Project Summary
Continents and sedimentary basins through time record fundamental Earth system cycles, reflecting environmental change, migration of fauna and flora and shifting coastlines. It was originally thought that successive advances and retreats of shallow inland seas mainly reflect global sea level variations (eustasy). It is now well known in principle that large-scale surface morphology such as the high topography of the East African Rift, the low-lying Amazon River Basin and the southwest to northeast tilt of the Australian continent are strongly controlled by processes deep within the Earth, but progress has been slow in quantifying the magnitude and time-dependence of these relationships. … Read more…
Prof Dietmar Müller
Group Coordinator
Phone: +61 2 9351 4255
Fax: +61 2 9351 3644
School of Geosciences
The University of Sydney
Sydney, NSW 2006
Australia
View Dietmar's Sydney Uni page
See below for EarthByte content related to Dietmar.
Kara Matthews submits her PhD thesis
Congratulations to Kara Matthews who submitted her PhD thesis on 30th August! Kara was supervised by Dietmar Müller, Maria Seton and Nicolas Flament. She will be continuing to work at EarthByte in a post-doctoral position. Well done Kara!
Proceedings of the West Australian Basins Symposium IV – Tectonic Evolution and Continental Fragmentation of the Southern West Australian Margin
Whittaker, J.M., Halpin, J.A., Williams, S.E., Hall, L.S., Gardner, R., Kobler, M.E., Daczko, N.R. and Müller, R.D., (2013). Tectonic Evolution and Continental Fragmentation of the Southern West Australian Margin. Proceedings of the West Australian Basins Symposium IV, 18p. Tectonic Evolution and Continental Fragmentation of the Southern West Australian Margin
Proceedings of the West Australian Basins Symposium IV – Newly-recognised Continental Fragments Rifted from the West Australian Margin
Williams, S. E., Whittaker, J. M., & Müller, R. D. (2013). Newly-recognised continental fragments rifted from the West Australian margin. In The Sedimentary Basins of Western Australia IV. Proceedings of the Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia Symposium, Perth, WA (p. 10). Newly-recognised continental fragments rifted from the West Australian margin
Proceedings of the West Australian Basins Symposium IV – Structural Architecture of Australia’s Southwest Continental Margin and Implications for Early Cretaceous Basin Evolution
Hall, L., Gibbons, A. D., Bernardel, G., Whittaker, J. M., Nicholson, C., Rollet, N., & Müller, R. D. (2013). Structural architecture of Australia’s southwest continental margin and implications for Early Cretaceous basin evolution. In Proceedings, West Australian Basins Symposium. Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (pp. 18-21). Structural architecture of Australia’s southwest continental margin and implications for … Read more…
Proceedings of the West Australian Basins Symposium IV – Structural Architecture of Australia's Southwest Continental Margin and Implications for Early Cretaceous Basin Evolution
Hall, L., Gibbons, A. D., Bernardel, G., Whittaker, J. M., Nicholson, C., Rollet, N., & Müller, R. D. (2013). Structural architecture of Australia’s southwest continental margin and implications for Early Cretaceous basin evolution. In Proceedings, West Australian Basins Symposium. Petroleum Exploration Society of Australia (pp. 18-21). Structural architecture of Australia’s southwest continental margin and implications for … Read more…
Big Data Knowledge Discovery featured in Australian Journal of Mining
The EarthByte ‘Big Data Knowledge Discovery Project’ is on the front cover of the current issue of the Australian Journal of Mining. Download the Paper – pdf Read more about the Big Data Knowledge Discovery project here
Solid Earth – Kinematics of the South Atlantic Rift
Heine, C., Zoethout, J., & Müller, R. D. (2013). Kinematics of the South Atlantic rift. arXiv preprint arXiv:1301.2096. doi:10.5194/se-4-215-2013. Kinematics of the South Atlantic rift Supplementary maps
Geology – Seawater chemistry driven by supercontinent assembly, breakup, and dispersal
Müller, R. D., Dutkiewicz, A., Seton, M., & Gaina, C. (2013). Seawater chemistry driven by supercontinent assembly, breakup, and dispersal. Geology, 41(8), 907-910. doi: 10.1130/G34405.1. Seawater chemistry driven by supercontinent assembly, breakup, and dispersal
Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth – Early India-Australia spreading history revealed by newly detected Mesozoic magnetic anomalies in the Perth Abyssal Plain
Williams, S. E., Whittaker, J. M., Granot, R., & Müller, D. R. (2013). Early India‐Australia spreading history revealed by newly detected Mesozoic magnetic anomalies in the Perth Abyssal Plain. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 118(7), 3275-3284. doi:10.1002/jgrb.50239. Early India‐Australia spreading history revealed by newly detected Mesozoic magnetic anomalies in the Perth Abyssal Plain
Earth Science Reviews – The tectonic evolution of the Arctic since Pangaea breakup: Integrating constraints from surface geology and geophysics with mantle structure
Shephard, G. E., Müller, R. D., & Seton, M. (2013). The tectonic evolution of the Arctic since Pangea breakup: Integrating constraints from surface geology and geophysics with mantle structure. Earth-Science Reviews, 124, 148-183. doi:10.1.1016/j.earscirev.2013.05.012. The tectonic evolution of the Arctic since Pangea breakup: Integrating constraints from surface geology and geophysics with mantle structure
EarthByte welcomes Sarah MacLeod
Sarah MacLeod joins the EarthByte team to undertake a PhD with Dietmar Müller. Sarah’s project focuses on reconstructing the evolution of mid-ocean ridges and passive margins in the Indian Ocean for the Jurassic and Early Cretaceous and implementing a deforming plate model.
