GEMOC ARC National Key Centre
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. Undergraduate teaching is also 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 2009 ranged from presentations to specific industry groups in their offices to numerous formal and informal workshops at GEMOC, and invited and plenary presentations at peak industry symposia, workshops and conferences nationally and internationally.
GEMOC PUBLICATIONS FOR 2009 ARE GIVEN IN APPENDIX 2
The 69 GEMOC Publications that were published in 2009 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 2009 (AND BEYOND)
GEMOC staff, postdoctoral researchers and postgraduates again had a high profile at peak metallogenic, geodynamic and geochemical conferences as convenors, invited speakers, or presenters, with 83 presentations including:
• International Conference on Arc-Continent Collisions 2009 – "The Macquarie Arc Lachlan Orogen" (Orange, NSW, Australia)
• European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2009 (Vienna, Austria)
• GSA Penrose Conference, Pico, Azores "Plumes and Their Role in Whole Mantle Convection" (The Azores)
• American Geophysical Union Meeting (Toronto, Canada)
• 19th Annual Goldschmidt™ 2009 - "Challenges to our Volatile Planet" (Davos, Switzerland)
• 60th UK Diamond Conference (Warwick, UK)
• Granulites and Granulites 2009, "Granulites, Partial Melting and Rheology of Orogenic Lower Crust" (Czech Republic)
• 72nd Annual Meeting of the Meteorological Society 2009 (Nancy, France)
• AOGS (Asia and Oceania Geological Society), 6th Annual General Meeting 2009 (Singapore)
• SGA2009 – The 10th Biennial Meeting of the SGA (Townsville, Australia)
• International Discussion Meeting on Continental Geology and Tectonics (Northwest University, Xian, China)
• GeoItalia 2009, VII Forum Italiano di Scienze Della Terra (Rimini, Italy)
• 8th International Eclogite Conference (IEC-8) 2009 (Xining City, China)
• GSA Annual Meeting "From Volcanoes to Vineyards: Living with Dynamic Landscapes" 2009 (Portland, USA)
• First Young Earth-Scientist Congress (Beijing, China)
• The 2009 Biennial Conference of the Specialist Group in Geochemistry, Mineralogy and Petrology, Acacia Hotel (Kangaroo Island, South Australia)
• 2009 Australian Geothermal Energy Conference: Geothermal Downunder - Clean Energy From the Ground Up (Brisbane, Australia)
• Geosciences '09, Geological Society of New Zealand, New Zealand Geophysical Society 26th Joint Conference (Oamaru, New Zealand)
• American Geophysical Union — 2009 Fall Meeting (San Francisco, California, USA)
Plenary Talks in 2009 included O'Reilly, Begg (SGA 10th Biennial Meeting in Townsville).
Keynote talks in 2009 included O'Reilly (Wyllie Symposium, Goldschmidt, Davos), Turner (Goldschmidt, Davos), Griffin (International Discussion Meeting, Xian), Afonso (FIST-GeoItalia-2009, Italy).
Invited talks in 2009 included Belousova, Griffin, Rushmer (Goldschmidt, Davos), Belousova, Griffin (SGA, Townsville), Griffin (UK Diamond Conference, Warwick), O'Reilly, Zhang, Griffin (International Discussion Meeting, Xian).
GEMOC research was represented by 26 talks in total at the peak 19th Goldschmidt conference in Davos.
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.
Other Conference Roles
Tracy Rushmer and Simon Turner were co-convenors for the Penrose Conference "Plumes and their role in whole mantle convection and recycling" held in the Azores in May 2009.
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Attendees at the Penrose Conference, co-convened by Tracy Rushmer and Simon Turner, held in the scenic Azores, Portugal.
Inside the Corvo caldera.
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View of the Corvo Volcano from the island of Flores.
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Bill Griffin was co-convenor for the session "Crust Coming of Age: From Accretion to Craton" at the 19th Annual V.M. Goldschmidt Conference held in Davos, Switzerland in June 2009.
Norman Pearson organised and participated in a workshop of the International Working Group for Laser Ablation ICP-MS U-Pb Geochronology at the American Geophysical Union annual meeting (San Francisco) in December 2009.
Bill Griffin is co-convenor for session "Diamond crystallisation under natural and experimental conditions" at the IMA in Budapest (August, 2010).
Norman Pearson is convenor of session "Recent Advance in High Precision Trace Element and Isotopic Analysis, 2010 Western Pacific Geophysics Meeting, Taipei 2010.
Simon Turner and Tracy Rushmer are co-convening the 5th "State of the Arc" meeting to be held on Santorini in September 2010.
Elena Belousova is co-convener of session "Russia and Central Asia" at the 13th IAGOD Quadrennial Symposium, Adelaide, South Aust, April 2010.
Esteem Factors and Outreach
Sue O'Reilly was awarded a Visiting Professorship at Montpellier University.
