This dataset contains species identifications of micro-benthic worms collected during survey SOL4934 (R.V. Solander, 27 August - 24 September, 2009). Animals were collected from the Joseph Bonaparte Gulf with a Smith-McIntyre grab. Specimens were lodged at Northern Territory Museum on the 1 February 2010. Species-level identifications were undertaken by Chris Glasby at the Northern Territory Museum and were delivered to Geoscience Australia on the 7 March 2011. See GA Record 2010/09 for further details on survey methods and specimen acquisition. Data is presented here exactly as delivered by the taxonomist, and Geoscience Australia is unable to verify the accuracy of the taxonomic identifications.

Satellite Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) is a unique observational technique capable of high resolution and high precision measurement of surface deformation. InSAR has been widely used to study many geophysical phenomena, including volcanoes and earthquakes, but the technique is not without its limitations and is adversely impacted by both atmospheric artefacts and signal decorrelation associated with steep topography and vegetation. However, new time series analysis approaches can in part mitigate these limitations. In this study, we review two recent investigations of Australian earthquakes and volcanic deformation in Papua New Guinea (PNG) and demonstrate how InSAR can make unique contributions to natural hazard monitoring. In the first case study, we use InSAR to investigate two intraplate earthquakes in a stable continental region of southwest Western Australia. Both small-magnitude events occur in the top 1 km of crust and their epicenters are located with an accuracy of ±100 m (1-) using observations from the ALOS and ENVISAT satellites. For the Mw 4.7 Katanning earthquake (10 October 2007) the average slip magnitude is 42 cm, over a rupture area of approximately 1 km2. This implies a high static stress drop of 14-27 MPa, even for this very shallow earthquake, which may have important implications for regional seismic hazard assessment. For the Mw 4.4 composite Kalannie earthquake sequence (21-22 September 2005), we use a long-term time series analysis technique to improve the measurement of the co-seismic signal, which is a maximum of 27 mm in the line-of-sight direction. These earthquakes are some of the smallest magnitude seismic events to have been investigated using InSAR and demonstrates the capability of the technique to provide important constraints on small-magnitude coseismic events in stable-continental regions.

This disc contains scanned PDF copies of uranium-related reports held by Geoscience Australia from the archives of the former Australian Atomic Energy Commission. These reports date from the early 1960s to 1980. The reports are a mix of exploration reports, geological and geographical maps, proposals, feasibility studies, estimations, reserve information, drill hole data and drill cross section files. These reports pertain to various regions around South Australia, including From Embayment, Mount Painter Province, Olary/Willyama province, Gawler Craton, Eucla Basin, Lake Eyre basin, Adelaide geosyncline and Peak & Denison Ranges. Two other discs with PDF scans of drillhole logs and gamma ray probe results in South Australia also exist and may be of interest.

This paper highlights a number of aspects of petroleum prospectivity assessments along Australia's offshore southwestern margin, with a focus on identification of potential petroleum systems in the unexplored Mentelle Basin and Wallaby Plateau, and constraining the offshore extent of proven petroleum systems in the Perth Basin.

Aspects of the tectonic history of Paleo- to Mesoproterozoic Australia are recorded by metasedimentary basins in the Mt Isa, Etheridge Provinces, and Coen Inlier in northern Australia and in the Curnamona Province of southern Australia. These deformed and metamorphosed basins are interpreted to have been deposited in a tectonically-linked system based on similarities in depositional ages and stratigraphy (Giles at al 2002). Neodymium isotope compositions of sediments and felsic volcanics, when combined with U-Pb geochronology, are independent data that are important tools for inferring tectonic setting, palaeogeography and sediment provenance in deformed and metamorphosed terrains.

