Prof Dietmar Müller

Dietmar MüllerGroup Coordinator

dietmar.muller@sydney.edu.au

Phone: +61 2 9351 4255
Fax: +61 2 9351 3644

Madsen Building F09, Room 406
School of Geosciences
The University of Sydney
Sydney, NSW 2006
Australia

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See below for EarthByte content related to Dietmar.

Recurrent super highlands since 2.1 Ga reveal rhythmic coupling between deep Earth and surface evolution

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Figure from Zhou et al. (2026)

Researchers reconstructed global continental elevation over the past 4 billion years by combining a huge dataset of igneous rock chemistry with machine-learning estimates of crustal thickness and isostatic modelling. They found that continents stayed mostly submerged through much of the Archean, then began repeatedly building Tibetan-scale “super highlands” from about 2.1 billion years ago onward, … Read more…

Machine learning framework for prospectivity mapping of Cu–Au porphyry mineralisation in the Lachlan Fold Belt, eastern Australia

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Map of NSW showing tectonic provinces, porphyry tracts, and major porphyry deposits including Northparkes and Cadia.

Researchers developed a machine learning framework to predict where copper–gold porphyry deposits are likely to occur in the Lachlan Fold Belt of New South Wales, Australia. By combining geological, geophysical and remote sensing data with a positive-unlabelled bagging and random forest approach, the model successfully captures 95% of known mineral occurrences within just 5% of … Read more…

Birth of the viru microplate triggered by Pacific-Farallon plate reorganization

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Satellite gravity map of the southeastern Pacific Ocean showing spreading ridges, fracture zones and the Viru Microplate study area.

The Viru Microplate study uses high-resolution satellite gravity data together with new shipboard bathymetry to reveal a previously unknown episode of chaotic seafloor spreading between 44 and 28 million years ago at the Pacific-Farallon plate boundary. This episode produced a newly identified microplate, named the Viru Microplate, along with ridge jumps and propagating spreading ridges. … Read more…

Tectonic and climatic implications of the Aleutian Arc initiation ≥56 million years ago

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Figure 1 from Hoernle et al. (2026)

Researchers analysed the age and chemistry of lavas from the base of the western Aleutian volcanic arc, sampled across roughly 700 kilometres, to work out when subduction began there. The results show that Aleutian subduction started at least 56 million years ago, with early lavas resembling those formed during the onset of subduction in the … Read more…

Influence of secular cooling on core-mantle boundary heat flux and mantle plume temperature over 1.8 billion years

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Figure 1 from Zhang et al. (2026)

Researchers modelled global mantle flow over the past 1.8 billion years, incorporating the gradual cooling of Earth’s core and the decay of radiogenic heat sources through time. They found that this long-term cooling reduces both the heat flowing out of the core and the temperature of mantle plumes, at rates consistent with independent geological evidence. … Read more…

Enhancing reproducibility in hybrid Earth system models

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Diagram showing how reproducibility challenges in Earth system models have evolved from process-based frameworks to AI-integrated hybrid systems.

This Perspective argues that as artificial intelligence is increasingly built into Earth system models, reproducibility needs to be rethought to match how these hybrid models actually work. The authors highlight risks such as numerical instability, opaque procedures and unequal access to computing power, which can undermine trust and traceability in climate research. They propose a … Read more…

PyBacktrack1.5 released

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🚀 pyBacktrack 1.5 is now released! The new release makes pyBacktrack easier to install and expands its capabilities for backtracking, backstripping, paleobathymetry reconstruction, dynamic topography, sea-level modelling, and drill-site reconstructions. Users can now install pyBacktrack using: pip install pybacktrack conda install pybacktrack docker pull earthbyte/pybacktrack What’s new in pyBacktrack 1.5? The release adds conda installation … Read more…

DEEP-SEAM: an explainable semi-supervised deep learning framework for mineral prospectivity mapping

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Abstract. The global transition to clean energy is sharply increasing demand for rare earth elements (REEs), yet discovery rates are declining, especially in areas concealed by younger cover. Deep learning (DL) offers new opportunities for mineral prospectivity mapping (MPM), but its application is challenged by sparse labelled mineral occurrences, strong class imbalance, and limited model … Read more…

Carbon emissions along divergent plate boundaries modulate icehouse-greenhouse climates

