The cartographic collection of the Doc Fisher Geoscience Library consists of the maps and air photos created or acquired by agency staff since the formation of BMR in 1946. This includes maps produced by agencies which have merged with these over the years, such as AUSLIG. Maps held include: Australian geological map series (1:250,000, 1:100,000 and the 1 mile series); topographic maps produced by NATMAP and its predecessors (1:250,000, 1:100,000 and 1:50,000) - latest editions only; various Australian geochemical, geophysical and other thematic maps; geoscience map series from other countries acquired on an exchange basis, including some with accompanying explanatory notes; Non-series maps acquired by donation or exchange; atlases. The Air photos are predominantly those used for mapping Australia and, to a lesser extent, Papua New Guinea and Antarctica, by BMR/AGSO from the 1940s to the 1980s. Geographical coverage of the sets is not complete, but many individual photos are unique in that they have pin points, overlays or other markings made by teams in the field. The Papua New Guinea photographs in the collection may, in many cases, be the only existing copies. Flight diagrams are also held for many (but not all) sets of air photos. Some other related materials, such as montages of aerial photographs (orthophotos), are also represented in the collection.

No abstract available

In 2012 the Australian Academy of Science released the document Searching the Deep Earth: A vision for exploration geoscience, which summarised the Academy's 2010 Theo Murphy Think Tank discussions on the future of the Australian minerals industry. This was released by the Academy as the UNCOVER Initiative and was adopted as part of the National Mineral Exploration Strategy by the Council Of Australian Governments in 2012, and is now part of Geoscience Australia's Strategic Plan. The UNCOVER Initiative recognises that it is becoming increasingly difficult to discover near-surface mineral resources in Australia, and our continuing prosperity requires effective exploration that leads to new discoveries to provide an ongoing 'pipeline' of resource development. One factor for the decline in exploration expenditure in Australia is the misperception that Australia is 'mature', with limited prospects for big new discoveries. The decline in exploration success is in large part due to the difficulty in exploring beneath the highly weathered bedrock (the regolith) and sedimentary basins that cover approximately 80 per cent of Australia. The ultimate goal of the UNCOVER Initiative is to achieve a step change in knowledge and methodologies in Earth sciences which is relevant to mineral exploration within or beneath the cover, building on earlier work by cooperative research centres (e.g. CRC LEME, pmd*CRC, CRC AMET, AGCRC), Geoscience Australia, CSIRO, State and Territory geological surveys and universities. This will be achieved through the four themes of the Initiative: 1. Characterising Australia's cover 2. Investigating Australia's lithospheric architecture 3. Resolving the 4D geodynamic and metallogenic evolution of Australia 4. Characterising and detecting distal footprints of mineralization. The Resources Division at Geoscience Australia is at the forefront of research and development aligned with the UNCOVER Initiative and is currently working with partners from the Geological Survey of New South Wales, the Geological Survey of Queensland, the Geological Survey of Victoria and the DET CRC to uncover potential new minerals provinces under regolith and basin cover in those states.

Victorian geology, mine data and deep leads GIS database (June 1998)

Legacy product - no abstract available

The effect of increased nutrient loads on biogeochemical processes in macrotidal, mangrove-lined creeks was studied in tropical Darwin Harbour, Australia. Water quality and sediment composition, benthic and pelagic metabolism and benthic nutrient and gas fluxes were studied during three field surveys to compare nutrient transformation and retention processes in three tidal creeks receiving different loads of sewage discharge. There were marked differences in process rates between Buffalo Creek (hypertrophic), which receives the largest sewage loads; Myrmidon Creek (oligotrophic-mesotrophic) which receives smaller sewage inputs; and Reference Creek (oligotrophic) which is comparatively pristine. Net benthic nutrient fluxes in Buffalo Creek were more than an order of magnitude higher than in Myrmidon and Reference Creeks, which have similar and low benthic fluxes during the wet and dry seasons. Similarly, net pelagic primary production rates were much higher in Buffalo Creek and respiration exceeded primary production resulting in severe drawdown of O2 concentrations at night. In Buffalo Creek, anoxic sediments released oxide-bound phosphorus and inhibited coupled nitrification-denitrification, enhancing benthic nitrogen and phosphorus fluxes. Light limitation of primary production resulted in build-up of excess nutrients in the water column, further stimulating primary production. Poor water quality in Buffalo Creek was exacerbated by poor tidal flushing imposed by a narrow meandering channel and sandbar across the mouth. In contrast to Buffalo Creek, the effect of the sewage load in Myrmidon Creek was confined to the water column, and the impact was temporary and highly localized. This study has identified pelagic primary production, benthic nutrient fluxes and denitrification efficiency as the biogeochemical processes most affected by nutrient loading in tidal creek systems. The serious deterioration of water quality impacts on the functioning of the whole ecosystem, with potential for detrimental effects on higher trophic levels.

Legacy product - no abstract available

Legacy product - no abstract available

Understanding the hydrology of cold seep environments is crucial to perform accurate estimates of fluid and chemical fluxes at sedimentary wedges. Shallow convection processes may affect fluid flux estimates and could favor the destabilization of gas hydrate accumulations, increasing the sediment-ocean methane flux. Evidence for the occurrence of convection at cold seeps, however, is still limited. We use the concentration of 14C (D14C) in carbonate crusts formed at cold seeps of the eastern Mediterranean Sea as a tracer for convective recirculation of seawater-derived fluids. A numerical model is applied to investigate the controls on 14C incorporation in cold seep carbonates. Our simulations show that increased amounts of CH4 in the expelled fluids result in elevated crust D14C, while high Ca2+ and HCO3 concentrations produce the opposite effect. Convection is the only transport process that can significantly increase crust D14C. Advection, bioirrigation, eddy diffusion and bioturbation instead, have little effect on, or produce a decrease of, crust D14C. In addition, the presence of old or modern carbon (MC) in host sediments prior to cementation and the 14C-decay associated to the time needed to form the crust contribute in defining the D14C of carbonate crusts. We then use the model to reproduce the 14C content of the eastern Mediterranean Sea crusts to constrain the chemical and hydrological conditions that led to their formation. Some crusts contain relatively low amounts of 14C (-945.0<D14C - <-930.2) which, assuming no ageing after crust formation, can be reproduced without considering convection. . Other crusts from two sites (the Amsterdam and Napoli mud volcanoes), instead, have a very high 14C-content (-899.0<D14C - <-838.4) which can only be reproduced by the model if convection mixes deep fluids with seawater.

Using geophysical-geochemical spatial data to map of hydrothermal footprints in the Eastern Fold Belt of the Mount Isa Inlier