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  • Every day, humanity benefits from geodesy. Geodesy is the science of measuring the size, shape, orientation and gravity field of our planet and it is a foundation for evidence-based policies, decisions and program delivery. Geodesy is used every day, in the fields of civil engineering, industrial automation, agriculture, construction, mining, financial transactions, intelligent transport systems, disaster response and emergency management, environmental studies and scientific research. Furthermore, geodesy enables accurate collection, management and alignment of nationally integrated geospatial information – a key requirement for societal, environmental and economic activities, the measuring and monitoring of progress of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, the Small Island Developing States Accelerated Modalities of Action (SAMOA) Pathway, and other global, regional and national development agenda and initiatives.

  • We are all the beneficiaries of glass - from the vessels that hold our drinks, fiber optics that carry our communications, and the solar panels that convert the sun’s energy into electricity, contributing to a greener future, to name a few. But did you know glass can also be made in nature? Dramatic natural events like lightning strikes, volcanic eruptions and meteorite impacts can all produce glass. We find beautiful evidence of this here on Earth…and also on the Moon! The value of glass has been recognized with the United Nations declaring 2022 to be the International Year of Glass. Subsequently the school student theme for Australia’s National Science Week follows suit. Join Geoscience Australia, the ACT Education Directorate and the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences to explore forms of natural glass.

  • The Australian Government, through the National Water Infrastructure Development Fund, commissioned Geoscience Australia to undertake a 3-year project ‘Assessing the Status of Groundwater in the Great Artesian Basin’. The overall aim of the project was to analyse existing and new geoscientific data acquired by the project to improve understanding of the hydrogeological system and water balance in the GAB. In conjunction, the project assessed satellite based technologies for monitoring groundwater storage and level change. This talk will discuss some of the key results of the project. These include: an updated hydrogeological framework for the GAB, mapping aquifer and aquitard properties, geometry and extent; revised groundwater recharge rate estimates in the eastern GAB groundwater intake beds; new groundwater system conceptual models of groundwater recharge processes and groundwater flow; an assessment of the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellite derived groundwater storage change estimates for the GAB; and Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) satellite data, for detecting changes in groundwater levels.

  • Title: Earth observations for water resources management - Crawford Fund Derek Tribe Address Overview: During the Derek Tribe Address, Dr Lisa-Maria Rebelo will discuss the critical role which new applications and tools, based on earth observation data and ICT technologies, have to play in transforming agricultural systems and ensuring the sustainable management of natural resources under current and future climate conditions. The address will highlight from many examples in Africa and Asia how these tools are currently being used to inform policy and investment decisions. This suite of data tools and databases for improved land and water management, have typically used innovative approaches to address data gaps and provide critically needed information to assess water availability and use. These developments have kept apace and harnessed rapidly developing advances in satellite and other sources of imagery as well as data modeling and analytical techniques. Applicable at global to regional scales, these data tools have included an earth observation-based approach to understanding just how much water is available and where/how this is being used on an operational basis in data scarce areas. This information is invaluable to water and agriculture planners and decision-makers, as they grapple with decreasing water availability and the growing impacts of climate change which is undermining the historical records they have relied on to date, to support their work. In recent advances, climate change scenarios have been used to develop an understanding of future trajectories of water accounts in a river basin and helps to answer the critical question of “Will there be water?” In many agricultural and natural resources management arenas, lack of data is cited as the major impediment to effective and realistic decision-making. Lisa’s drive to innovate approaches to filling that data gap has led to evidence-based informed strategic policy developments and day-to-day management of critical water resources across sectors in many African and Asian countries. Background: Dr Lisa-Maria Rebelo has been awarded the Derek Tribe Award for 2022 by the Crawford Fund. She has been recognized for her work across the African continent, and in South and Southeast Asia, in water productivity, remote sensing, natural resource management, wetland monitoring and assessment, basin water accounting, water productivity. The Derek Tribe Award was inaugurated in 2001 to mark the outstanding contributions of Emeritus Professor Derek Tribe AO OBE FTSE, Foundation Director of the Crawford Fund, to the promotion of international agricultural research. The Derek Tribe Award is made biennially to a citizen of a developing country in recognition of their distinguished contributions to the application of research in agriculture or natural resource management in a developing country or countries. The Crawford Fund is pleased to partner with Geosciences Australia to support Lisa-Maria to visit Australia to share her experiences and to deliver the 2022 Derek Tribe Address. Title: Digital Earth Africa: empowering African led solutions for climate action with Australian innovation - Geoscience Australia Distinguished Lecture Award Overview: Digital Earth Africa (DE Africa) is a flagship investment for the Australian aid program in Africa, deploying world-class Australian innovation at unprecedented scales to deliver development outcomes across the African continent. Since 2019, DE Africa has been delivered through successful African - Australian partnerships, with Australian innovation supporting African leadership to support sustainable development, as well as build resilience and adapt to climate change. By providing access to freely available, decision ready earth observation information, Digital Earth Africa is now supporting a diverse range of governments, communities and industry partners to make more informed decisions on topics of national significance, such as supporting community-led climate action through mangrove conservation in Tanzania, high-level government decision-making on unregulated mining in Ghana and giraffe conservation in Kenya. The new DE Africa Coastline monitoring tool enables users to analyse coastal erosion and growth trends on an annual basis, and is now being used by partners in Senegal to support climate adaptation and mitigation efforts. Leveraging innovation from DE Australia, DE Africa Coastlines exemplifies how global to regional scale earth observation-based tools can successfully empower locally led decision making. Other continent wide, earth observation based services available through DE Africa, include Water Observations from Space, a provisional Crop Extent map and Vegetation Fractional cover. These innovative tools have immense potential to fill key data gaps needed to improve assessments of water use and availability and to support agricultural and natural resources management across the African continent. Background: Cedric will be presenting this talk on behalf of the Digital Earth Africa establishment team as part of Geoscience Australia’s Distinguished Geoscience Australia Lecture series

