,especially considering they are free. Of theexceptions, Kissling and others use teleseismictomography as an additional tool anddescribe a very unexpected model of Alpinetectonic evolution. Why do they not use themany small earthquakes that occur inintraplate Europe as some researchers havedone in Australia – even before the highsample rate, broad-band digital age?42 | TAG March 2008There isn’t much to carp about in this book. Iwould like to see the references all togetherat the end of the book rather than at the endof each contribution and it may even shortensuch a book a page or two. The MagneticMap and Gravity Map of Europe are fortunatelyon facing pages in the introductionbut unfortunately are at different scales (notobvious without a grid on the Gravity Map)and there is a typo in the reference authorname. I don’t know how the index was compiledbut it did not pick up ‘earthquakes’ inthe caption to Fig 1 on page 114. A CDincluding the maps and figures would havebeen a bonus.This book is a real pleasure to browse, awonderful reference for your personal library(if you can afford it), a must for any seriousgeoscience library and a tribute to theGeological Society, London. I thank the GSAfor my copy.KEVIN MCCUEDirectorAustralian Seismological Centre, CanberraStudies of CaveSediments:Physical and ChemicalRecords of Paleoclimate(Revised edition 2007)Ira Sasowsky and John Mylroie (Eds)Springer Verlag329 pagesISBN 978-1-4020-5326-9 (HB)$AU215.85Paleoclimate studies are indeed becomingincreasingly more complex. They involve all(no exaggeration!) scientific, technological,and ‘humanity-type’ (used as a collectiveexpression for economic, social, psychological,educational, political, etc) disciplines bycollecting data dealing with the whole neoandpalaeo-geographical environment, geologicaltime (Precambrian to Recent) andscale (local to global and even universal)spectrum. The book covers some preferentiallyselected (thus not complete) physical andchemical geologic, biologic, and anthropologicspeleothemic data of cave or karst sedimentsto reconstruct palaeoclimates.The editors’ preface, to be read first, proffersa neat introduction and overview of thechapters of this first comprehensive volumeon cave sediments. Here are some highlightsof the following topics:• Generally applicable information related to:speleogenesis, geomorphology, karst structures/morphology,transportation and trappingmechanisms, sediment budgets, classificationof litho-facies, contaminations, stormresponses, diagenesis, mineralogy, petrology,provenance interpretations, aquifers andhydrological processes• Genetic and historical interpretations ofhypotheses/theories of: palaeoclimatic settings(the basic aim of the book, but coveredalso are contributions from mechanical versuschemical and organic processes); internalsedimentary processes; applications ofpalaeomagnetic and geochronological techniques;reconstructions of the process rates;provenance identifications; influence of contaminations;ice advance and retreat in thecontext of glaciation; use of various isotopesin palaeoclimatic interpretations; growthratedeterminations of speleothems, silicacarbonatediagenesis and their time, plustemperature conditions of formation• Research methodology and techniquesrelateddiscussions (including their limitations)of: sampling techniques; palaeomagnetism;time-resolution; start/stop models;growth modeling; genetic modeling, datingand geochronology; petrology (textures, erosionalfeatures); diagenesis (eg authigenesisof SiO2, clay alterations); isotope and traceelementdistributions• Descriptions of allogenic clastics, pluschemical (authigenic) precipitates, includingclay–sand–gravel deposits, muds, glacial(till-derived) deposits, soil and stream sediments,flood deposits, carbonate precipitatesof various types (stalactites, stalagmites,flowstones, speleothems, crusts, springprecipitates, bacterial contaminants, Fe- andMn- rich material, and silicates• Several specific local cave systems ofAustralia, USA, Slovenia, Austria, Norway,and West IndiesThe book naturally appeals to climatologistexperts, but also to any specialist and intelligent‘generalist’ or amateur scientist interestedin cave/karst/speleological features.Among the scientists, there is a whole groupwho has intensely investigated both ancientand recent carbonate caves owing to theirfundamental importance in, for instance,genetic investigations related to the explorationof hydrocarbons/petroleum/gas, water,numerous types of metallic/sulfide and nonmetallicores. The often extremely complexgeological, climatologic, and hydrologic historyof the origin and ‘in-filling’ of carbonate(and other lithologic) cave-system reservoiror host rocks have been described by numerousresearchers.

