GEMOC ARC National Key Centre

Director's preface

(Mission accomplished!)

his report summarises gemoc's 2010 activities including research, technology development, strategic applications, industry interaction, international links and teaching (at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels). The report is required as part of GEMOC's formal annual accounting to the Australian Research Council (ARC). The ARC has acknowledged GEMOC as a continuing ARC National Key Centre while GEMOC attracts sufficient funds to maintain its high research activity and output, achieves its annual goals, and submits an Annual Report fulfilling ARC reporting requirements.
2010 was an exciting year of success and change for GEMOC.

Success was marked with top results in the national ARC Excellence in Research for Australia (ERA) outcomes. Macquarie University was the only institution nationwide to score the top rating of "5" for all assessed categories in Earth Sciences (http://www.arc.gov.au/era/outcomes_2010.htm). This encompasses the overarching category of "Earth Sciences" and the more specialised categories including Geology and Geochemistry, reflecting the impact and productivity of GEMOC researchers [http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/gem-of-a-centre-at-macquarie/story-e6frgcjx-1225998310865]. Three GEMOC researchers are in the top 200 cited geoscientists for the last decade as published in "Thomson Essential Science Indicators" (Griffin #12, O'Reilly #17 and Pearson #170).

Change came with an expression of interest (EOI) for a Centre of Excellence that was submitted to the ARC, with Macquarie University as the lead and Administering Organisation (and me as Director), with Curtin University and the University of Western Australia (UWA) as Collaborating Institutions and the Geological Survey of Western Australia as an Australian Partner Institution. Our EOI was one of about 40 selected for preparation of a full application, out of approximately 140 EOIs submitted nationally in all disciplines. We were then invited to an interview in Canberra, with the result that we were granted funding for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems (CCFS) for seven years.

This new development will shape the future of GEMOC over the next decade. It was clear that the ARC considered that CCFS should capitalise on the high level of international recognition that GEMOC has achieved, so GEMOC will maintain its identity as a research centre at Macquarie but will be integrated into the new ARC Centre of Excellence. This new CCFS "Supercentre" will bring together complementary knowledge, experience and analytical expertise from the Australian partners and will interface with the Centre for Exploration Targeting at UWA. Five overseas nodes led by Partner Investigators in France, China, Canada, Germany and the USA will contribute resources and provide access to a wide variety of complementary expertise and instrumental capabilities.

The research vision of CCFS is to integrate geochemistry, petrophysics, geophysics and numerical and thermodynamic modelling, to reach a new level of understanding of Earth's dynamics and the fluid cycle(s) through time. A preliminary introduction to CCFS is at http://www.ccfs.mq.edu.au. At the time of writing the process of contractual signing for the ARC is in progress with the Australian and international Collaborating and Partner Institutions (to be in place for a formal start on 1st July), and the process of appointing a Chief Operating Officer has been initiated.

The winning of an ARC Centre of Excellence fulfils part of the vision of Macquarie Vice-Chancellor Steven Schwarz for Macquarie @50 (in 2014) to be a leading research University. Professor Schwarz designated GEMOC as a Macquarie Concentration of Research Excellence in 2006 and provided 6 new academic staff positions across isotopic and trace-element geochemistry, lithosphere and Earth dynamics, geophysical imaging of Earth's interior, dynamic modelling of Earth's mantle and the rheology of rocks and minerals, as described in previous Annual Reports. Seismologist Yingjie Yang (a pioneer in the use of ambient noise seismology to investigate crustal structure) arrived in mid-2010. His arrival completed the first stage in our strategic plan to build a dynamic group of new-generation researchers (with Juan Carlos Afonso and Craig O'Neill), spanning a broad range of geophysical and geodynamic expertise relevant to understanding deep-Earth processes and planetary systems.

It is very timely for GEMOC to expand its horizons within the context of the new ARC Centre of Excellence. Our strategic vision has expanded over the years, from understanding the composition, structure and evolution of the lithosphere to the integration of geophysical, geochemical and petrological data with tectonic and geodynamic modelling to gain a better knowledge of the whole-Earth system from its accretion to the present day. A peak outcome of this has been the completion of the first stage of the large-scale Global Lithospheric Architecture Mapping program (GLAM), in collaboration with Western Mining, then BHP-Billiton and subsequently Minerals Targeting International, drawing on the results of specialised research strands over a decade. The first major outcomes are published in GEMOC Publications 423, 542, 547, 576, 664, 671 and 679 and have been presented at numerous invited and keynote talks at peak conferences and workshops. The results are impacting a broad spectrum of areas including Earth's tectonic history, lithosphere evolution and the Early Earth, interpretation of seismology datasets, and global mineral exploration strategies.

The 2010 cover reflects the continual expansion of GEMOC's research horizons and achievements, and symbolises the micron to planetary scales of the research contributing to a better understanding of "how the Earth works".

Technology development and advances in geochemical analytical and imaging strategies continued through 2010. A new Zeiss scanning electron microscope with cathodoluminescence imaging and energy-dispersive analytical capabilities has enabled a new direction incorporating more emphasis on mineral imaging linked to microstructure and compositional variations. Further refinement of the new-generation FTIR microscope (ThermoFisher iN10) enabling rapid whole-grain mapping of spectral data, coupled with the in-house development of a novel spectral deconvolution program (soon to be made available as an open-file resource) has allowed exploitation of the huge array of data embedded in the digital FTIR images, but not previously accessible.

The first instruments (latest generation inductively-coupled-plasma mass spectrometers (ICPMS)) were installed following our successful 2010 LIEF application based at Macquarie with partner support from Sydney, Wollongong, ANU and Victoria University of Wellington (New Zealand); assessment of the remaining instruments is almost complete. The combination of a femtosecond laser and sector ICPMS will allow exciting new developments in in situ analytical capabilities that will extend our trace-element and isotopic applications. We aim to deliver more in situ analytical breakthroughs following our world-first examples of in situ Hf isotope analysis of zircon, Re-Os isotope analysis of mantle sulfides and trace-element analysis in diamond, as well as a spectrum of stable metal-isotope methods.

A selFrag instrument was installed in 2010 in a purpose-designed new mineral-separation laboratory for multiple applications, but with a particular focus on extraction of zircons for the ongoing TerraneChron® program (see Research Highlights). High-power electrostatic pulses fragment rocks into individual mineral grains without crushing and breaking, enabling accurate assessment of grain morphologies.

GEMOC's success in linking interdisciplinary knowledge and data is also evident in many of the 128 articles published or accepted for publication since January 2010 in high-impact journals including Nature Geoscience, Geology, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Journal of Petrology, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, G-cubed, Lithos, Precambrian Research, Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, Tectonophysics and Chemical Geology, and to journals targeted at endusers including Economic Geology. The publication by current and recent PhD students of nineteen first-authored papers in high-impact journals is evidence of the outstanding quality of GEMOC's postgraduate environment.

GEMOC's conference presence again included a range of plenary, keynote and invited talks at peak and specialist international Conferences and Workshops (see GEMOC Communications). Over 40 international visitors came to GEMOC in 2010, highlighting our global profile and providing leverage of expertise, intellectual capital and resources.

GEMOC's original mission has been accomplished: our concepts and methodologies revealing the nature of the lithosphere have traction in mainstream geoscience and with industry stakeholders. The establishment of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Core to Crust Fluid Systems will expand our horizons even further and will bring another level of challenging scientific endeavours, with new goals and pathways to better understand the structure, composition and dynamics of our home planet Earth and its geological evolution "from core to crust" over 4.5 billion years.

Suzanne Y. O'Reilly

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