Fragmentation of an active continental margin
Citation Rey, P., and R. Müller (2010), Fragmentation of active continental plate margins owing to the buoyancy of the mantle wedge, Nature Geoscience, 3(4), 257-261.View similar animations on our EarthByte YouTube channel
New collaboration launched
Launch of the $12million, 3-year collaboration between NICTA (Australia’s Information and Communications Technology Centre of Excellence), The University of Sydney, SIRCA, and Macquarie University. This is a ground-breaking project that will use big-data and machine learning to deliver new insights to the natural sciences – the geoscience thread is being led by Prof Dietmar Müller.
Computational Mechanics – Oblique mid ocean ridge subduction modelling with the parallel fast multipole boundary element method
Quevedo, L., Hansra, B., Morra, G., Butterworth, N., & Müller, R. D. (2013). Oblique mid ocean ridge subduction modelling with the parallel fast multipole boundary element method. Computational Mechanics, 51(4), 455-463. DOI 10.1007/s00466-012-0751-5. Oblique mid ocean ridge subduction modelling with the parallel fast multipole boundary element method
Earth and Planetary Science Letters – Organisation of the tectonic plates in the last 200 Myr
Morra, G., Seton, M., Quevedo, L., & Müller, R. D. (2013). Organization of the tectonic plates in the last 200 Myr. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 373, 93-101. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2013.04.020. Organization of the tectonic plates in the last 200 Myr
Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems – Global sediment thickness dataset updated for the Australian-Antarctic Southern Ocean
Whittaker, J. M., Goncharov, A., Williams, S. E., Müller, R. D., & Leitchenkov, G. (2013). Global sediment thickness data set updated for the Australian‐Antarctic Southern Ocean. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 14(8), 3297-3305. doi:10.1002/ggge.20181. Global sediment thickness data set updated for the Australian‐Antarctic Southern Ocean
The tectonic evolution of the Arctic since Pangea breakup: Integrating constraints from surface geology and geophysics with mantle structure
Citation
Shephard, G. E., Müller, R. D., & Seton, M. (2013). The tectonic evolution of the Arctic since Pangea breakup: Integrating constraints from surface geology and geophysics with mantle structure. Earth-Science Reviews, 124, 148-183. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2013.05.012
Summary
The tectonic evolution of the circum-Arctic, including the northern Pacific, Siberian and North American margins, since the Jurassic has been punctuated by the opening and closing of ocean basins, the accretion of autochthonous and allochthonous terranes and associated deformation. This complexity is expressed in the uncertainty of plate tectonic models of the region, with the time-dependent configurations and kinematic history remaining poorly understood. … Read more…
Total sediment thickness of the World’s Oceans & Marginal Seas, version 2
This update replaces the original Total Sediment Thickness of the World’s Oceans & Marginal Seas (Divins, 2003).
Citation
Whittaker, J. M., Goncharov, A., Williams, S. E., Müller, R. D., & Leitchenkov, G. (2013). Global sediment thickness data set updated for the Australian‐Antarctic Southern Ocean. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 14(8), 3297-3305. doi: 10.1002/ggge.20181.