Historians, anthropologists and archaeologistshave always searched for clues in caves(eg refer to recent discoveries of the socalledhobbit skeletons in caves on FloresIsland, Indonesia). During the recent wars inIraq/Afghanistan, the search for the enemyhas involved the study of cave systems. Thus,the book should be consulted by expertsbeyond those involved in climatology. Thereferences to even more general books oncaves/karsts are recommended as caves areunique data repositories.KARL WOLFGeotourismRoss K Dowling and D Newsome (Eds)2006Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann Amsterdam260pp Hard-coverISBN: 0750662158As the wrapper for this book says,“Geotourism is tourism surrounding geologicalattractions and destinations. This uniquetext uses a wealth of case studies to discussthe issues involved in the management andcare of such attractions, covering topics suchas sustainability, impacts and environmentalissues.”The editors state that “the book has beencompiled for a broad audience, includingnatural-area tourism professionals, plannersand managers; government and businessdecision-makers; and students from a widerange of disciplines seeking general informationon geotourism in one volume”; indeed itdoes this very well.Australia has unusual and extensive naturallandscapes which offer much to geotourists,whether local or overseas. Geotourism can beused to harness the growing interest in environmentand ecology, and to educate thepublic in the story of the landscape. And atthe same time geotourism can providetourists with a better understanding of thewhole environment, and by using links tocultural and historical aspects can betterexplain the place of humans in the landscape(Joyce 2007).A list of contents provided here will helpdemonstrate the range of countries coveredin the book, and also show the link betweenGeotourism and UNESCO’s new concept ofGeoparks.Part One: The Resources for TourismThe scope and nature of geotourism,David Newsome and Ross Dowling.Geotourism in Malaysian Borneo,Felix Tongkul.Geotourism potential of southern Africa,Wolf Uwe Reimold, Gavin Whitfield andThomas Wallmach.Geotourism in Australia,Jane James, Ian Clark and Patrick James.Geotourism resources of Iran,Alireza Amrikazemi and Abbas Mehrpooya.Part Two: GeoparksGeoparks – regional, European and global policy,Marie-Luise Frey, Klaus Schäfer, Georg Bücheland Margarete Patzak.Geotourism: a perspective from southwestGermany, Christof Pforr and Andreas Megerle.Geological heritage in China, Jiang Jianjun,Zhao Xun and Chen Youfang.Part Three: Geotourism in ActionGeotourism: a perspective from the USA,Alexander E. Gates.Geotourism in Ireland and Britain, Patrick Mc Keever, Jonathan Larwood andAlan McKirdy.Geotourism in Spain: resources andenvironmental management,José M. Calaforra and Ángel Fernández-Cortés.Geotourism and interpretation,Thomas A. Hose.From the Geological Society of London•November 2006•630 pages•Hardback•November 2006•352 pages•Hardback• Special Publication 268: Channel Flow, Ductile Extrusion and Exhumation in Continental Collision ZonesEdited by R. D. Law, M. P. Searle and L. GodinThis collection of 27 review and research papers provides an overview of the geodynamic concepts of channel flow and ductile extrusion in continental collisionzones. The focal point for this volume is the proposal that the middle or lower crust acts as a ductile, partially molten channel flowing out from beneath areas ofover-thickened crust, such as the Tibetan plateau, towards the topographic surface at plateau margins. This controversial proposal explains many features relatedto the geodynamic evolution of the plateau and, for example, extrusion and exhumation of the crystalline core of the Himalayan mountain chain to the south.In this volume thermal–mechanical models for channel flow, extrusion and exhumation are presented, and geological and geophysical evidence both for andagainst the applicability of such models to the Himalayan–Tibetan Plateau system, as well as older continental collision zones such as the Hellenides, theAppalachians and the Canadian Cordillera, are discussed.•ISBN: 978-1-86239-209-0 •Prices: List: £125.00/US$250.00 GSL: £62.50/US$125.00 AAPG/SEPM/GSA/RAS/EFG/PESGB/TMS: £75.00/US$150.00• Special Publication 265: Non-Marine Permian Biostratigraphy and BiochronologyEdited by S. G. Lucas, G. Cassinis and J. W. SchneiderDuring the Permian, the single supercontinent Pangaea stretched from pole to pole. Early Permian glacial deposits are found in southern Gondwana. Alongthe sutures of Pangaea, mountain ranges towered over vast tropical lowlands. Interior areas included dry deserts where dune sands accumulated. Gypsumand halite beds document the evaporation of hot, shallow seas that formed the most extensive salt deposits known in the geological record. The Permianperiod (251 to 299 Ma) encompasses nine ages (stages) arranged into three epochs (series). Most of the Permian marine timescale has been defined by globalstratotype sections and points for the stage boundaries. This volume presents new data regarding the biostratigraphy and biochronology of the non-marinePermian and provides a basis for temporally ordering Permian geological and biotic history on land, and correlating that history to events in the marine realm.•ISBN: 978-1-86239-206-9 •Prices: List: £85.00/US$170.00 GSL: £42.50/US$85.00 AAPG/SEPM/GSA/RAS/ EFG/PESGB/TMS: £51.00/US$102.00Postage: UK: +5% (£4.00 minimum) Europe: +15% (£8.00 minimum) Rest of world: +15% £12.50 minimum) Please allow up to 28 days for delivery of in stock items in the UK. Parcels to Europeand Rest of World are sent by surface mail and can take 6 to 12 weeks to arrive. (Air or courier rates available on request). All prices and postage valid until 31 December 2008.Please order from: Geological Society Publishing House, Unit 7 Brassmill Enterprise Centre, Brassmill Lane, Bath BA1 3JN, UKFax: +44 (0)1225 442836 Enquiries: Tel: +44(0)1225 445046 Email: sales@geolsoc.org.uk Society Web site: www.geolsoc.org.ukFor full details see the Online Bookshop:www.geolsoc.org.uk/bookshopThe Geological Society’s Lyell Collection: journals, Special Publications andbooks online. For more information visit www.geolsoc.org.uk/LyellCollectionTAG March 2008 | 43