  • The AusAEM survey is the world's largest airborne electromagnetic (AEM) survey flown to date, extending across an area exceeding 3.5 million km2 over Western Australia, the Northern Territory, Queensland, New South Wales Victoria and South Australia. Airborne electromagnetics is a geophysical method at the forefront in addressing the challenge of exploration under cover. In collaboration with the state and territory geological surveys, Geoscience Australia has led a national initiative whose goal is to acquire AEM data at a nominal line spacing of 20 km across Australia. The interpreted AEM conductivity sections were inverted using Geoscience Australia's open source Layered Earth Inversion Sample-By-Sample Time Domain Electromagnetics (GALEISBSTDEM) inversion. Horizontal along-flight line resolution is 12.5 m, and the vertical resolution varies exponentially with depth. Inversion cell sizes increase from 4.0 m at the surface to ~55 m in the bottom cell of the conductivity sections, ~500 m below surface. Consequently, the ability to resolve fine detail varies with depth. Using this dataset, we interpret the depth to chronostratigraphic surfaces, assembled stratigraphic relationship information, and delineated structural and electrically conductive features. Our results improved understanding of upper-crustal geology, led to 3D mapping of palaeovalleys, prompted further investigation of electrical conductors and their relationship to structural features and mineralisation, and helped us continuously connect correlative outcropping units separated by up to hundreds of kilometres. Our interpretation is designed to improve targeting and outcomes for mineral, energy and groundwater exploration, and contributes to our understanding of the chronostratigraphic, structural and upper-crustal evolution of northern Australia. Almost 200,000 regional depth measurements have been collected, each attributed with detailed geological information, are an important step towards a national geological framework, and offer a regional context for more detailed, smaller-scale AEM surveys. The AusAEM programme delivers much more than just reliable depth-to-cover estimates and the location of paleochannels. It can reveal basin architecture and regionally map structures, making it a crucial layer of data for mineral, energy and groundwater and exploration. It has become an essential part of data-driven decision making for conservation and environmental management.

  • As the world’s largest archipelagic country in Earth’s most active tectonic region, Indonesia faces a substantial earthquake and tsunami threat. Understanding this threat is a challenge because of the complex tectonic environment, the paucity of observed data and the limited historical record. Here we combine information from recent studies of the geology of Indonesia’s Banda Sea with Global Positioning System observations of crustal motion and an analysis of historical large earthquakes and tsunamis there. We show that past destructive earthquakes were not caused by the supposed megathrust of the Banda outer arc as previously thought but are due to a vast submarine normal fault system recently discovered along the Banda inner arc. Instead of being generated by coseismic seafloor displacement, we find the tsunamis were more likely caused by earthquake-triggered submarine slumping along the fault’s massive scarp, the Weber Deep. This would make the Banda detachment representative not only as a modern analogue for terranes hyper-extended by slab rollback but also for the generation of earthquakes and tsunamis by a submarine extensional fault system. Our findings suggest that low-angle normal faults in the Banda Sea generate large earthquakes, which in turn can generate tsunamis due to earthquake-triggered slumping.

