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GEMOC communications


GEMOC web resources provide past Annual Reports, updated details on methods for new analytical advances and software updates (GLITTER), activities of research teams within GEMOC, synthesised summaries of selected research outcomes and items for secondary school resources. In addition, undergraduate teaching is web-based. Annual Reports from 2003 are available as downloadable pdf files on the GEMOC website as well as in html format. All previous Annual Reports are available in html format. Strong industry interaction in 2008 ranged from presentations to specific industry groups in their offices to numerous formal and informal workshops at GEMOC, and invited presentations at peak industry symposia, workshops and conferences nationally and internationally.

AWARDS

Professor Bill Griffin was elected a Geochemistry Fellow by the Geochemical Society and the European Association for Geochemistry. The citation included the following: “Our societies bestow this honor upon outstanding scientists who over the years, have made a major contribution to the field of geochemistry. As you are doubtless aware, this is a significant honor; the number of Fellows elected each year is limited to less than 1% of the membership of our combined societies and is typically significantly fewer. Your work has been recognized by your colleagues as rising to this stature.

Professor Sue O’Reilly was awarded the W.B. Clarke Medal by the Royal Society of NSW for outstanding contributions to Geoscience in Australia.

Sue O’Reilly with NSW Governor Marie Bashir and the other medalists at the W.B. Clarke Medal presentations.


GEMOC PUBLICATIONS FOR 2008 ARE GIVEN IN APPENDIX 2

The 88 GEMOC Publications that were published or in press for 2008 are mainly in high-impact international journals as listed by the internationally recognised Thomson ISI Citation data, and designated as A* and A journals by the ARC ERA (Excellence in Research) official journal ranking.


PARTICIPATION IN WORKSHOPS, CONFERENCES AND INTERNATIONAL MEETINGS IN 2008 (AND BEYOND)

GEMOC staff, postdoctoral researchers and postgraduates again increased their profile at peak metallogenic, geodynamic and geochemical conferences as convenors, invited speakers, or presenters, with 103 presentations including:

• International Conference of Arc-Continent Collisions IGCP 524 (National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan)

• 13th ANZGG Conference (Queenstown, Tasmania)

• The Geological Society of America, Northeastern Section, 43rd Annual Meeting, (New York, USA)

• 39th Lunar And Planetary Science Conference (League City, Texas, USA)

• RST (Réunion Des Sciences De La Terre, Nancy, France)

• 5th Annual K-8 science and technology conference (Sydney)

• The 18th V.M. Goldschmidt Conference: From Sea To Sky (Vancouver, Canada)

• 19th AGC and The Australian Earth Science Convention (Perth, Australia)

• 33rd International Geological Congress (IGC) (Oslo, Norway)

• 9th International Kimberlite Conference (Frankfurt, Germany)

• 2008 Iavcei General Assembly (Reykjavik, Iceland)

• 2008 Joint Meeting of The Geological Society of America, Soil Science Society of America, American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, Gulf Coast Association of Geological Societies with the Gulf Coast Section of SEPM (Houston, Texas, USA)

• Annual National Symposium on Petrology and Geodynamics (Guiyang, China)

• Geosciences ’08, The Joint Annual Conference of the Geological Society of New Zealand, the New Zealand Geophysical Society and the New Zealand Geochemical and Mineralogical Society (Te Papa , Wellington, New Zealand)

• AGU Fall Meeting (San Francisco, USA)

9IKC1

GEMOC had a large presence at the 9th International Kimberlite Conference, which reunited many of our collaborators. Above, Slava Spetsius (Novosibirsk), Yakov Weiss and Oded Navon (Tel Aviv) with Bill Griffin and Norm Pearson at one of Debora Araujo’s posters. Below, Bruce Wyatt (Melbourne) and Norm at posters given by Alan Kobussen and Jacques Batumike.

9IKC2

A full list of abstract titles for Conferences and Workshops attended is given in Appendix 4 and on the GEMOC website where full-text versions of many of the abstracts can also be found.

Keynote talks in 2008 included (first author given; see Appendix 4 for titles and full authorship): 19th Australian Earth Science Convention – Belousova, O’Reilly, Griffin; 33rd International Geological Congress in Oslo – Pearson, Griffin; 18th Annual V.M. Goldschmidt Conference (Vancouver) – Corgne, O’Neill; 5th Annual K-8 Science and Technology Conference – O’Neill; New Zealand Geological Society Conference - Turner. GEMOC research was represented by 27 talks at the peak 9th International Kimberlite Conference in Frankfurt.

Norman Pearson was an invited presenter at the Mineralogical Association of Canada Short Course on Laser Ablation ICP-MS at the 18th Annual Goldschmidt Conference.

Tracy Rushmer continued as a “Member at Large” on the Geological Society of America Penrose Committee, appointed for 2007-2010.

Tracy Rushmer was a member of the Mineralogical Society of America Distinguished Lecture Program Committee for term 2006-2008.

Sue O’Reilly continued as a member of the International Kimberlite Conference Committee.

Simon Turner was appointed as a director of the Geochemical Society.

Bill Griffin continued as a member of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Expert Advisory Committee.

Nathan Daczko is chair of the Geological Society of Australia Specialist Group in Tectonics and Structural Geology (SGTSG) and chair of the organising committee for the 2010 field conference.