Geotourism's issues and challenges,Ross Dowling and David Newsome.Note the countries represented, and theemphasis on Europe and China, where theconcepts of both geotourism and geoparksare now well-developed.Each chapter has a list of references at theend (except for the China chapter), and thesouthern Africa chapter also has a list of tenweb sites. An appendix shows a geologicaltime scale. The index fails to mentionAustralia, but we do find Australia under‘Volcanic landforms’ and other terms; theterm ’Geopark‘ is not indexed, but’Geotourism‘ is.There are 62 grey-scale figures, mostly goodlandscape photographs; some maps are toosmall for the details shown, and some appearto have originally been in colour. There are12 tables, and also eighteen useful casestudies, printed on a grey background – butunfortunately none for the southern Africa orAustralian chapters.There is a background paragraph on eachauthor, including the two editors. RossDowling is Foundation Professor of Tourismat Edith Cowan University in WesternAustralia. Co-author David Newsome isSenior Lecturer in Environmental Science atMurdoch University, in Perth, WesternAustralia.Who coined the term ‘geotourism’ is debatable.The Travel Industry Association ofAmerica in 2003 prepared a reportGeotourism: The New Trend in Travel, claimingthat geotourism is a term created byJonathan Tourtellot, head of the tourisminstitute at the National Geographic Society.Their definition of geotourism is “tourismthat sustains or enhances the geographicalcharacter of the place being visited, includingits environment, culture, aesthetics, heritageand the well-being of its residents”.However, Margarete Patzak of UNESCO’sDivision of Earth Sciences has writtenelsewhere that ‘Geotourism’ came into commonusage from the mid-1990s onwards. Thefirst widely published definition was that ofTom Hose in 1995: “The provision of interpretativeand service facilities to enabletourists to acquire knowledge and understandingof the geology and geomorphologyof a site beyond the level of mere aestheticappreciation.” In his own chapter in the bookbeing reviewed here, Tom Hose elaborates onhis original definition, and discusses thegrowth of geotourism, and particularly thedevelopment of interpretation, and howinterpretation may be important in helpingprotect sites from damage. He provides severalcase studies from the UK.Elsewhere I have also suggested a simplerworking definition of geotourism: “Peoplegoing to a place to look at and learn aboutone or more aspects of geology and geomorphology.”See the web site: http://web.earthsci.unimelb.edu.au/Joyce/heritage/geotourisminaustralia.htmlThe chapter by James, Clark and James inthis book provides one of the most recentaccounts of geotourism in Australia. Theybriefly discuss visitor numbers, and recentgovernment marketing campaigns, and aftera short account of Australia’s geological heritage,describe ten major geotourism sites,five of which are World Heritage sites.Twenty-one references are listed, but mostare concerned with tourism in general.Guidebooks such as those produced by theGSA, AGSO and others are not referenced.Nor do James, Clark and James provide referencesto, or acknowledge, over forty years ofwork by GSA heritage subcommittees whichhave listed, documented, evaluated anddeveloped methodologies for heritage sites.By working with the Australian HeritageCommission under a long series of grants,GSA workers have compiled many volumes ofreports, and made many detailed nominationsto the Register of the National Estate.GSA workers have also made recommendationsabout site management, and workedwith state and local organisations to provideaccurate and clear information for signboards,leaflets, booklets and maps. Severalrecent articles and book reviews in TAGdescribe this work (for example Joyce 2007).Geologists such as JN Casey, AE Stephensonand W Mayer appear to have been the firstto be concerned with geotourism inAustralia, at the 1996 GSA Canberra meeting.See http://vic.gsa.org.au/geotourism.htm.Australian geologists have been active ingeotourism for many years, although notnecessarily using this relatively new term. Tomention just a few: Monica Yeung of the ACThas led Gondwana Dreaming tours; Pat Quiltyfrom Hobart has led ship tours to theAntarctic; The Hall of Fame Museum inKalgoorlie encourages interest in rocks andminerals; Phil Creaser of the ACT works yearafter year at Riversleigh and promotes itsgeological heritage; and Geofossil Tourism ispromoted at Naracoorte, with the GSA’sSouth Australia Heritage Subcommittee amember of the local Fossil and GeologicalHeritage Tourism Workgroup.The nomination of Australia’s first GlobalGeopark was made to UNESCO in December2006 (Joyce 2007). The ’Kanawinka Geopark‘will cover much of the young volcanicprovince of Western Victoria and also part ofnearby South Australia, extending from Colacin the east to Mt Gambier in the west. Forthe UNESCO inspectors visiting the area in44 | TAG March 2008

