A card to illustrate the GA Education Centre, and the activities it can provide to school groups.

Why do cliffs and overhangs drop rocks? Cliffs are formed and wear away by erosion. Water and wind blast the rock with solid particles, waves pound the cliffs, and water dissolves minerals in the rocks. As the cliffs wear away, they form overhangs that weaken, break and fall suddenly. Rocks can also fall off cliffs if water or tree roots enter cracks behind the cliff face. On 27 September 1996, people were sheltering under an overhang in a limestone cliff near Gracetown, Western Australia. The overhang and part of the cliff behind collapsed, and about 2500 tonne of rock and sand fell. Nine people were killed and three others injured. The collapse was partly attributed to the rock absorbing water and becoming heavier. Remember, it is natural for rocks to fall off cliffs!

Poster for the Australian Earth Sciences Convention 2010.

Legacy product - no abstract available

Legacy product - no abstract available

Earth science is all around us. Many of us barely notice it influencing our daily lives. Top GeoShot is an annual competition taking place in the lead-up to Earth Science Week (25 - 31 October 2015). To participate, take and submit a photograph that relates to Earth science, geography or geology in Australia. Submit your entry using Flickr and email. The two categories for this year's competition are Open and Student (up to Year 12). A panel of Geoscience Australia staff will select the winning images. Winners will receive a professionally framed enlargement of their image.

Union - Kern - A.O.G. Wandoan No. 1 was the first wildcat drilled by Union Oil Development Corporation in the north-eastern part of the Surat Basin. Union - Kern A. O.G. Moonie No. 1 had proven the potential of the Jurassic-Triassic Precipice Sandstone as an oil reservoir and it was necessary to evaluate this reservoir in other parts of the basin. In the Wandoan area seismic surveys defined a large north-plunging anticline in rocks of the Bowen Group, with a domal closure in the Great Artesian Group superimposed on the north plunge of the feature. This domal closure shows more than 200 feet of vertical closure encompassing an area of 30 square miles. The Wandoan well was programmed primarily to test the petroleum potential of the Precipice Sandstone on this closure. Drilling commenced on 22nd April, 1962 and the well was completed on 18th June, 1962 as a dry hole at a total depth of 10,736 feet. A full programme of logging, testing, and coring was undertaken. Wandoan No. 1 Well established the presence of4798 feet of Mesozoic sediments of the Great Artesian Group resting disconformably on 5919 feet of Lower Mesozoic-Upper Palaeozoic strata of the Bowen Group. Testing over the interval 3260 to 3278 feet indicated that the Precipice Sandstone has excellent reservoir characteristics. Yellowish to bluishwhite fluorescence in the samples, and traces of hydrocarbons in the formation water from this interval indicated that hydrocarbons have migrated through the sandstone. Fluorescence and minor gas shows in the upper part of the Bowen Group were noted but the reservoir characteristics of these rocks were unfavourable for an accumulation of oil and gas. The well bottomed at 10,736 feet in coals and tuffs of the Kianga Formation. Cement plugs were set and the well was abandoned on 21st June, 1962.

Wellington Park No. 1 Well was located in the Gippsland Basin, Victoria, on the south-eastern shore of Lake Wellington. about 25 1/2 miles south-west of Bairnsdale. The well was drilled by Oil Drilling and Exploration Limited for Woodside (Lakes Entrance) Oil Company No Liability. to a total depth of 12,011 feet. Drilling commenced on 6th December. 1961 and was completed on 3rd April. 1962. A comprehensive programme of drilling engineering, mud logging, coring. cuttings examination. and electric logging was conducted, but no significant shows of oil or gas were encountered. The well penetrated Quaternary sediments from surface to 120 feet. Tertiary sediments from 120 to 3370 feet. and Mesozoic non-marine sediments from 3370 feet. and bottomed in the Lower Cretaceous - (?)Jurassic Strzelecki Group at 12,011 feet. Palaeozoic rocks. one of the main objectives. were not reached because of the extreme thickness of the Mesozoic section. Five open hole formation tests over various intervals between 7348 and 9930 feet were undertaken, but only three were successful. These tests produced mud filtrate, mud, and formation water. The well was plugged and abandoned as a dry hole on 7th April, 1962. The stratigraphic drilling operation at Wellington Park No. 1 was subsidized under the Petroleum Search Subsidy Act 1959. from 3391 feet to total depth.

Volcanic ash is the most widespread of volcanic hazards and has the potential to affect hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of people living in the vicinity of active volcanoes. Geoscience Australia is working with geoscience agencies in South East Asia to measure the potential impacts associated with ash from volcanic eruptions.

A workshop to finalise the TASGO and TASMAP Projects under the National Geoscience Mapping Accord Elizabeth street Pier Functions and Conference Centre, Hobartart, 13-14 June 2001