Geoscience Australia and the CO2CRC operate a greenhouse gas controlled release facility at an experimental agricultural station maintained by CSIRO Plant Industry in Canberra, Australia. The facility is designed to simulate surface emissions of CO2 (and other greenhouse gases) from the soil into the atmosphere. Over 10 different near surface monitoring techniques were trialled at the Ginninderra controlled release site during 2012-2013. Different climatic conditions for the early 2012 release experiment (wet) and late 2013 release experiment (dry) resulted in markedly different sub-surface plume behaviour and surface expression of CO2. Gaseous CO2 was released 2 m below the ground surface from a slotted, 100 m long horizontal well at a rate of 144 kg/d for at least 8 weeks for both experiments. The most obvious difference between the two release experiments was that CO2 leakage expressed at different locations along the well for the two experiments. As also observed in other controlled release experiments internationally, the surface expression of CO2 during these experiments, as measured using a portable soil flux meter, was restricted to localised spots. For the 2012 (wet) release experiment, the leakage was limited to a small intense primary leak (approximately 12 m in diameter) and a neighbouring small secondary leak. In contrast, the leak from the 2013 (dry) release experiment was broader, spread over a longer length of the release well, and did not attain the very high flux intensities observed in the previous year. An array of 1 m deep soil gas wells provided insight into the migration pathways of CO2 in the sub-surface, showing a much broader dispersion of CO2 in the sub-surface compared to the surface CO2 expression. Krypton tracers confirmed that the spread of the introduced gases in the sub-surface was much greater than the surface expression, with different behaviour observed between the 2012 and 2013 experiments. The differences between the years are attributed to changes in groundwater levels, drier conditions, and a larger vadose zone during the 2013 experiment. Eddy covariance (EC) towers were deployed at the site for both experiments with the objective to detect and quantify CO2 emissions. CO2 leaks were detected above the background and the direction of the leak confirmed. However, analysis showed that current methods of EC are not appropriate for quantifying the CO2 leak, as much of the CO2 flux is lost through advection and diffusion below the measurement height. This is because the footprint of the leak is much smaller than the EC tower's footprint, resulting in a highly heterogeneous system that breaches EC's key assumptions. The results suggest that quantification using EC may not be possible for CO2 leaks with small footprints. An array of atmospheric CO2 sensors was also deployed at the site during the experiments. Application of atmospheric tomographic techniques using the point source sensors appears to be a more effective approach than EC for quantifying CO2 emissions. Broad scale leak detection technologies are necessary for surveying areas beyond high risk sites and is the subject of ongoing research at Ginninderra. Airborne hyperspectral and thermal scanning measurements were taken over CO2-impacted, mature wheat and field pea crops. The CO2 impact on plants was characterised through biochemical analysis and observed changes in plant morphology. High resolution ground-based hyperspectral and thermal measurements were taken over tillering barley and wheat, as well as field pea and canola seedlings. Dry conditions and crop stage strongly influenced the effectiveness of the remote sensing techniques for CO2 leak detection. A comparison between the high resolution ground-based and airborne hyperspectral measurements for detecting CO2 impacted plants will be presented as well as an overall assessment of the leak detection techniques. Submitted to the GHGT-12

Weather conditions during the survey were generally very good with only a few days of seas of about two metres. Technically and scientifically, the balance of the program changed when the seismic (and magnetic) program was reduced to one third of the expected kilometres because of the failure of the compressor. Fortunately, two of four critical lines running WNW-ESE were acquired (Table 1). Data acquisition rates (average of 200 km/day) were tolerable and seismic data quality was good. A whale watch was kept in accord with the requirements of the Department of the Environment and Heritage, but no whales were seen. The dredging program was increased to take advantage of the reduced seismic program, and most Mellish Rise sites were located either on the two new seismic lines or on pre-existing BMR continental margin survey seismic lines. A number of sites on the Kenn Plateau made use of seismic data from last year's Southern Surveyor Cruise SS5/04. The need to use BMR seismic lines moved the dredging balance to the western half of the area. Of the 44 dredges attempted, 37 (85 %) produced valuable results (Table 3). The swath-mapper was invaluable in designing dredge plans. The coring program of 5 cores (Table 2) produced three moderately successful cores, but was disappointing overall. The two seismic lines extend right across the Mellish Rise and reveal how the area has been affected by tension but not compression, with high blocks 50-100 km across separated by heavily sedimented graben of similar width. Satellite bathymetry and gravity maps, and the total seismic data set show that structural trends bounding the blocks are NW-SE, N-S and NE-SW. Numerous smaller horsts rise above the broad highs. Dredges from the Coriolis Ridge and the Selfridge Rise, both on the northern Kenn Plateau, are dominated by silicic volcanics of continental origin, siliciclastic sediments, and shallow marine carbonates (some reefal). Basaltic volcanics are rare. The continental volcanics may be rift-related (Upper Cretaceous to early Eocene). The calcarenites may be Eocene and Oligocene in age. Dredges from the generally deeper water (thinner crust) Mellish Rise are different, being dominated by basaltic volcanics and hyaloclastites, although silicic volcanics, siliciclastic sediments, and shallow marine carbonates (some reefal) occur. Two phases of volcanism, rift related (Upper Cretaceous to early Eocene) and hotspot related (late Eocene-Oligocene) may well be present. Three dredges from a southern protrusion of the Louisiade Plateau, which is not necessarily genetically related to that plateau, contain basaltic volcanics and hyaloclastites, silicic volcanics, siliciclastic rocks, and shallow marine carbonates in an assemblage like that of the Mellish Rise. Until exhaustive laboratory studies of the rocks are carried out, the above generalisations remain speculative. In the end, the volcanics could be related to any of four known periods of volcanism: ? The Late Jurassic (145-135 Ma) subduction-related volcanism of the Graham?s Creek Formation in the Maryborough Basin: tuffs, agglomerates and volcanic breccias, overlain by trachyte and rhyolite flows, overlain by basaltic andesite and dacite. ? The Early Cretaceous (125-115 Ma) explosive rift-related volcanism of the Whitsunday and Cumberland Islands: dacite, rhyolite, and andesitic ignimbrite. ? The assumed Late Cretaceous to Paleocene rift-related volcanism of the Marion Plateau (drilled in ODP Leg 194): altered basalt flows and volcaniclastic breccias and conglomerate. ? The Late Eocene to Early Oligocene hotspot volcanism of the Tasmantid chain: basalts and hyaloclastites.