June 2007 its scientific significance wasbased on the work of many Australian geologistsand GSA heritage workers, over manydecades. Geotourism in this future Geoparkcould be of major economic and educationalsignificance.However, there is still some way to go withthe development of geotourism in Australia.For example, the reports of the Fifth NationalConference on Tourism Futures, held 4 - 6December 2006 in Melbourne, fail to mentionthe word ’geotourism’ at all (or even the word’geology’).Curiously, Dowling and Newsome do notadopt a formal definition of geotourism intheir book, but in their final chapter’Geotourism’s issues and challenges‘, thereare excellent discussions of what the termcovers, and they state that “it is essentialthat the term be clearly defined and characterisedso that a universal meaning can beascribed to it”… (and)…“it is now for otherfora to debate it further”.This might happen at the inaugural GlobalGeotourism Conference being hosted inFremantle, Western Australia, from 17 to 20August 2008, by the Forum AdvocatingCultural and Eco Tourism (FACET), withProfessor Ross Dowling as conference convener.Details are now be on the web atGlobal Geotourism Conference 2008 –www.promaco.com.au/2008/geotmLocal and overseas keynote speakers haverecently been announced for the GlobalGeotourism Conference in 2008, and fieldtrips are planned within Western Australia,but unfortunately, once again GeologicalSociety of Australia heritage workers andtheir knowledge and experience seem so farto be playing little part.However, lest we get too concerned aboutthe present, it might help to look at the twobooks I have listed below, which illustrate forEurope and Australia how our interest in thelandscape has grown over several centuries.Neither book indexes geology (or geotourism)but they do show how the public has becomeincreasingly interested in the Earth’s surfaceand its relationship to people, and especiallythe links between landscape and culturalheritage, and that is what a growing numberof geologists find themselves concerned withtoday.So read Dowling and Newsome’s Geotourismand be ready for the future, and the benefitsit can offer our favourite science. This book isindeed “a treasure-trove of geological heritagematerial” and deserves to be on thebookshelves of many Australian geologists.(Note that you may also find on the web abook listed as Geotourism: Sustainability,Impacts and Management by Ross Dowling,hard-cover (and elsewhere ‘paperback’) withthe date 19 August, 2005, of 352 pages, at£35.00, $AUD 98.11 (inc GST); this appears tobe the same book.)REFERENCESBernie Joyce. 2007. ‘Geotourism, Geosites andGeoparks: working together in Australia’, TheAustralian Geologist, September 2007, pp 26-29.Ian Ousby. 1990. The Englishman’s England: Taste,Travel and the Rise of Tourism. Pimlico, (CUP),London.Julia Horne. 2005. The Pursuit of Wonder: HowAustralia’s landscape was explored, nature discoveredand tourism unleashed. The Miegunyah Press,Carlton, Victoria, Australia.Hose, T.A. 1995. Selling the Story of Britain’s Stone,Environmental Interpretation, 10 (2), 16-17.Associate Professor EB JoycePrincipal FellowSchool of Earth SciencesThe University of Melbourneebj@unimelb.edu.auwww.geology.au.comIgneous Petrology(3rd Edition)Alexander McBirney.Jones and Bartlett Publishers (hard cover)2007550 pages ISBN-10: 0-7637-3448-9$105.95 (U.S)www.jbpub.comAlexander McBirney states that this book isprimarily aimed for a single semester coursefor undergraduate students who already haveat least an elementary background in petrographyand petrology. I certainly agree withthis, though would further recommend theTAG apologiesbook to any postgraduate student undertakingany research in igneous petrology and toanyone with a general interest in igneouspetrology, as it gives an excellent overview ofthe various developments in igneous petrologyand concise treatment of the main typesof magmatism and their tectonic settings.The book begins with a two-page Preface onthis latest edition by McBirney in which hestresses the need for this updated editiondue to the great advances in analytical techniquesand change of ideas in the past 20years. The Chapters are then structured asfollows: The Earth and its Magmatism (1),Magmas and Igneous Rocks (2), Crystal-Liquid Reactions (3), Igneous Minerals andTheir Textures (4), Magmatic Differentiation:Mechanism and Effects (5), MagmaticDifferentiation: Basic Intrusions (6), Basaltsand Magma Series (7), Oceanic Magmatismand Flood Basalts (8), Magmatism atConvergent Plate Boundaries (9), GraniticPlutons and Siliceous Ignimbrites (10),Magmatism of the Continental Interiors (11).There are then a series of Appendices coveringCalculation of Normative Minerals (A),Calculations of Densities and Viscosities ofSilicate Melts (B), Error Functions (C),Mathematical Functions of RadiogenicIsotopes (D), Atomic and Molecular Weightsand Radii (E) and Distribution Coefficientsand Normalising Factors (F). These are thenfollowed by a short glossary of rock namesand fairly comprehensive index.The somewhat haunting black and whiteimage on the front cover is of columnarjointedbasalt from Frenchman Hills, Quincy,Washington State, USA. The inside frontcover contains a list of Units and ConversionFactors while the back inside cover containsa table of symbols and physical constants,and a table of abbreviations of minerals.Each chapter ends with a short (1-6) list ofselected references which are mainly otherbooks or compilations of research papers.These are generally up-to-date with the mostTAG 145, pages 19-20: IGCP 512. All references to the Wirara Siltstone should havebeen the McAlly Shale.TAG 145, page 24 announced Scott R Taylor as a GSA Fellow. We apologise for thiserror to Stuart Ross (called Ross) Taylor for the confusion and any inconveniencecaused and reiterate the GSA is proud to have ‘Ross’ Taylor as a GSA Fellow andmember of the society.GeoCal 2009 mistakenly included the JJ Frankel Memorial Lecture as a GSA AnnualLecture. The GSA NSW Division and the University of New South Wales, School ofGeology (now BEES) has run the JJ Frankel Memorial Lecture since its inception.The 2007, 27th lecture was given by Professor Col Ward:www.bees.unsw.edu.au/news/news190907.htmlTAG March 2008 | 45