Bill Griffin was co-convenor for the session on “The continental lithosphere from geophysical and geochemical data” at the 33rd IGC in Oslo (August, 2008).

Sue O’Reilly was chief convenor for the session on “The lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary: nature, formation and evolution from Hadean to now” at the 33rd IGC in OsloElena
(August, 2008).

 

 

Elena Belousova- with her poster at the 18th Annual Goldschmidt conference in Vancouver, Canada.

 

Elena Belousova was co-convener for a special session on “Sedimentary Constraints on Composition and Evolution of the Continents, Continental Reconstructions and Basin Evolution” at the 18th Annual V.M. Goldschmidt Conference, (Vancouver).

Bill Griffin is co-convenor for the session “Crust Coming of Age: From Accretion to Craton” at the 19th Annual V.M. Goldschmidt Conference to be held in Davos, Switzerland in June 2009.

Craig O'Neill was a convenor for the Theme “Plate Tectonic Processes and The Dynamic Mantle” at the Australian Earth Sciences Convention (Perth); the Session on “Subduction Processes” at the Western Pacific Geophysics Meeting (Cairns); and the Session on “Geochemical Heterogeneities in OIB and MORB Sources: Implications” at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting (San Francisco).

Tracy Rushmer will be a co-convenor for the Penrose Conference “Plumes and their role in whole mantle convection and recycling” to be held in the Azores in May 2009.Vienna

Norman Pearson was invited Guest Professor at the University of Vienna and presented a
Short Course on “Laser Ablation Multi-collector ICPMS: Theory and Applications in the Earth Sciences”.

 

Norman Pearson and Dr Theo Ntaflos (University of Vienna, upper right) and participants in the Short Course on “Laser Ablation Multi-collector ICPMS: Theory and Applications in the Earth Sciences”.

 

Sue O’Reilly gave a presentation on behalf of GEMOC at the Australian Research Council Graeme Clarke Outcomes Award Day at Parliament House, Canberra, May 2008. This award to GEMOC for “Scientific Advancement Outcomes” recognised the success of GEMOC’s TerraneChron®.

Norman Pearson is a founding member of the international organising committee of the ’Working Group on Data Acquisition, Handling and Interpretation in Laser Ablation U(-Th)-Pb Geochronology’.

Craig O’Neill continued as Honorary Secretary of the NSW Division of the Geological Society of Australia.

Sue O’Reilly was an invited editor of a Special Volume of the Geological Society of London
on the “Nature of the European Mantle” and is Chief Editor by invitation of the international journal, Lithos, of a thematic volume on the Nature of the Lithosphere-Asthenosphere Boundary.

Craig O’Neill authored an article titled “Evolution of a Habitable Planet” for the popular science journal Australasian Science.

Representation on editorial boards include: Lithos (Griffin, O’Reilly, Rushmer); Geological Society of America Bulletin (Griffin); Journal of Petrology (Turner); Chemical Geology (Griffin, O’Reilly); Elements (Schaefer); Acta Geologica Sinica (Griffin).

GEMOC PhD and honours students gave 15 presentations at international conferences in 2008 resulting in three awards:

• PhD student Weiqiang Li was awarded Best Student Presentation at the 18th Annual V.M. Goldschmidt Conference (Vancouver) for his paper “Cu isotopic anomalies around porphyry Cu deposits”.

• PhD student Lijuan Wang was awarded “Outstanding Student Presentation” at the Annual National Symposium on Petrology and Geodynamics, at Guizhou in October 2008 for her paper “U-Pb ages and Hf isotopic composition of detrital zircons in Proterozoic sandstones from southeastern Yangtze Block: Implications for crustal evolution”.

• Honours student Melissa Murphy was awarded Best Student Paper at the 19th Australian Geological Convention and Australian Earth Sciences Convention (Perth, Australia) for her honours research on Macquarie Island: “Provenance of ophiolitic sand: comparison of ancient and modern sand”.

VISITORS

GEMOC fosters links nationally and internationally through visits of collaborators to undertake defined short-term projects or short-term visits to give lectures and seminar sessions.  Formal collaborative arrangements are facilitated by ARC Linkage grants with reciprocal funding from international collaborators.

All Australian and international visitors are listed in Appendix 3.

They have participated in:

collaborative research

technology exchange

seminars, discussions and joint publications

collaboration in postgraduate programs

Two volumes highlight the papers presented at the European Mantle Workshop in Ferrara

GEMOC had a high profile in both the organisation and scientific program at the 2007 European Mantle Workshop (EMAW) on the “Petrological Evolution of the European Lithospheric Mantle from Archean to Present Day”, held in Ferrara in August 2007. The event was organised by M. Coltorti (University of Ferrara), H. Downes (London University), M. Grégoire (Toulouse) and S.Y. O’Reilly (GEMOC) and was sponsored by the University of Ferrara, the Instituto Universitario di Studi Superiori (IUSS) of the same university, the Gruppo Nazionale di Petrografia (GNP) and the Federazione Italiana di Scienze della Terra (FIST). Abstracts, photographs and some presentations in pdf format are available at: http://www.unife.it/dipartimento/scienze-terra/emaw-2007. During 2008, the organisers have edited two proceedings volumes, one in the Journal of Petrology, the other, a Geological Society of London Special Publication.

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Annual Report 2008