Summary
NGDC’s global ocean sediment thickness grid (Divins, 2003) has been updated for the Australian-Antarctic region (60°-155°E, 30°-70°S). New seismic reflection and refraction data have been used to add detail to the conjugate Australian and Antarctic margins and intervening ocean floor where previously regional sediment thickness patterns were poorly known. … Read more…
Australian Journal of Earth Sciences – Towards a predictive model for opal exploration using a spatio-temporal data mining approach
Merdith, A. S., Landgrebe, T. C., Dutkiewicz, A., & Müller, R. D. (2013). Towards a predictive model for opal exploration using a spatio-temporal data mining approach. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 60(2), 217-229. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08120099.2012.754793. Towards a predictive model for opal exploration using a spatio-temporal data mining approach Supplementary data
Towards community-driven paleogeographic reconstructions: integrating open-access paleogeographic and paleobiology data with plate tectonics
Summary
A variety of paleogeographic reconstructions have been published, with applications ranging from paleoclimate, ocean circulation and faunal radiation models to resource exploration; yet their uncertainties remain difficult to assess as they are generally presented as low-resolution static maps. We present a methodology for ground-truthing the digital Palaeogeographic Atlas of Australia by linking the GPlates plate reconstruction tool to the global Paleobiology Database and a Phanerozoic plate motion model.
We develop a spatio-temporal data mining workflow to validate the Phanerozoic Palaeogeographic Atlas of Australia with paleoenvironments derived from fossil data. … Read more…
From data mining to opal mining
Documents
AJES Paper
CG Paper
Opal is Australia’s national gemstone, however most significant opal discoveries were made in the early 1900’s – more than 100 years ago – until recently. Currently there is no formal exploration model for opal, meaning there are no widely accepted concepts or methodologies available to suggest where new opal fields may be found. … Read more…
Biogeosciences – Towards community-driven paleogeographic reconstructions: integrating open-access paleogeographic and paleobiology data with plate tectonics
Wright, N., Zahirovic, S., Müller, R. D., & Seton, M. (2013). Towards community-driven paleogeographic reconstructions: integrating open-access paleogeographic and paleobiology data with plate tectonics. Biogeosciences, 10(3), 1529-1541. doi:10.5194/bg-10-1529-2013. Towards community-driven paleogeographic reconstructions: integrating open-access paleogeographic and paleobiology data with plate tectonics
Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems – Revised tectonic evolution of the Eastern Indian Ocean
Whittaker, J. M., Williams, S. E., & Müller, R. D. (2013). Revised tectonic evolution of the Eastern Indian Ocean. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 14(6), 1891-1909. doi:10.1002/ggge.20120. Revised tectonic evolution of the Eastern Indian Ocean
Talented Student Program 2013
Semester 1 2013, University of Sydney – Australia
Theme: The magic and utility of the invisible world
Geo-theme: Windows into the deep Earth
In semester 1 2013 the EarthByte Group hosted a team of students from the Talented Student Program (TSP), targeted at the top performing first year students in the Faculty of Science at the University of Sydney. The students investigated windows into the deep Earth, that is, they unravelled the effect of ridge subduction events on mantle structure. … Read more…
Global continental and ocean basin reconstructions since 200 Ma
Global plate motion models provide a spatial and temporal framework for geological data and have been effective tools for exploring processes occurring at the earth’s surface. However, published models either have insufficient temporal coverage or fail to treat tectonic plates in a self-consistent manner. They usually consider the motions of selected features attached to tectonic plates, such as continents, but generally do not explicitly account for the continuous evolution of plate boundaries through time. … Read more…
EarthByte welcomes Rakib Hassan
EarthByte welcomes new PhD student Rakib Hassan. Rakib’s PhD title is ‘Palaeo-topography: effects of mantle convection and lithospheric deformation’ and his supervisors are Dietmar Müller and Nicolas Flament.
GPlates short course at National Institute of Oceanography, India
A GPlates short course was held at the National Institute of Oceanography, Dona Paula, Goa, India, from 19-20 February 2013.
Lithosphere – A review of observations and models of dynamic topography
Flament, N., Gurnis, M., & Müller, R. D. (2013). A review of observations and models of dynamic topography. Lithosphere, 5(2), 189-210. doi:10.1130/L245.1. Download the paper – pdf
Journal of Geophysical Research – The breakup of East Gondwana: assimilating constraints from Cretaceous ocean basins around India into a best-fit tectonic model
Gibbons, A. D., Whittaker, J. M., & Müller, R. D. (2013). The breakup of East Gondwana: Assimilating constraints from Cretaceous ocean basins around India into a best‐fit tectonic model. Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, 118(3), 808-822. doi:10.1002/jgrb.50079. Download the paper – pdf Access supplementary materials here