Overview of the Deep Crustal Seismic surveys conducted by Geoscience Australia and funded through the Onshore Energy Security Program since it's commencement in 2006 to September 2009.

We describe a new framework for quantitative bushfire risk assessment that has been produced in the Bushfire Cooperative Research Centre's (Bushfire CRC) research program. The framework is aimed at assisting state of the art fire research in Australia and fire risk managers in state and territory governments. There is a need for improved bushfire risk information to address the recommendations on bushfire risk management from the inquiries held after disastrous fires in the past decade. Quantitative techniques will improve this risk information however quantitative bushfire risk assessment is in its infancy in Australia. We use the example of calculating house damage and loss to describe the elements of the framework. The framework builds upon the well-defined processes in the Australian Risk Management standard (AS/NZS ISO 31000:2009) and the National Emergency Risk Assessment Guidelines.

short discussion on why and how to define lithostratigraphic units, and where to find information on describing sequence stratigraphic and regolith units.

Update on petroleum in Australia during 2008

Disaster management is most effective when it is based on evidence. Evidence-based disaster management means that decision makers are better informed, and the decision making process delivers more rational, credible and objective disaster management outcomes. To achieve this, fundamental data needs to be translated into information and knowledge, before it can be put to use by the decision makers as policy, planning and implementation. Disaster can come in all forms: rapid and destructive like earthquakes and tsunamis, or gradual and destructive like drought and climate change. Tactical and strategic responses need to be based on the appropriate information to minimise impacts on the community and promote subsequent recovery. This implies a comprehensive supply of information, in order to establish the direct and indirect losses, and to establish short and long term social and economic resilience. The development of the National Exposure Information System (NEXIS) is a significant national project being undertaken by Geoscience Australia (GA). NEXIS collects, collates, manages and provides the information required to assess multi-hazard impacts. Exposure information may be defined as a suite of information relevant to all those involved in a natural disaster, including the victims, the emergency services, and the policy and planning instrumentalities.

A growing need to manage marine biodiversity at local, regional and global scales cannot be met by applying the limited existing biological data sets. Abiotic surrogacy is increasingly valuable in filling the gaps in our knowledge of biodiversity hotspots, habitats needed by endangered or commercially valuable species and systems or processes important to the sustained provision of ecosystem services. This review examines the utility of abiotic surrogates across spatial scales with particular regard to how abiotic variables are tied to processes which affect biodiversity and how easily those variables can be measured at scales relevant to resource management decisions.

In a collaborative effort with the regional sub-commissions within IAG sub-commission 1.3 'Regional Reference Frames', the IAG Working Group (WG) on 'Regional Dense Velocity Fields' (see http://epncb.oma.be/IAG) has made a first attempt to create a dense global velocity field. GNSS-based velocity solutions for more than 6000 continuous and episodic GNSS tracking stations, were proposed to the WG in reply to the first call for participation issued in November 2008. The combination of a part of these solutions was done in a two-step approach: first at the regional level, and secondly at the global level. Comparisons between different velocity solutions show an RMS agreement between 0.3 mm/yr and 0.5 mm/yr resp. for the horizontal and vertical velocities. In some cases, significant disagreements between the velocities of some of the networks are seen, but these are primarily caused by the inconsistent handling of discontinuity epochs and solution numbers. In the future, the WG will re-visit the procedures in order to develop a combination process that is efficient, automated, transparent, and not more complex than it needs to be.

Very short News item for ASEG's Preview newsletter announcing the availability of the Tasman Frontier Geophysical Data Base

The Australian Government policy is to ensure that uranium mining, milling and rehabilitation is based on world best practice standards. A best practice guide for in situ recovery (ISR) uranium mining has been developed to communicate the Australian Government's expectations with a view to achieving greater certainty that ISR mining projects meet Australian Government policy and consistency in the assessment of ISR mine proposals within multiple government regulatory processes. The guide focuses on the main perceived risks; impacts on groundwaters, disposal of mining residues, and radiation protection. World best practice does not amount to a universal template for ISR mining because the characteristics of individual ore bodies determine the best practice

Describes boninites from the Whundo belt, Pilbara Craton, and compares and contrasts these with other Archaean boninites and modern boninites. Results include recognition of 2 types of Archaean boninites - one similar to modern-day counterparts, and another type restricted to the Archaean.