The AGSO Cities Project was established in 1996 to undertake research directed towards the mitigation of the risks faced by Australian urban communities that are posed by a range of geohazards. Geohazards are broadly defined to include all earth surface processes with the potential to cause loss or harm to the community or the environment. The ultimate objective is to improve the safety of communities, and consequently make them more sustainable and prosperous. To provide a realistic focus to this research, and to achieve practical outcomes, the Cities Project is using a series of case studies based on Queensland centres to develop and test its science and techniques. Cairns is the first of these multi-hazard case studies. Cairns is the most northerly of Queensland's cities and one of the fastest growing communities in Australia. It is also an isolated community, located some 1 400 km from Brisbane (Figure (i)). Cairns has a resident population of approximately 120 000 and this total can exceed 150 000 at the height of the tourist season.

Faults of the Lapstone Structural Complex (LSC) underlie 100 km, and perhaps as much as 160 km, of the eastern range front of the Blue Mountains, west of Sydney. More than a dozen major faults and monoclinal flexures have been mapped along its extent. The Lapstone Monocline is the most prominent of the flexures, and accounts for more than three quarters of the deformation across the complex at its northern end. Opinion varies as to whether recent tectonism, or erosional exhumation of a pre-existing structure, better accounts for the deeply dissected Blue Mountains plateau that we see today. Geomorphic features such as the abandoned meanders at Thirlmere Lakes illustrate the antiquity of the landscape and favour an erosional exhumation model. According to this model, over-steepened reaches developed in easterly flowing streams at the Lapstone Monocline when down-cutting through shale reached more resistant sandstone on the western side of the LSC. These over-steepened reaches drove headward (westerly) knick point retreat, ultimately dissecting the plateau. However, a series of swamps and lakes occurring where small easterly flowing streams cross the westernmost faults of the LSC, coupled with over-steepened reaches 'pinned' to the fault zones in nearby larger streams, imply that tectonism plays a continuing role in the development of this landscape. We present preliminary results from an ongoing investigation of Mountain Lagoon, a small fault-bound basin bordering the Kurrajong Fault in the northern part of the LSC.

The Australian continent is actively deforming at a range of scales in response to far-field stresses associated with plate margins, and buoyancy forces associated with mantle dynamics. On the smallest scale (101 km), fault-related deformation associated with far-field stress partitioning has modified surface topography at rates of up to ~100 m / Myr. This deformation is evidenced in the record of historical earthquakes, and in the pre-historic record in the landscape. Paleoseismological studies indicate that few places in Australia have experienced a maximum magnitude earthquake since European settlement, and that faults in most areas are capable of hosting potentially catastrophic earthquakes with magnitudes in excess of 7.0. New South Wales is well represented in terms of its pre-historic earthquake record. Seismogenic faulting in the last 5-10 million years is thought to be responsible for locally generating up to 200 m of the contemporary topographic relief of the Eastern Highlands. Faults west of Sydney belonging to the Lapstone Structural Complex, and faults beneath the greater Sydney region, have been demonstrated to be associated with infrequent damaging earthquakes. . Decisions relating to the siting and construction of the built environment should therefore be informed with knowledge of the local neotectonics.

Legacy product - no abstract available

To achieve the RELACS Program's aim of improving the capabilities of the Rabaul Volcanological Observatory to locate and interpret volcano-related earthquake activity near Rabaul, a program of seismic field observation was undertaken in the Rabaul area by a consortium of institutions with significant experience in seismic work, viz AGSO, ANU, and the Universities of Hokkaido and Wisconsin. This Record describes post survey data processing of RELACS field data undertaken at the ANU, the University of Hokkaido and AGSO 1998-99. It also includes CDs of data files containing information on seismic recording stations, seismic shots, some earthquake locations, the arrival times of seismic waves, and seismic record files from stations in the international SUDS format.

Abstract to go here

The Attorney-General's Department (AGD) has supported Geoscience Australia (GA) to develop inundation models for four Victorian communities with the view of enhancing the tsunami planning and preparation capacity of the Victorian State Government. The four communities chosen were Lakes Entrance, Port Fairy, Portland, and Warrnambool. These locations were selected in collaboration with the Victorian State Emergency Service (SES) and the Australian Government, based on an initial review of low lying coastal communities, and an Australia wide nearshore tsunami hazard assessment [1]. Several tsunamigenic events were selected for modelling from the scenario database that was calculated as part of the national offshore probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment (PTHA) [2]. The events selected are hypothetical and are based on the current understanding of the tsunami hazard. Only earthquake sources are considered, which account for the majority of tsunami. The suite of events includes 'worst-case' or 1 in 10000 year hazard events, as well as a more frequent (1 in 100 and 1 in 500 year hazard) events. Source zones considered are the Puysegur Trench (all cases), the New Hebrides Trench and the Kermadec Trench (Lakes Entrance only), and the Java Trench and the South Sandwich Islands Trench (Port Fairy, Portland, and Warrnambool only). Based on the probabilistic tsunami hazard assessment [2], these source zones are considered as they make the most significant contributions to the offshore tsunami hazard for the study sites.

Abstract for Indonesian Geophysics conference (HAGI)

Fundamental to an understandng and management of risk is reliable information about what is exposed to natural hazards and threats. Exposure includes people, buildings, business activity and critical infrastructure. Geoscience Australia (GA) has undertaken the development of the National Exposure Information System (NEXIS) which is a significant national capability to provide reliable and up-to-date information for decision makers. NEXIS collects, collates, manages and provides the information required to assess community exposure, impacts and risk. Presently the capability consistently defines national residential and business exposure using a largely statistical approach with information aggregated at buildings level. The exposure information is derived from the best available datasets and includes a broad range of useful information fields. Progressively this information is transitioning to more specific information in collaboration with a range of data custodians. Furthermore, the capability is being extended to institutional buildings (schools, hospitals, government buildings, emergency assets etc.) and infrastructure assets. Alignment of future development to the needs of stakeholders is vital.

National Exposure Information System Program for Townsville 28 October 2010 Agenda