ecent publications in the various fields covered(e.g. The Earth and its Magmatism hasreferences as recent as 2005, and OceanicMagmatism and Flood Basalts as recent as2006). What I really like is that ‘classicworks’ in the field of igneous petrology suchas Bowen’s 1928 ‘Evolution of igneous rocks’are also listed as selected references. Suchclassics are still relevant today and it is vitallyimportant for students to understand notjust the most modern techniques and ideas,but also how and why techniques and ideasin igneous petrology have developed andchanged over time.There is an excellent treatment of phase diagramsin igneous systems in Chapter 3:Crystal-Liquid Reactions. As expected, theSkaergaard Intrusion is described in somedetail in Chapter 6: MagmaticDifferentiation: Basic Intrusions as this isprobably the most-studied single igneousintrusion on Earth. Results arising from thesevarious studies have been fundamental inforging our ideas on magmatic differentiation,layering in igneous intrusions andmechanisms of emplacement of igneousintrusions.Throughout the book there are tables of representativewhole-rock analyses from theliterature (with the source indicated in afootnote) which are a most useful referencein themselves. Where appropriate, there arealso well-drawn geological maps, sections,illustrations of igneous rock textures andvarious other diagrams. Overall, these areclear, uncluttered and easy to follow. Keyterms for students such as adiabatic andfugacity are marked in italics. All images anddiagrams are in black and white and in aneasy-to-read format. Most are excellent clearand large (full or half-page) reproductions.The black-and-white images of igneous rocktextures have dual (cm and inches) scale barswhich is an excellent idea, and are excellentreproductions and highly informative for students.The size of this book (23.5 x 18 cm) isvery convenient and will easily fit on anybook shelve. The font size and style is veryeasy to read, even in bad light.There are only a few obvious errors. On p 15,‘western Australia’ should be ‘WesternAustralia’. Table 2-1 covers two pages (34and 35). The headings are clear for theanalyses on p 34, but there are no correspondingheadings for the analyses on p 35. Inthe figure caption for Figs 3-1 (p 73-75),colour is mentioned although the figuresappear in black and white. Also for thisfigure, it is difficult to see some of thefeatures alluded to in the figure caption andFigs (c) and (d) appear to be around thewrong way. In Figure 7-8 on p 281, ‘kearsutite’should be ‘kaersutite and in Table 7-5 onp. 292, ‘Berberton’ should be ‘Barberton’. InFigure 8-6 on p 323, ‘chromite pod’ shouldbe ‘chromitite pod’. However, there is a fundamentalerror regarding the BushveldComplex on p 221. In the text it states thatthe Bushveld granites had intruded throughthe mafic-ultramafic series 50-100 Ma afterthey had crystallized. However, a number ofpublished studies have clearly shown thatthe Bushveld Granites are essentially coevalwith the mafic-ultramafic layered series.Perhaps this can be fixed in a 4th Edition.This book is an excellent overview of the fieldof igneous petrology. As such it is essentialfor all university libraries and should be onthe recommended reading list for all undergraduatecourses that cover any aspects ofthis field. It can also be used by lecturers asa key reference guide to help develop theirown course on igneous petrology. At $US106for 550p with a hardcover, it is good valuefor money and around the average price forsuch publications these days.IAN GRAHAMSchool of Biological, Earth andEnvironmental SciencesUNSWComplexity ExplainedPeter Erdi397 pages2008Springer VerlagISBN-13 978-3-540-35777-3EU 53.45Complexity is one of numerous theorieswhich have found wide application in justabout all scientific and technological, andnumerous humanity-type, disciplines. ManyEarth Science publications deal with thesenewer concepts, like fractals, chaos,order/disorder, emergence, catastrophism,data mining, pattern recognition, causalitychains and chance, stability, synchronocity,entropy, randomness, networks, cyclicity,hierarchy, feedback, self-organisation, andmuch more – often in association with complexity.Space restrictions will allow only afew words here – but every geoscientist,whichever problems he/she is investigating,will do well to invest in this book as it refersto earthquake and volcanism predictions,among much more.In so far as this book deals only partly withone philosophy of science topic, of whichcomplexity and all other above-listed conceptsare an intricate part, the reader isreferred to two additional recent books:Brown, HI, 2007. Conceptual Systems.Routledge, Taylor and Francis Group, London,New York; and Vargas-Quesada, B and Moya-Anegón, F, 2007. Visualizing the Structure ofScience. Springer Verlag, Heidelberg.The latter book is of general interest to thosedealing with the complexity of inter-disciplinaryintegration (or systems analysis,cybernetics, holism, synergetics).KARL H. WOLF46 | TAG March 2008

Books for reviewIn the Heart of the DesertM Quentin Mortonwww.greenmountainpress.co.uk/" www.greenmountainpress.co.ukThe Evolution of Clastic SedimentologyH Okada and AJ Kenyon-Smithwww.inbooks.com.auThe following books are available from the Geological Society ofLondon, www.geolsoc.org.uk/bookshop:The Geology of ChileT Moreno and W GibbonsThe Neoproterozoic Timanide Orogen ofEastern BalticaDG Gee and V PeaseWhatever is Under the EarthGL Herries DaviesEGSP21 – Clay Materials used in ConstructionGM Reeves, I Sims and JC CrippsSP244 – Submarine Slope Systems: Processesand ProductsDM Hodgson and SS FlintSP253 – Analogue and Numerical Modelling ofCrustal-Scale ProcessesSJH Buiter and G SchreursSP255 – Cool-Water CarbonatesHM Pedley and G CarannanteSP257 – Geomaterials in Cultural HeritageM Maggetti and B MessigaSP261 – Fractal Analysis for Natural HazardsG Cello and BD MalamudSP263 – Fluid Flow and Solute Movement inSandstonesRD Barker and JH TellamSP264 – Compositional Data Analysis in theGeosciencesA Buccianti, G Mateu-Figueras and V Pawlowsky-GlahnSP265 – Non-Marine Permian Biostratigraphyand BiochronologySG Lucas, G Cassinis and JW SchneiderSP269 – Mechanisms of Activity and Unrest atLarge CalderasC Troise, G de Natale and CRJ KilburnSP270 – Fractured ReservoirsL Lonergen, RJH Jolly, K Rawnsley and DJ SandersonSP271 – Building Stone DecayR Prikryl and BJ SmithSP272 – Deformation of the Continental Crust:The Legacy of Mike CowardAC Ries, RWH Butler and R. H GrahamSP273 – Myth and GeologyL Piccardi and WB MasseSP274 – Coastal and Shelf Sediment TransportPS Balsom and MB CollinsSP275 – Palaeozoic Reefs and BioaccumulationsJJ Alvaro, M Aretz, F Boulvain, A Munnecke, D Vachard and E VenninSP276 – Economic and PalaeoceanographicSignificance of Contourite DepositsAR Viana and M RebescoSP277 – Seismic GeomorphologyRJ Davies, H W Posamentier, LJ Wood and JA CartwrightSP278 – Denonian Events and CorrelationsRT Becker and WT KirchgasserSP279 – Natural and Anthropogenic Hazards inKarst AreasM Parise and J GunnSP280 – Mesozoic Sub-Continental LithosphericThinning under Eastern AsiaMG Zhai, BF Windley, TM Kusky and QR MengSP281 – The Role of Women in the Historyof GeologyCV Burek and B HiggsSP282 – Imaging and Modelling ContinentalLithosphere Extension and BreakupGD Karner, G Manatschal and LM PinheiroSP283 – Mapping Hazardous Terrain usingRemote SensingRM TeeuwSP284 – Rock Physics and Geomechanics in theStudy of Reservoirs and RepositoriesC David and M Le Ravalec-DupinSP285 – Evaporites through Space and TimeBC Schreiber, S Lugli and M BabelSP286 – The Rise and Fall of Ediacaran BiotaP Vickers-Rich and P KomarowerSP288 – Four Centuries of Geological TravelPN Wyse JacksonTAG March 2008 | 47

O B I T U A R I E SDr Norman Henry Fisher AOOne of the founding members ofthe leadership team of GeoscienceAustralia’s predecessor, the Bureauof Mineral Resources (BMR) hasbeen honoured in GeoscienceAustralia’s Symonston headquarters.Geoscience Australia’s library hasbeen named The NH (Doc) FisherGeoscience Library after Dr NormanFisher, AO, who died on 23September 2007 aged 98.’Doc‘ Fisher, as he was affectionately known, wasappointed as Chief Geologist in 1946 and was at the helm ofthe BMR from its inception until he retired in 1974.The geological understanding of Australia generatedthrough a visionary and bold plan which Doc Fisher implementedto map the geology of Australia, underpinned thephenomenal development and growth of Australia's mineraland petroleum industries.In 1996 he participated in the ’turning of the sod‘ ceremonyto mark the beginning of construction of GeoscienceAustralia’s current headquarters in Canberra and attended thebuilding’s opening in January 1998.In 2006 he attended the informal 60th anniversary celebrationsmarking the foundation of the BMR.Geoscience Australia’s Chief Executive, Dr Neil Williams,described Dr Fisher as a great Australian geologist whobecame a legend in his own lifetime.“He lived long enough to see the tremendous resultswhich came from the first systematic regional-scale geologicalmapping of Australia – an effort he drove with passionfrom 1946 until 1974,” Dr Williams said.The Doc Fisher Geoscience Library is a national resourceproviding information services to Geoscience Australia staff,the Australian public and researchers across the globe.Dr Fisher’s widow, Molly, and Dr Williams officiated at theceremony, cutting a ribbon and unveiling a plaque whichmarks the Library’s new name.ADDITIONAL NOTES:Founded the Rabaul Vulcanology Observatory in Papua NewGuinea in 1939.Assessed Australia’s strategic mineral resources duringWorld War II and then, as Chief Geologist, oversaw thesystematic geological mapping of Australasia.Served as the fourth Director of the BMR from 1969 to1974.In retirement, ’Doc‘ Fisher maintained an active interest inall things geological. He was President General of the 25thInternational Geological Congress (IGC) held in Sydney in1976, the first IGC to ever been held in the SouthernHemisphere.Participated in BMR's formal 50th AnniversaryCelebrations in 1996 and their informal 60th anniversarycelebrations in 2006.Image and text courtesy Geoscience Australia.Dr Norman Henry Fisher was a Foundation Member of theGeological Society of Australia and an Honorary Member.His biography can be viewed on the GSA website:www.gsa.org.au/recognition/biographies.html#FisherNIan Robert Williams28 August 1938 – 22 November 2007Ian Robert Williams, the Geological Survey of WesternAustralia’s (GSWA) longest-serving geologist on record, diedon 22 November 2007, after a short illness.Ian joined GSWA on 3 February 1964, and during his 42years and 4 months of continuous service he personallymapped an area equivalent to ten per cent of the State,14 of his 31 maps, being in the Pilbara, where Ian commencedand completed his highly illustrious GSWA career. Hisregional geological mapping extended from the far north ofthe Kimberley southward to the eastern goldfields. Many ofthe areas were mapped for both 1:250 000- and 1:100 000-scale maps.Long before Ian’s retirement on 30 June 2006, he hadestablished himself as unquestionably our most experiencedand respected field geologist. At his retirement function,which was attended by over 80 colleagues past and present,several of his closest friends spoke of his achievements, hisdedication, and the major contribution he made to the successof GSWA. When it came to his turn to reply, Ian was asmodest as ever, simply thanking those who had spoken fortheir tributes, and informing everyone that he was now lookingforward to a long and healthy retirement with his family.It was so well deserved, but regrettably it was not to be.Ian’s interest in geology was first sparked when, as a nineyear old, he was given a collection of minerals by a familyfriend, which led to him to accompany his father onprospecting trips around New South Wales. Fascinated by theminerals and rocks he found he never looked back. Abouthalf-a-century-of-collecting later, he had established an48 | TAG March 2008