The Gawler Craton, South Australia, preserves extensive sedimentary sequences and associated magmatic rocks that span the interval covering the Archaean-Palaeoproterozoic transition, with bimodal calc-alkaline volcanism and associated sedimentation occurring over the interval ~2560-2480 Ma. The pervasive high geothermal gradient metamorphism in the earliest Palaeoproterozoic, ~2470-2420 Ma (Fanning et al., 2007; Jagodzinski et al., 2009) within the Gawler Craton suggests the Gawler Craton is potentially more likely a correlative of the Dhawaar Craton, Sask Craton and other similar terranes, in terms of timing of magmatic and orogenic events (Payne et al., 2009). We report new zircon U-Pb ion probe data collected from Neoarchaean to Earliest Palaeoproterozoic metasedimentary and meta-igneous rocks of the Gawler Craton, South Australia, an important time interval for the development of the Gawler Craton itself that has been investigated by relatively few geochronological studies. The new data show that the interval ~2560-2480 Ma was characterised by deposition and associated magmatism. This was terminated by contractional deformation and high geothermal gradient metamorphism over the interval ~2470-2410 Ma.

Understanding marine biodiversity has received much attention from an ecological and conservation management perspective. For this purpose, scientific marine surveys are necessary and often conducted by a multidisciplinary team. In particular, the data collected can come from multiple sources inheriting a particular aspect of each discipline that requires reasonable integration for the purpose of modelling biodiversity. This talk gives an overview of some strategies investigated in the Marine Biodiversity Research Hub project funded by the Commonwealth Environment Research Facilities Program to reconcile these differences.

Archive only - various islands and reefs

The individual apparant motion of distant radio sources is supposed to be caused by the effect of intrinsic structure variations of the active galactic nuclei (AGN) and not correlated over the sky. However, some models of the expanded Universe predict that systematic astrometric proper motion of distant radio sources do not vanish as radial distance from observer to the source grows. These systematic effects can even increase with the distance making possible to measure them with high-precision astrometric techniques like VLBI. The Galactocentric acceleration of the Solar system barycentre might cause a secular aberration drift with magnitude 4 microarcsec/year. Also the Solar system motion relative to the cosmic microwave background produces additional dipole effect, dependent on red shift. We analyzed a large set of geodetic VLBI data spanning from 1979 till 2008 to estimate the dipole, the rotational, and the quadrupole harmonics in the expansion of the vector field of the proper motions of quasars in the sky. The dipole and quadrupole vector spherical harmonics from the individual apparent motion of 687 radio sources were estimated. In addition, the estimates have been obtained separately for different red shift zones. We show that for the next decade the geodetic VLBI technique might approach to the level of accuracy to test the cosmological models of the Universe. It is important to organise a dedicated observational program to increase the number of measured proper motion to ~3000.

In several Australian regions severe wind is projected to increase in severity as a result of climate change. This poses problems for existing buildings which are already structurally substandard under present climate and represent a high community risk. Increased severe wind gust likelihood will greatly exacerbate this as damage increases very sharply with increasing wind speed. Increasing wind hazard also presents challenges for regulators who set the design standards for future building construction. Key to adapting both legacy structures and to constructing future infrastructure compatible with future hazard is a reliable means for quantifying the benefits of adaption strategies. In this presentation work led by Geoscience Australia in collaboration with James Cook University and JDH Consulting is described. With funding contributions from the Federal Department of Climate Change a simulation tool is being developed and refined that quantitatively assesses damage to specific building systems as a result of severe wind exposure. The simulation tool accounts for variability in wind profile, shielding, structural strength, pressure coefficients, building orientation, building component weights, debris damage and water ingress via a Monte Carlo simulation approach. The software takes a component-based approach to modelling building vulnerability based on the premise that overall building damage is strongly related to the failure of key connections and members. If these failures can be ascertained, and associated damage from debris and water penetration reliably estimated, scenarios of complete building damage can be assessed and quantified in repair terms. Further, the building elements primarily responsible for failure can be identified and a range of adaptation measures simulated to quantitatively assess the benefits of structural and architectural changes now and into the future.