News

GROT - the new GPlates rotation file standard

The new GPlates rotation file format *.GROT is available online, along with an updated document on the GPlates Shapefile Attribute Standards. See my GPlates pages for details. The paper describing the GPGIM -- to which these two documents are the supplementary material -- is submitted (Xiaodong Qin et al., Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and data Systems - GI).

Facelift for rotation file data

I am proposing a new standard for rotation files which are commonly used in plate tectonic software such as GPlates. The new format is supposed to be self-contained and the information model is conceived in analogy to the GMT OGR format with attribute:value pairs for metadata. See my GPlates pages for details

[UPDATE] EGU 2012: Tectonic reconstructions with deforming plates [GD3.3/TS1.5]

Our session Tectonic reconstructions with deforming plates (GD3.3/TS1.5) at next year's EGU General Assmmebly in Vienna will have the following keynote speakers:

• Nadine McQuarrie
• Mark Handy

Abstract submission deadline is 17.Jan 2012.

EGU 2012: Tectonic reconstructions with deforming plates [GD3.3/TS1.5]

Together with Nico Flament and Douwe van Hinsbergen I will be convening session GD3.3/TS1.5 at next year's EGU General Assmmebly in Vienna. Abstract submission deadline is 17.Jan 2012. Below the session abstract:

Quantitative plate kinematic reconstructions have classically been restricted to oceanic basins with continental deformation not being accounted for in a systematic and quantitative way. Advances in computing infrastructure, software and modelling tools available to the geoscience community now allow for a much tighter integration of observations of continental crust and lithosphere deformation across multiple magnitudes of scale with plate kinematic and, ultimately, geodynamic models to better understand the evolution of plate boundaries in space and time. This interdisciplinary session intends to bring together structural geologists, seismologists, paleomagnetists, plate tectonic and geodynamic modelers to exchange views and present ongoing work on how continental deformation can be integrated quantitatively in regional to global plate kinematic models and assimilated into geodynamic models. The session aims to explore the spatio-temporal and depth-dependent complexity of deformation in the continental lithosphere, from plate boundary formation during extension, through to accretion and collision of continental blocks and destruction of well-defined plate boundaries during orogenesis. We invite contributions dealing with:

• testing and validating plate kinematic models with field observations from compressional or extensional domains such as fold and thrust belts or rift basins.
• linking global or regional plate kinematic models to numerical models of lithosphere deformation.
• assimilating depth-dependent deformation of lithosphere into regional and/or global plate kinematic or geodynamic models.
• Contributions attempting to reconstruct multiphase and/or intensely deformed continental regions.

Shapefile attributes for plate tectonics

Please find a proposal for a standard set of shapefile attributes used in plate tectonic applications here. The document proposes the use of a common set of attributes to be included with shapefiles for plate tectonic applications. The agreement on a community standard of attributes attached to shapefiles containing plate tectonic data should facilitate the exchange of files and allow for a basic tracking of modifications without the need of a complex centralised versioning system. Top

Geophysical Field Prac photos online

Photos of the Geophysical Field Prac in Vic Park of this year's GEOS3104 are online - check out the gallery here Top

Multi-scale basin dynamics Session at Fragile Earth Conference in Munich 04.-09. Sep 2011

I will be convening a session entitled "Multi-scale basin dynamics" in Theme 2 (Regional Geological Processes) together with Prof. Dr. Ralf Littke (Aachen University) at the Fragile Earth joint Geol. Soc. America/German Geosocieties conference in Munich. In addition, Dietmar Müller, Paul Wessel and myself will be convening a workshop on "Free software for plate reconstructions, geospatial data manipulation and map-making: GPlates, QGIS and GMT v5" Top

4 Research internships available through DAAD

I have 4 research assistantships available through the DAAD RISE worldwide program (Research internships in Science and Engineering), both for projects related to ongoing work in the EarthByte group on regional tectonics models as well as related to the ARC Linkage project with Shell and Total. German students can apply for these through this DAAD webpage.

Reconstructed Paleotopography grids for download

Reconstructed paleo-topography grids of Australia are available for download. The data are based on my Tectonophysics paper (Heine et al., Tectonophysics, 2010) and released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike Non-Commercial license. Please read the paper for details on how the paleotopography is reconstructed. Files are available as GMT netCDF and ArcGIS ASCII grids on my data download page. Email me if you have questions and re the licensing terms for commercial use.

Ruhr-Uni GPlates Course

Course material for the Ruhr-Uni GPlates course can be found here.

Changes to website

Our school webserver was "centralised". This means my old webpage including my blog was nuked and the University of Sydney does not offer simple webpage outside the corporate CMS anymore (this would be too simple). The site is migrated to the EarthByte website for now.

Back in academia

I have left Statoil and am back in academia. I will be working as Australian Postdoctoral fellow in an ARC Linkage project on dynamic topography - see here. Top