impressive mineral and rock collection that took up a largepart of his Gooseberry Hill home and garden.After gaining a First Class Honours degree at theUniversity of Sydney in 1961, Ian accepted a position of FieldGeologist with New Consolidated Gold Fields (Australia) PtyLtd, and commenced his professional career in New SouthWales and Queensland. He joined the Survey in 1964, hisgeological mapping with GSWA taking him to all parts ofWestern Australia, with the exception of the southwest andthe Eucla–Warburton regions. Apart from his extensive firsthandknowledge of the geology of many of these areas, hismemory for the people and events of these areas was trulyprodigious.Ian made a major contribution to the success of GSWA.He contributed to over 60 of our publications, led numerousGSWA field excursions, and also published externally. Notonly did he map a large number of areas, he laid claim to anumber of important ‘firsts’. For example, in 1968 he organisedand led the first in a series of popular GSWA safari-stylepublic field excursions to describe and explain our 1:250000-scale geological mapping. Although well attended, thisfirst excursion over the KURNALPI 1:250 000 sheet was welland truly eclipsed when he led the 1971 EDJUDINA 1:250000 sheet excursion which, held during the height of thenickel boom, attracted a convoy of 92 vehicles and more than200 people! Drawing on his experience with helicopter surveysthat were undertaken jointly with the Bureau of MineralResources (now Geoscience Australia), in 1975 Ian also ledGSWA’s first independent helicopter mapping program. Injust one month, this resulted in the successful mapping ofextensive tracts of remote country across six 1:250 000 sheetsin the Rudall–Nabberu region.Some of the most exciting discoveries made by GSWAinvolved Ian. For example, in 1969 he found the EdjudinaMeteorite, a bronzite chrondrite, about 30 cm across, now inthe Western Australian Museum. Later, his mapping of theMount Narryer area contributed to the discovery of WesternAustralia’s oldest rocks, and some of the oldest minerals (zircons)found on Earth. On subsequent mapping projects, hiskeen powers of observation resulted in the discovery of the‘string of beads’ (some of the earliest evidence of fossil seaweeds)in the Precambrian Stag Arrow Formation, and evidenceof Proterozoic glaciation in what was formerly referredto as the Savory Basin. His ongoing interest in minerals led tohis 1977 discovery of the new copper mineral moolooite, onMooloo Downs Station in the Gascoyne region, and later to thediscovery of the first Australian occurrence of jianshuiite(Mg,Mn)Mn 3 0 7 x3H 2 O.Ian loved his work, especially the field mapping he wascalled upon to undertake across vast tracts of some ofWestern Australia’s remotest regions. He was ideally suited tothe task, with innate bush-sense, endurance, inexhaustibleenthusiasm and inquisitiveness. He was a keen observer, too.Ian was fortunate to have that relatively rare combinationof a happy family life and work that he thoroughly enjoyed.Quite apart from his geological interests, Ian was a very activemember (and former State Secretary of the WesternAustralian Branch) of the Anthroposophical Society andfollowed many of their precepts in his daily life.Ian will be greatly missed by all who knew him, and especiallythose who worked most closely with him. He will beremembered as a good friend, a gentleman, very considerate,and always ready to help others. He leaves his wife Anne, hischildren Chris and Sarah, and five grandchildren.Obituary submitted by Jean Johnston, Geological Surveyof Western Australia.LEFT: IRW collecting samples for geochronology, 1983.Photo courtesy Geological Survey of Western Australia.MIDDLE: IRW (right). Ian led GSWA’s first use of helicopters for regional mapping, Rudall,1975. Photo courtesy Geological Survey of Western Australia.RIGHT: RW leading the Muccan excursion, Pilbara, 1999.Photo courtesy Geological Survey of Western Australia.TAG March 2008 | 49

Calendar2008The International Year ofPlanet Earthwww.esfs.org31 March–3 April2nd International SalinityForum: Salinity, Water andSociety – Global issues, localactionAdelaide, South Australiawww.waterdownunder2008.com7–11 AprilOre Deposit Models for MineralExplorationMelbourne, Victoria14–18 AprilWater Down Under 2008 incorporating31st Hydrology and WaterResources Symposium and the 4thInternational Conference onWater Resources and EnvironmentResearchAdelaide, South Australiawww.waterdownunder2008.com17–20 MayInaugural Global GeotourismConferenceEsplanade Hotel, Fremantle,Western Australiawww.promaco.com.au/2008/geotm20–23 MayMyres III : Dynamic Interactionsof Life and its LandscapesNew Orleans, USAwww.myres.org/myres313–18 JulyGoldschmidt 2008Vancouver, Canadawww.goldschmidt2008.org20–24 July19th AGC, The Australian EarthSciences Convention 2008Perth, Western Australiawww.iceaustralia.com/aesc2008aesc2008@iceaustralia.com5–14 August33rd International GeologicalCongress – Earth System Science:Foundation for SustainableDevelopmentOslo, Norway10–15 August9th International KimberliteConferenceFrankfurt, Germanywww.9ikc.uni-frankfurt.de17–20 AugustInaugural Global GeotourismConferenceEsplanade Hotel, Fremantle,Western Australiawww.promaco.com.au/2008/geotm14–17 SeptemberPESA 3rd Eastern AustralianBasins SymposiumSydney Convention andExhibition Centre, New SouthWaleswww.pesa.com.au15–20 SeptemberAEG 51st Annual MeetingNew Orleans, Louisiana, USAwww.aegweb.org21–25 September3rd International ProfessionalGeologic Conference AIPG AnnualMeetingFlagstaff, Arizona, USAwww.aipg.org/scriptcontent/index.cfm17 OctoberTerry Leach Symposium 2008: TheApplication of Petrology toGeology Models in MineralsExploration, Milsons Point,SydneySMEDG and AIG:www.smedg.org.auGSA MEMBER OFFER: DISCOUNT ON GSA LONDON PUBLICATIONSGEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON SPECIAL BOOK OFFERTo: Alison Tucker, Marketing Executive, Unit 7, Brassmill Lane, Enterprise Centre, Brassmill Lane, Bath BAI 3JN UKTel: +44 1 225 445 046. Fax: +44 1 225 442 836. Email: alison.tucker@geolsoc.org.ukNO. ITEM LIST PRICE GS MEMBER PRICESP268SP265Channel Flow, Ductile Extrusion and Exhumation in Continental Collision ZonesEdited by RD Law, MP Searle and L Godin £125.00 $US250.00 £75.00 $US150.00Non-Marine Permian Biostratigraphy and BiochronologyEdited by SG Lucas, G Cassinis and JW Schneider £85.00 $US170.00 £51.00 $US102.00SUBTOTAL:To UK address +5% of the full price (£4 minimum), to Europe address +15% of the full price(£8 minimum), to Rest of World +15% of the full price (£12.50 minimum)Please tick■ VIsa ■ AmEx ■ Diner’s Club ■ MasterCard – for the full amount above.POSTAGE:TOTAL $CARD NUMBER:| | | | | SECURITY CODE EXPIRY DATE |NAME:GSA MEMBER NUMBER:DELIVERY ADDRESS:PHONE NO:EMAIL ADDRESS:Orders can be faxed or posted. members may use VISA, American Express, Diners Club or MasterCard or post a cheque for the full amount, payable toTHE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. Note: Orders at the GS London member rate must be made on this form (or a photocopy/fax copy of it).Prepayment is required on all orders. Please allow up to 28 days for delivery of in stock items in the UK. Parcels to Europe and Rest of the World are sent surfacemail and can take 6 to 12 weeks to arrive. Air or courier rates are available on request.50 | TAG March 2008

