Kara Matthews is awarded the Chris Powell Medal

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Congratulations to Kara Matthews who has been awarded the prestigious Chris Powell Medal for Postgraduate Research in Tectonics and Structural Geology from the Geological Society of Australia. She was presented her medal at a meeting of the Specialist Group in Tectonics & Structural Geology in Waratah Bay, Victoria. Well done Kara! Download the paper – … Read more…

Australian Journal of Earth Sciences – Australian paleo-stress fields and tectonic reactivation over the past 100 Ma

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Müller, R. D., Dyksterhuis, S., & Rey, P. (2012). Australian paleo-stress fields and tectonic reactivation over the past 100 Ma. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 59(1), 13-28. doi:10.1080/08120099.2011.605801. Download the paper – pdf

SW Pacific IODP workshop approved

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An IODP workshop on the SW Pacific to be hosted ay the University of Sydney has been approved. The workshop, led by Neville Exon, Stephen Gallagher and Maria Seton will see ~70 scientists from around the world come to USyd for a 4-day workshop in October 2012. Date and time: 2012 October 9-11 Venue: Veterinary … Read more…

Gondwana Research Letters – Dynamic topography and anomalously negative residual depth of the Argentine Basin

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Shephard, G. E., Liu, L., Müller, R. D., & Gurnis, M. (2012). Dynamic topography and anomalously negative residual depth of the Argentine Basin.Gondwana Research, 22(2), 658-663. doi:10.1016/j.gr.2011.12.005. Download the paper – pdf

Computers and Geosciences – Plate Reconstructions with Continuously Closing Plates

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Gurnis, M., Turner, M., Zahirovic, S., DiCaprio, L., Spasojevic, S., Müller, R. D., … & Bower, D. J. (2012). Plate tectonic reconstructions with continuously closing plates. Computers & Geosciences, 38(1), 35-42. doi:10.1016/j.cageo.2011.04.014. We present a new algorithm for modeling a self-consistent set of global plate polygons. Each plate polygon is composed of a finite list … Read more…

Earth and Planetary Science Letters – Testing absolute plate reference frames and the implications for the generation of geodynamic mantle heterogeneity structure

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Shephard, G. E., Bunge, H. P., Schuberth, B. S., Müller, R. D., Talsma, A. S., Moder, C., & Landgrebe, T. C. W. (2012). Testing absolute plate reference frames and the implications for the generation of geodynamic mantle heterogeneity structure. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 317, 204-217. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2011.11.027. Download the paper – pdf

Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors – Signatures of downgoing plate-buoyancy driven subduction in Cenozoic plate motions

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Goes, S., Capitanio, F. A., Morra, G., Seton, M., & Giardini, D. (2011). Signatures of downgoing plate-buoyancy driven subduction in Cenozoic plate motions. Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, 184(1), 1-13. doi:10.1016/j.pepi.2010.10.007. Link to download the paper from Science Direct

Testing hotspot fixity in the Indian and Atlantic oceans

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Project Summary
We have developed a novel interactive evolutionary inversion approach for computing absolute tectonic plate motions and their uncertainties based on hotspot tracks through time. We use a modified criterion of fit for inverting hotspot-track data, following an approach previously developed by Chang and co-workers for relative plate motions. Using this method, we derive covariance matrices for absolute plate rotations for the last 120 million years for the first time, using dated hotspot tracks in the Atlantic-Indian oceans. This represents a major advance in quantitatively constraining paleogeographic maps for the last 130 million years.  … Read more…

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EarthByte to attend AGU 2011

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EarthByte group members Dietmar Müller, Adriana Dutkiewicz, Nicolas Flament, Leonardo Quevedo, Maria Seton, Simon Williams, Nathaniel Butterworth, Kayla Maloney and Kara Matthews are attending the AGU Fall Meeting 2011 in San Francisco, USA from 5-9 December, 2011. Click here for more details about the AGU Fall Meeting

Geomagnetism

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Project Summary Derivation of Earth’s magnetic field as measured at satellite altitude and implications for Earth evolution, resource exploration, and environmental studies. Funding Agency World University Network for Geomagnetism Project Participants Prof David Gubbins Prof Dietmar Müller Dr David Ivers Prof Denis Winch Related Projects Virtual Geological Observatory Gondwanaland Evolution

Earth's magnetic field

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Project Summary
The magnetic field measured by satellites has 3 distinct sources: the dynamo in the liquid core, magnetised rocks near the Earth’s surface, and the external, solar terrestrial environment. It is difficult to separate out the large-scale field (originates in the earth’s core) from the small-scale, permanent field (originates in the earth’s crust). This project aims to develop physical theories for the origin of each field to aid separation, accompanied by comparison with satellite data and iterative improvements. It is envisaged that this project will extend our knowledge of the core field to unprecedented fine resolution while establishing the larger scales of the crustal field.  … Read more…

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Earth’s magnetic field

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Project Summary
The magnetic field measured by satellites has 3 distinct sources: the dynamo in the liquid core, magnetised rocks near the Earth’s surface, and the external, solar terrestrial environment. It is difficult to separate out the large-scale field (originates in the earth’s core) from the small-scale, permanent field (originates in the earth’s crust). This project aims to develop physical theories for the origin of each field to aid separation, accompanied by comparison with satellite data and iterative improvements. It is envisaged that this project will extend our knowledge of the core field to unprecedented fine resolution while establishing the larger scales of the crustal field.  … Read more…

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The global fracture zone and magnetic lineation data base project

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Project Summary
Plate kinematic models derive from the detailed identifications of conjugate magnetic isochron picks and fracture zones (FZ). These data form the foundation of all relative marine plate tectonic reconstructions and codify our understanding of Earth’s surface evolution since the Mesozoic. Furthermore, FZ traces have extensive uses in many other marine geophysical investigations such as studying the origins of transform fault offsets, identifying seamounts and isolating abyssal hill roughness within fracture zone provinces, examining predictions from competing thermal models of the lithosphere, and much more. Kinematic models also require temporal information and this dimension is provided by identification of key magnetic isochron boundaries from total field magnetic anomalies collected along ship tracks. … Read more…

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Planet scale reorganisations of the plate-mantle system

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Project Summary
Global climate change and shrinking resources have heightened our sense of dependence on the earth as a dynamic and complex system. This project aims to provide a unifying context for enhancing our understanding and appreciation of the workings of the inner earth and, in particular, its complex system behaviour during major tectonic events. … Read more…

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Nature Geoscience – Origin of Indian Ocean Seamount Province by shallow recycling of continental lithosphere

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Hoernle, K., Hauff, F., Werner, R., van den Bogaard, P., Gibbons, A. D., Conrad, S., & Müller, R. D. (2011). Origin of Indian Ocean Seamount Province by shallow recycling of continental lithosphere. Nature Geoscience, 4(12), 883-887. doi:10.1038/ngeo1331. Download the paper – link

Indian Ocean cocktail party leaves trail of party hats behind

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Ana Gibbons, Dietmar Müller and colleagues from IfM-GEOMAR Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences, Germany research into Indian Ocean Cocktail Party leaves trail of party hats behind has been highlighted on the USyd News page. See the USyd News article ‘Indian Ocean Cocktail Party leaves trail of party hats behind’ here

DICTA – A spatio-temporal knowledge-discovery platform for Earth-Science data

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Landgrebe, T. C. W., & Muller, R. D. (2011, December). A Spatio-Temporal Knowledge-Discovery Platform for Earth-Science Data, Digital Image Computing Techniques and Applications (DICTA). In 2011 International Conference on (pp. 6-8). doi:10.1109/DICTA.2011.73. Download the paper – pdf