  • Compilation of age and endowment data on volcanic-hosted massive sulfide (VHMS), porphyry copper, orthomagmatic nickel, orogenic gold, granite-related rare metal and pegmatite deposits (nearly 1200 deposits from 21 mineral provinces) indicate that metallogenic patterns change over time. For much of Earth’s history, the metallogenesis of convergent margins is marked by a relatively systematic temporal progression of deposits, the convergent margin metallogenic cycle (CMMC): VHMS, calc-alkalic porphyry copper and orthomagmatic nickel → orogenic gold → alkalic porphyry copper, granite-related rare metal and pegmatite. Typically CMMCs last 70-170 Myr, and the progression appears to be related to the convergent margin tectonic cycle (Collins and Richards, 2008). Prior to ~3100 Ma, however, CMMCs are not recognised. Rather, these old mineral provinces are characterised by long metallogenic histories (400-500 Myr) with an irregular distribution of deposits. The Mesoarchean to Mesoproterozoic is characterised mostly by mineral provinces with short (80-150 Myr) metallogenic histories and a single CMMC. Between 1900 Ma and 1800 Ma, however, some mineral provinces (e.g. Trans-Hudson and Sveccofennian) are characterised by multiple CMMCs, with total metallogenic histories that last up to 200 Myr. Paleoproterozoic provinces with multiple CMMCs formed by the consumption of internal seas, whereas mineral provinces on outward-facing convergent margin typically have only one CMMC. After ~800 Ma, convergent margins are mostly long-lived (290-480 Myr) and are characterised by multiple CMMCs with complex metallogenic histories. The changes in the metallogenesis of convergent margins reflect changes in tectonic processes through time. Prior to 3100 Ma, stagnant lid tectonics, which did not involve subduction, resulted in the formation of oceanic plateaus with irregular periods of mineralisation. After the initiation of subduction at ~3100 Ma, the style of metallogenesis changed. The dominance of provinces with a single CMMC from 3100 to 800 Ma suggests that convergent margins were unstable and could be shut down easily. This is consistent with models of shallow-break-off subduction whereby the subducting slab breaks off at shallow levels due to the lower plate strength in the Archean and the early part of the Proterozoic. When the slab breaks off, the subduction system shuts down and produces a single CMMC. Only in cases where factors such as closure of internal seas force continued subduction do multiple CMMCs occur. The change to longer metallogenic histories and multiple CMMCs at ~800 Ma is likely the consequence of the cooling of the mantle, which increases plate strength, allowing subduction of cold slabs deeper into the mantle and more stable convergence: continuous ridge push and the density of oceanic crust causes re-initiated of subduction further outboard rather than complete termination of subduction when the convergent margin is perturbed by the accretion of an exotic block or other tectonic event. Subduction only terminates upon collision of two major crustal blocks. As a consequence, the metallogenic history or geological young convergent margins is long with multiple CMMIs and/or complex temporal interleaving of deposit types.

  • Hydrogen for energy storage and transport is a key part of the energy transition. Caverns in salt formations can provide high integrity and large-scale storage (>200 GWh). Australia has several basins with thick salt in the subsurface that are prospective for underground hydrogen storage and Geoscience Australia's archive of digital data and physical samples is a crucial resource in assessing these deposits and finding more. New models for the deposition of giant salt deposits, new technologies and the new energy landscape make salt and hydrogen an exciting research frontier.

  • Sustainable development and the transition to a clean-energy economy drives ever-increasing demand for base metals, substantially outstripping the discovery rate of new deposits and necessitating dramatic improvements in exploration success. This talk presents the tale of the surprising discovery that 85% of sediment-hosted base metals, including all giant deposits, in Australia and around the world, occur above the transition between thick and thin portions of tectonic plates. It is a story of integrated geoscience, which builds on decades of research in geology, geochemistry and geophysics through a global partnership, which has transformed the search for new exploration frontiers.

  • Australia’s marine jurisdiction covers over 10 million square kilometres, and we estimate that only 25% of its seafloor has been mapped to the adequate resolution required to support the sustainable development and management of our marine estate. Considering that seabed mapping underpins most aspects of ocean sciences and engineering, and contributes strongly to Australia’s economic, environmental and social values, it is critical that we address this fundamental knowledge gap. AusSeabed was founded three years ago—a cross sector collaborative national program aimed at coordinating ocean mapping efforts to maximise benefits to stakeholders. AusSeabed is working to address many challenges surrounding efficient data acquisition, quality assurance, processing and delivery to various end-users with an aim to eliminate duplication of effort and improve data quality and consistency across sectors. A fundamental component of the AusSeabed program is the design and development of a federated, cloud-based, open-source platform to address the whole supply chain from data acquisition to delivery. Importantly, this work is enabling seamless collation of seabed mapping datasets and their integration with other marine data types from a variety of previously isolated and inaccessible holdings. Strong community commitment and a powerful resonance with stakeholders have driven rapid program growth and are a testament to the value of deliberate and effective collaboration for national benefit. This presentation will give an overview of AusSeabed’s current progress, highlights and forward plan.