Sue O'Reilly was appointed a panel member for the ARC Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) Initiative trial process for Physics, Chemistry and Earth Sciences.
Bill Griffin was invited to be a founding core member of the new International Precambrian Research Centre of China (IPRCC) at Beijing SHRIMP Centre and the Department of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences.
Tracy Rushmer was appointed NSF (National Science Foundation) panel member for Geochemistry and Petrology (2010-2012).
Bruce Schaefer was the AuScope Earth Composition and Evolution Component Leader and coordinated the National Geochemistry Program for the AuScpope NCRIS capability; http://www.auscope.org.au.
Tracy Rushmer was chair, Penrose and Field Forum Committee, Geological Society of America.
Juan Carlos Afonso became Topical Editor of the journal Solid Earth (EGU).
Bill Griffin continued as a member of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Expert Advisory Committee.
Simon Turner was co-editor for a Blackwell volume on the "Time scales of magmatic processes".
Juan Carlos Afonso was appointed member of the High-Education Degree committee visiting lecturer at the University of Patagonia, Argentina.
Tracy Rushmer continued as a "Member at Large" on the Geological Society of America Penrose Committee, appointed for 2007-2010.
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The usual suspects at the Symposium in honour of Alfred Kroener in Xi'an, China, October 2009. Sue, Bill and Ming were joined by Jinxiang Huang and Sue Kay from Cornell University. |
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Sue O'Reilly continued as a member of the International Kimberlite Conference Committee. (Vancouver).
Norman Pearson continued as 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".
Juan Carlos Afonso was an invited speaker at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Science (DIAS).
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 one of the Editors of a special Journal of Petrology Volume (50, 7) "Petrological Evolution of the European Lithospheric Mantle: Archean to Present Day".
Sue O'Reilly is Chief Editor by invitation of the international journal, Lithos, of a Thematic Volume on the Nature of the Lithosphere-Asthenosphere Boundary, with Bill Griffin and Juan Carlos Afonso as co-editors.
Representation on editorial boards include: Lithos (Griffin, O'Reilly, Rushmer); Geological Society of America Bulletin (Griffin); Journal of Petrology (Turner); Chemical Geology (Griffin); Elements (Schaefer); Acta Geologica Sinica (Griffin).
Nathan Daczko continued as chair of the Geological Society of Australia Specialist Group in Tectonics and Structural Geology (SGTSG), and chaired the organising committee for the 2010 Field Conference.
Nathan Daczko co-led a 5-day pre-conference field trip "Overview of the Southeast New England Fold Belt" prior to the SGTSG Field Conference.
Formal industry collaborator on the GLAM (Global Lithopsheric Architecture Mapping) project, Dr Graham Begg, was appointed as the International Exchange Lecturer for the Society of Economic Geologists for 2009 in recognition of the leadership position that GEMOC has attained in understanding the nature of the lithosphere and the geodynamic controls on the genesis, location and preservation of ore deposits. This appointment has resulted in a significant transfer of knowledge from GEMOC's GLAM project to research institutions worldwide, end-users and the public domain through over 30 presentations in 8 countries during 2009.
Media
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Kelsie Dadd was the subject of an article in the Australian, in September 2009 titled "Voyage of enlightenment" by Jill Rowbotham. The article highlighted her participation in the IODP JOIDES Resolution voyage to the Bering Sea.
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Craig O'Neill was active in media outlets including:
• Volcanic shutdown may have led to 'snowball Earth', 09 May 2009
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20227073.800-volcanic-shutdown-may-have-led-to-snowball-earth.html
• Volcano 'Vacation' Produced First Glaciers, 14 May 2009
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/05/14/first-glaciers-tectonics.html
• Early Mars stayed molten, Thursday, 23 July 2009
http://www.sciencealert.com.au/news/20092307-19455.html
• Molten Mars kept life at bay, Tuesday, 21 July 2009
http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2009/07/21/2631861.htm
• Molten Mars Too Hot to Handle Life, July 21 2009
http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2009/07/21/molten-mars.html
• Mars breakthrough: Scientists uncover red planet's hot and steamy secrets, 21 July 2009
http://www.physorg.com/news167407498.html
• Enceladus episodic overturn, Scientific American, January 2010,
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=saturn-enceladus-episodic-overturn
• Saturn's ice moon shows signs of life, The Australian, 11 Janurary 2010 (Page 5)
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/health-science/saturns-ice-moon-shows-signs-of-life/story-e6frg8y6-1225817874008
Applications from Chinese firms to buy up small Australian companies involved in mining deposits of the Rare Earth Elements attracted considerable media attention, because China already is the dominant source of these strategically important elements. Prof Bill Griffin answered several requests for information on "What are these elements and why are they important?", and gave a longer interview to the Sky News Business Channel, which was aired during the period when the Foreign Investment Review Board was reviewing the investment applications.
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
Manel Fernandez from the National Research Council of Spain and Juan Carlos working on global lithospheric models during Manel's visit in July 2009.