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The exchange of carbon between oceanic plates, the deep Earth, and the atmosphere plays a significant role in modulating global climate1,2. Icehouse-greenhouse climate fluctuations have been attributed to changes in palaeogeography and solid Earth degassing3, particularly along continental arcs2,4,5, to arc weathering5 and to the sequestration of carbon into oceanic carbonate-rich sediments6. However, the proportions … Read more…

The way Earth’s surface moves has a bigger impact on shifting the climate than we knew

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Our planet has experienced dramatic climate shifts throughout its history, oscillating between freezing “icehouse” periods and warm “greenhouse” states. Scientists have long linked these climate changes to fluctuations in atmospheric carbon dioxide. However, new research reveals the source of this carbon – and the driving forces behind it – are far more complex than previously … Read more…

Volcanoes had lower greenhouse gas emissions in Earth’s past

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The power of volcanoes to change Earth’s climate may not be as ancient as previously thought. Throughout our planet’s history, the climate has fluctuated between “icehouse” and “greenhouse” conditions, largely determined by the levels of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere. Volcanic arcs, the giant chains of erupting peaks in places like … Read more…

Predicting the preservation of buried ore deposits using deep-­ time landscape evolution modeling

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    Porphyry copper discoveries are declining despite rising demand to meet net-zero targets, highlighting the need for innovative exploration strategies. While many advances have focused on ore formation at depth, a major challenge remains in understanding how erosion and uplift over millions of years affect deposit preservation. These post-mineralisation processes determine whether porphyry systems … Read more…

Mid-Proterozoic expansion of passive margins and reduction in volcanic outgassing supported marine oxygenation and eukaryogenesis

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The mid-Proterozoic interval between 1800 and 800 Ma, commonly referred to as the “Boring Billion”, was marked by the emergence of eukaryotic cells from prokaryotic ancestors, a key step in the evolution of life. This period encompassed the assembly and dispersal of two consecutive supercontinents, Nuna and Rodinia, as well as the development of extensive … Read more…

Indian Ocean carbonate compensation depth since the Late Oligocene

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The carbonate compensation depth (CCD), defined as the depth in the ocean where the supply rate of pelagic carbonate is balanced by its dissolution, provides an important parameter for estimating the amount of calcium carbonate-bound carbon that is stored in deep-sea sediments. The CCD is reasonably well-constrained across the Atlantic and Pacific oceans; however, our … Read more…

Earth’s ‘boring billion years’ created the conditions for complex life

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Sydney University Media Release, 20 October 2025 Plate tectonics played central role shaping life-supporting oceans Between 1.8 and 0.8 billion years ago, Earth’s tectonic activity locked atmospheric carbon dioxide into carbonate minerals within the oceanic crust, paving the way for oxygen-rich seas and evolving life. Source: research paper A study led by researchers from the … Read more…

Breakthroughs powering tomorrow’s industries

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Making sense of an ever-changing world Professor Dietmar Müller leads the EarthByte Group, which builds a deep-time virtual Earth via geodata synthesis across space and time. The group aims to better understand the dynamic Earth, its paleogeography, and past climates. Its primary applied research focus is critical mineral exploration in the context of the energy transition. “Understanding the … Read more…

Automated Detection of Mineralization-Related Craton Structures Using Geophysical Data and Unsupervised Machine Learning

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Internal structures and discontinuities within cratons are economically significant due to their history of tectonic reactivation from varying intraplate stress fields, which open pathways for fluid flow and facilitate mineral deposition. However, the complex overprinting tectonic processes that make cratons prospective can also lead to uncertainty regarding their internal geometries. To address this, we take … Read more…

The Moving Mantle Beneath Hawaii: A New Look at an Old Bend

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The Hawaiian–Emperor Bend (HEB) has long been a geological Rosetta Stone for probing the link between plate tectonics and mantle dynamics. In a compelling new study in PNAS, Zhang and Hu (2025) revisit this classic problem with global mantle convection models constrained by plate reconstructions. They reveal that in addition to the widely accepted southward … Read more…

Craton boundary detection from full-waveform tomography model reveals links to critical metal deposits

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Craton margins play a crucial role in mineral exploration as they host faults, fractures, and shear zones that facilitate hydrothermal fluid movement, transporting and depositing dissolved metals into valuable mineral deposits. We use the high-resolution full-waveform seismic inversion model REVEAL to extract horizontal shear wave velocity (VSH), vertical shear wave velocity (VSV), and isotropic P-wave … Read more…