Geological Society of Australia Inc. Office Bearers 2008/2009MEMBERS OF COUNCILAND EXECUTIVEPresidentAndy Gleadow,University of MelbourneVice PresidentPeter Cawood,University of Western AustraliaSecretaryMarilyn MooreTreasurerFons VandenBerg,GeoScience VictoriaPast PresidentTony Crawford,University of TasmaniaHon Editor,Australian Journal of Earth SciencesTony CockbainCOUNCILLORS OF THEEXECUTIVE DIVISIONCouncillorStephen Gallagher,University of MelbourneHonorary Promotions OfficerBill Birch, Museum VictoriaAdministration OfficerSimon Turner, Macquarie UniversityCo-opted MembersMike Sandiford,University of MelbourneBradley Opdyke,Australian National UniversitySTANDING COMMITTEESGeological HeritageNational ConvenorSusan WhiteAustralian StratigraphyCommissionNational Convenor, andExternal Territories ConvenorAlbert BrakelSTATE CONVENORSACTAlbert BrakelNew South WalesLawrence SherwinGeological Survey of New South WalesNorthern TerritoryPierre KruseNorthern Territory Geological SurveyQueenslandIan WithnallGeological Survey of QueenslandSouth AustraliaWayne CowleyPrimary Industries & ResourcesSouth AustraliaTasmaniaStephen ForsythMineral Resources TasmaniaVictoriaFons VandenBergGeoScience VictoriaWestern AustraliaRoger HockingGeological Survey of Western AustraliaDIVISIONS ANDBRANCHESAustralian Capital TerritoryChair: Brad PilansThe Australian National UniversitySecretary: Craig O’NeillMacquarie UniversityNew South Waleswww.nsw.gsa.org.auChair: Ron Vernon,Macquarie UniversitySecretary: Craig O’Neill,Dept of Earth & Planetary Science,Macquarie UniversityNorthern TerritoryChair: Christine Edgoose,Northern Territory Geological SurveyQueenslandwww.qld.gsa.org.auChair: Greg Webb,Queensland University of TechnologySecretary: Stephanie HamiltonGeological Survey of QueenslandSouth Australiawww.sa.gsa.org.auChair: Nick DireenUniversity of AdelaideSecretary: Jim Jago,University of South AustraliaTasmaniaChair: Andrew McNeillSecretary: John Everard,Mineral Resources TasmaniaVictoriawww.vic.gsa.org.auChair: Stephen Gallagher,University of MelbourneSecretary: Dee NinisSeismology Research CentreWestern Australiawww.wa.gsa.org.auChair: Chris YeatsCSIRO Exploration & MiningSecretary: Catherine SpaggiariGeological Survey of Western AustraliaBroken Hill BranchChair: Barney Stevens,Geological Survey of New South WalesSecretary: Kingsley MillsHunter Valley BranchChair: Valerie SmithSecretary: Phil Seccombe,University of NewcastleSPECIALIST GROUPSApplied Geochemistry SpecialistGroup (SGAG)www.sgag.gsa.org.auChair: Louisa LawranceSecretary: Craig RuglessAssociation of AustralasianPalaeontologists (AAP)www.es.mq.edu.au/mucep/aap/index.htmChair: Glenn Brock,Macquarie UniversitySecretary: John Paterson,Macquarie UniversityAustralian Sedimentology Group(ASG)Chair: Bradley Opdyke,Australian National UniversitySecretary: Sarah TynanAustralian National UniversityCoal Geology (CGG)www.cgg.gsa.org.auChair: Wes NicholsSecretary: Mark BiggsEarth Sciences History Group (ESHG)www.vic.gsa.org.au/eshg.htmChair: Bernie Joycethe University of MelbourneSecretary: Guy Holdgatethe University of MelbourneSecretary: Guy Holdgate,University of MelbourneEconomic Geology Specialist Groupsgeg.gsa.org.auChair: Frank BierleinUniversity of Western AustraliaSecretary: Oliver KreuzerUniversity of Western AustraliaEnvironmental Engineering &Hydrogeology Specialist Group(EEHSG)Chair: Ken LawrieGeoscience AustraliaSecretary: Leharne FountainGeoscience AustraliaGeochemistry, Mineralogy &Petrology Specialist Group(SGGMP)www.sggmp.gsa.org.auChair: Ralph BotrillMineral Resources TasmaniaSecretary: Ian GrahamUniversity of New South WalesGeological Education (SGE)Chair: Greg McNamaraGeoscience Education & OutreachServicesPlanetary Geoscience SpecialistGroup (SGPG)Chair: Marc NormanAustralian National UniversitySolid Earth Geophysics SpecialistGroup (SGSEG)www.sgseg.gsa.org.auChair: Brian KennettAustralian National UniversitySecretary: Bruce GolebyGeoscience AustraliaTectonics & Structural GeologySpecialist Group (SGTSG)www.sgtsg.gsa.org.auChair: Alan CollinsAdelaide UniversitySecretary: Nicholas DireenFrogTechVolcanology (LAVA)www.es.mq.edu.au/geology/volcan/hmpg.htmChair: Rick Squire,Monash UniversitySecretary: Karin Orth,Monash UniversityKnow your Geologist . . .Did you know them? (page 8)Left to right: John McAndrew (former CSIRO),Ian Plimer and Bill Birch.Please send your ‘Know your Geologist’ totag@gsa.org.au for the June issue.TAG March 2008 | 51

Publishing DetailsThe Australian Geologist52 | TAG March 2008 Background InformationGENERAL NOTEThe 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 EarthScientists. 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 Australiaand around the world.COPYRIGHTSchedule and Deadlines for 2008 / 2009I SSUE C OPY F INISHED ART I NSERTSJune 2008 30 April 9 May 16 MaySeptember 2008 31 July 8 August 16 AugustDecember 2008 30 October 3 November 10 NovemberMarch 2009 30 January 5 February 16 March ßArtworkMaterial can be supplied electronically via Email (if attachments, total to less than 2Mb) or mailCD (MAC or PC). The advertisements or photographs can be sent as jpeg, eps or tiff. 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