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This set of Australian landslide images illustrates the causes of landslides, both large and small, and other earth movements. A set of 15 slides with explanatory text; includes images of Thredbo, NSW, Sorrento Vic., Gracetown WA and Tasmania.

34th International Geological Congress (IGC) AUSTRALIA 2012 Brisbane, Australia 2 - 10 August 2012 COPY FOR AusIMM Bulletin December 2009 The 34th International Geological Congress (IGC), or AUSTRALIA 2012, will be held at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre (BCEC), from 2-10 August 2012. The IGC is generally held every four years and has a proud 140 year tradition. Recent IGCs have attracted 5,000-7,000 delegates, many more than attended the Sydney IGC in 1976. The scientific sponsor of the IGC is the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS: www.iugs.org).

A short article describing the outcomes of the Tasman Frontier Petroleum Industry Workshop held at Geoscience Australia on 8 and 9 March 2012.

The McArthur Region OZCHEM database subset is comprised of 1818 wholerock analyses derived from AGSO field work and the literature. AGSO's complete OZCHEM database contains approximately 50000 analyses, mainly from Australia but some are also from Papua New Guinea, Antarctica, Solomon Islands and New Zealand. Approximately 32000 analyses of Australian rocks of all ages and some New Zealand Tertiary volcanics are available for sale. The location is stored with each analysis along with geological descriptions, including the host stratigraphic unit and lithology. Most samples have been collected by AGSO field parties.OZCHEM is stored in an ORACLE relational database and is available in Oracle export, comma-delimited relational ASCII, and Microsoft Access formats.

The Broken Hill Region OZCHEM database subset is comprised of 567 wholerock analyses derived from AGSO field work and the literature. AGSO's complete OZCHEM database contains approximately 50000 analyses, mainly from Australia but some are also from Papua New Guinea, Antarctica, Solomon Islands and New Zealand. Approximately 32000 analyses of Australian rocks of all ages and some New Zealand Tertiary volcanics are available for sale. The location is stored with each analysis along with geological descriptions, including the host stratigraphic unit and lithology. Most samples have been collected by AGSO field parties.OZCHEM is stored in an ORACLE relational database and is available in Oracle export, comma-delimited relational ASCII, and Microsoft Access formats.

The Western Australian Proterozoic OZCHEM database subset is comprised of 1603 wholerock analyses derived from AGSO field work and the literature. Data are from Albany-Fraser, Ashburton Basin, Birrindudu Basin, Gascoyne Block, Granites-Tanami, Halls Creek, Kimberley Basin, Leeuwin Block, Northampton Block and Paterson Province. AGSO's complete OZCHEM database contains approximately 50000 analyses, mainly from Australia but some are also from Papua New Guinea, Antarctica, Solomon Islands and New Zealand. Approximately 32000 analyses of Australian rocks of all ages and some New Zealand Tertiary volcanics are available for sale. The location is stored with each analysis along with geological descriptions, including the host stratigraphic unit and lithology. Most samples have been collected by AGSO field parties.OZCHEM is stored in an ORACLE relational database and is available in Oracle export, comma-delimited relational ASCII, and Microsoft Access formats.

The individual surveys that comprise Australia's national airborne gamma-ray spectrometric radioelement database are not all registered to the same datum. Older survey results are presented in units of counts/sec, which depend on factors such as survey flying height and detector volume. Even recent surveys can have a significant mismatch along common borders due to limitations in spectrometer calibration and data processing procedures, as well as environmental effects that result in temporal changes in the gamma-radiation fluence rate at the earth's surface. These problems limit the usefulness of the national radioelement database for uranium exploration, and other applications, as it is difficult to compare radiometric signatures observed in different parts of the continent. Geoscience Australia has recently undertaken an Australia-Wide Airborne Geophysical Survey (AWAGS), funded under the Australian Government's Onshore Energy Security Program, to serve as a radioelement baseline for all current and future airborne gamma-ray spectrometric surveys in Australia. The survey data were acquired and processed according to international standards, and the final estimates of radioelement concentrations along the AWAGS lines are consistent with the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) radioelement datum. The AWAGS survey has been used to adjust the hundreds of surveys that comprise the national radioelement database to a common datum. This was achieved by estimating, for each survey in the national database, correction factors that, once applied, minimize both the differences in radioelement estimates between surveys (where these surveys overlap) and the differences between the surveys and the AWAGS traverses. This effectively levels the surveys to the IAEA datum to produce a consistent and coherent national gamma-ray spectrometric coverage of the continent. The levelled database has been used to produce the first "Radiometric Map of Australia" - levelled and merged composite potassium (% K), uranium (ppm eU) and thorium (ppm eTh) grids over Australia at 100 m resolution. Interpreters can now reliably relate geochemical patterns observed in one area to similar patterns observed elsewhere, and better appreciate the significance of broad-scale variations in radioelement concentrations. There are several applications that will benefit from the updated database. These include uranium and thorium exploration through the ability to make quantitative comparisons between radiometric signatures in different survey areas, and the derivation of a radiation risk map of Australia for natural sources of radiation.

The love affair geoscientists have had with their PCs leads many to think that a do-it-yourself approach can carry us into the dotcom era. However, the secret to the success of major online businesses is their mastery of the `backend' the logical, physical and human infrastructure that forms the foundation to their web sites. These businesses know that their customers are best served by focusing on the hard bit, the backend. Attractive web pages get customers in, but what keeps them returning is the quality, quantity and timeliness of the content behind the web site. Most successful dotcom companies have restructured, or built from the ground up, to provide the best possible backends. Geological surveys must do likewise to survive.

No abstract available