Subducting seafloor anomalies promote porphyry copper formation

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Oceanic seafloor is scarred by age discontinuities, seamounts, and large igneous provinces (LIPs) over normal bathymetry. The recycling of these seafloor anomalies has been speculated to alter subduction regimes which may locally prime some regions for porphyry copper deposit formation. Using a tectonic plate reconstruction encompassing the last 100 Ma paired with a machine learning classifier … Read more…

A tectonically driven 60 million-year biogeochemical redox cycle paces marine biodiversity

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The fossil record shows a prominent 60 million-year biodiversity cycle during the Phanerozoic Eon, the origin of which is still unknown. Here we use time-series analysis and correlation of empirical and model datasets of Earth’s interior and sur cial processes to demonstrate that this cycle is a pervasive feature in marine animal genus-level diversity data … Read more…

Convolutional Neural Networks for Mineral Prospecting Through Alteration Mapping with Remote Sensing Data

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Traditional geological mapping methods, which rely on field observations and rock sample analysis, are inefficient for continuous spatial mapping of geological features such as alteration zones. Deep learning models such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have ushered in a transformative era in remote sensing data analysis. CNNs excel in automatically extracting features from image data … Read more…

Machine Learning and Big Data Mining Reveal Earth’s Deep Time Crustal Thickness and Tectonic Evolution: A New Chemical Mohometry Approach

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Quantitative analysis of crustal thickness evolution across deep time poses critical insights into the planet’s geological history. It may help uncover new areas with potential critical mineral deposits and reveal the impacts of crustal thickness and elevation changes on the development of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. However, most existing estimation methods are restricted to … Read more…

Machine Learning-Based Spatio-Temporal Prospectivity Modeling of Porphyry Systems in the New Guinea and Solomon Islands Region

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Abstract. The discovery of new economic copper deposits is critical for the development of renewable energy infrastructure and zero-emissions transport. The majority of existing copper mines are located within current or extinct continental arc systems, but our understanding of the tectonic and geodynamic conditions favoring the formation of porphyry systems is still incomplete. Traditionally, exploration … Read more…

Phanerozoic icehouse climates as the result of multiple solid-Earth cooling mechanisms

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The Phanerozoic climate has been interrupted by two long “icehouse” intervals, including the current icehouse of the last ~34 million years. While these cool intervals correspond to lower atmospheric CO2, it is unclear why CO2 levels fell, with hypotheses suggesting changes in CO2 degassing rates or modification of silicate weathering through changing continental lithology or paleogeography. Here, … Read more…

EarthByte Group recognised in 2024 Clarivate highly cited list

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Clarivate has named 26 academics from the University of Sydney on its annual Highly Cited Researchers list. The Clarivate list recognises the most influential researchers who have published multiple papers frequently cited by their peers that rank in the top one percent of citations for their field and year in the Web of Science. Professor … Read more…

Lateritic Ni-Co prospectivity modelling in eastern Australia using an enhanced generative adversarial network and positive-unlabelled bagging

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The surging demand for nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co), driven by the acceleration of clean energy transitions, has sparked interest in the Lachlan Orogen of New South Wales for its potential lateritic Ni-Co resources. Despite recent discoveries, a substantial knowledge gap exists in understanding the full scope of these critical metals in this geological province. … Read more…

Solid Earth carbon degassing and sequestration since 1 billion years ago

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Solid Earth CO2 outgassing, driven by plate tectonic processes, is a key driver of carbon cycle models. However, the magnitudes and variations in outgassing are poorly constrained in deep-time. We assess plate tectonic carbon emissions and sequestration by coupling a plate tectonic model with reconstructions of oceanic plate carbon reservoirs and with a thermodynamic model … Read more…

Leveraging Machine Learning and Geophysical Data for Automated Detection of Interior Structures of Cratons

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The internal structures and discontinuities of cratons hold considerable economic value due to their tendency for reactivation and different horizontal stress, serving as conduits for fluid flow and mineral deposition over time. Detecting these structures at various depths is critical for accurately mapping prospective zones of metallic mineralisation. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of integrating … Read more…

Collaboration between artificial intelligence and Earth science communities for mutual benefit

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A recent analysis concluded that Australia is at risk of losing its world-leading advantage in critical and rare minerals if it doesn’t sufficiently leverage artificial intelligence (AI). A large international coalition of Earth scientists and AI researchers is now advocating for stronger bidirectional development and impact between AI and Earth science in a new comment … Read more…