This article focuses on the re-evaluation of the source rock potential of the basal Kockatea Shale in the offshore portion of the northern Perth Basin.

The Arunta Region of central Australia exposes the southern margin of the North Australian Craton and contains a record of multiple Proterozoic craton margin processes over a 1500 million year period. The place of mafic magmatism in this evolution is constrained by SHRIMP U-Pb dating of zircon, which is a primary igneous phase in the evolved sectors of mafic-ultramafic plutons across the region. The earliest mafic magmatism was in the 1800-1810 Ma Stafford Event, which is the first thermal system recognised in the region. Mafic plutons from this event may correlate with other expressions of mafic magmatism northwards within the craton. A second episode of mafic magmatism is recognised at 1770-1790 Ma (Yambah Event) and lacks correlatives elsewhere in the craton, as do all subsequent Arunta Region mafic magmatic events. Zircon overgrowths in Stafford- and Yambah-age plutons record conversion of these early intrusions into granulite grade metamorphic complexes during the Strangways Event, a regionally pervasive metamorphic system whose termination at ca. 1690 Ma coincided with local intrusion of dolerite dykes. Gabbro intrusion at ca. 1640 Ma in the Liebig Event is restricted within the Warumpi Province which is recognised as a separate terrane in the south of the region. There is no record of a mafic magmatic component to the ca. 1590 Ma Chewings event and most of the earlier intrusions do not record metamorphism at this time. Later mafic magmatic systems include pyroxenite intruded as part of the Mordor Complex at ca 1130 Ma (Teapot Event); and both erupted and intruded basaltic magma are components of the fault-bound Irindina Province which experienced high grade metamorphism during the Ordovician (Larapinta Event). The dating establishes that each of these craton margin event systems includes a mafic magmatic component, which suggests that repeated extensional systems are an important component of the tectonic evolution.

No abstract available

The Bight Basin contains a thick, prospective Jurassic-Cretaceous sedimentary section. Recent work by both Geoscience Australia and the petroleum exploration industry has increased our understanding of the structural and stratigraphic development, and the range of opportunities available in this frontier basin. The presence of thick deltaic units and indications of active petroleum systems further enhance its prospectivity. Although the basin is being tested by new drilling it remains one of the least explored passive margins in the world, and will require much more exploration to fully assess its potential.

Measured probability distributions of shoreline elevation, swash height (shoreline excursion length) and swash maxima and minima from a wide range of beach types are compared to theoretical probability distributions. The theoretical distributions are based on assumptions that the time series are weakly steady-state, ergodic and a linear random process. Despite the swash process being inherently non-linear, our results indicate that these assumptions are not overly restrictive with respect to modeling exceedence statistics in the upper tail of the probability distribution. The RMS-errors for a range of exceedence level statistics (50, 10, 5, 2, and 1 percent) were restricted to <10 cm (and often <5 cm) for all of the swash variables that were investigated. The results presented here provide the basis for further refinement of coastal inundation modeling as well as stochastic-type morphodynamic modeling of beach response to waves. Further work is required, however, to relate the parameters of swash probability distributions to wave conditions further offshore.

Describes boninites from the Whundo belt, Pilbara Craton, and compares and contrasts these with other Archaean boninites and modern boninites. Results include recognition of 2 types of Archaean boninites - one similar to modern-day counterparts, and another type restricted to the Archaean.

No abstract available

The National Computational Infrastructure (NCI) at the Australian National University (ANU) has co-located a priority set of over 10 PetaBytes (PBytes) of national data collections within a HPC research facility. The facility provides an integrated high-performance computational and storage platform, or a High Performance Data (HPD) platform, to serve and analyse the massive amounts of data across the spectrum of environmental collections in particular from the climate, environmental and geoscientific domains. The data is managed in concert with the government agencies, major academic research communities and collaborating overseas organisations. By co-locating the vast data collections with high performance computing environments and harmonising these large valuable data assets, new opportunities have arisen for Data-Intensive interdisciplinary science at scales and resolutions not hitherto possible.