GSA Earth Sciences Student Symposium November 2018
GESSS-TAS Organising committee
Sian Tooze
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Totten Glacier in East Antarctica is thinning rapidly and upon complete collapse, has the potential to raise global sea level by 3.5m. Sian's PhD project is investigating the response of Totten Glacier to past climate warming using marine sediment cores. An understanding of this will facilitate the development of current ice sheet models that predict future ice sheet behaviour. Alongside her paleoclimate studies, she is using mineral provenance analysis to define the subglacial geology of Aurora Subglacial Basin that is drained by Totten Glacier.
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Emily Smyk
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Copper porphyry deposits are the world's largest and most significant source of copper and other economic metals such as gold and molybdenum. Emily's study at the Christmas Porphyry deposit in Arizona, USA, is researching the geochemical variations in the hydrothermal alteration minerals around the deposit and in the magmatic minerals in the related intrusive rocks. These geochemical data contribute to new exploration models to help find new porphyry deposits and assess their fertility.
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Matthew Ferguson
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The South Australian Gawler Craton includes some of the world’s largest felsic lavas and an intrusive complex which hosts one of the world’s largest concentrations of iron, copper, gold and uranium. Matthew’s research is improving our understanding of the genesis and evolution of the felsic lavas, the related intrusive rocks, and their relationship to iron-copper-gold-uranium mineralisation in the Gawler Craton.
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Tom Schaap
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The Lachlan Orogen is an area of Paleozoic geology covering much of New South Wales, Victoria, and Tasmania, and is host to numerous world-class ore deposits. Much of the prospective Lachlan bedrock is covered by younger sedimentary basins which are too thick for traditional mineral exploration methods. Modelling the tectonic history of the region may provide novel insight into the modern geological architecture which is otherwise impossible to directly observe.
Before undertaking this PhD topic, Tom studied an honours degree using geophysics to uncover subglacial and englacial structures in Sørsdal Glacier, East Antarctica, which are used in modelling ice sheet dynamics in the region.
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Sarah Gilmour
Sarah is a 2018 UTas Honours graduate, who is currently working as a geochemist/geoscientist at GHD.
Her honours project was on the mineralogical and geochemical characterisation of historical mine waste at two Tasmanian sites.
Characterisation of historic sites is crucial in their rehabilitation options.
Sarah’s current role includes the assessment and rehabilitation of contaminated sites with a particular focus on geochemistry and mineralogy,
she is especially keen on alternative solutions for wastes including their conversion into resources through reprocessing.
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Sibele Nascimento
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Sibele’s research is focused on the Macquarie Harbour delta, Western Tasmania, which stores tailings sourced from the Mt. Lyell Copper mine, Queenstown. Approximately 100 Mt of mine tailings and slag materials were discharged into the Queen and King Rivers since the 1890s, with the 2.5 km2 King River delta built from approximately 87 Mt of mine tailings. The delta is contaminated with Cu, Pb, and Zn. This study aims to establish if reprocessing of the historic tailings of the King River Delta is an environmentally and economically viable rehabilitation option.
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Josh Denholm
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Josh is an honours student at UTAS, and is studying the trace element chemistry and U-Pb geochronology of Tasmanian cassiterite (SnO2), the main ore mineral of tin. Josh’s work is focused on defining characteristic features of the trace element chemistry in cassiterite from different deposits in both north eastern and western Tasmania, as well as comparing the ages of Tasmanian granites to his new U-Pb cassiterite ages. He has also analysed alluvial cassiterite to assess how trace elements and geochronology might be used in provenance studies of cassiterite from placer deposits.
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Our parent institutions
The inaugural Geological Society of Australia Earth Science Student Symposium is a student-run, student-focussed conference which will be held at the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), located on Hobart’s scenic Salamanca waterfront. We aspire for this conference to benefit students at all levels by presenting examples of good scholarly research and project management as well as providing broader exposure to other Earth Science sub-disciplines.
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Students organising and participating in the conference are members of the following University of Tasmania groups:
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The Discipline of Earth Sciences
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The Australia Research Council’s Industrial Transformation Research Hub for Transforming the Mining Value Chain (TMVC)
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The Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS)
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The Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence in Ore Deposits (CODES)
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Discipline of Earth Sciences
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The Discipline of Earth Sciences at the University of Tasmania is currently ranked amongst the top 75 Earth Science departments in the world. The current research directions include Economic Geology and Geoenviromental Science, Computational and Analytical Geoscience, Marine Geoscience, Deep time Earth, and Mantle structure, dynamics and geochemistry. The Discipline collaborates closely and shares resources and facilities with CODES and TMVC, and participates in several collaborative projects with IMAS.
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Transforming the Mining Value Chain Hub
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The TMVC encompasses a wide array of activities from exploration, discovery, ore deposit characterisation, and environmental assessment, through to mining, ore processing and waste rock disposal. The main objective of the Research Hub is to improve efficiencies within this value chain, focussing on areas that will have a marked impact on the value of Australia's mineral resources, thereby benefiting the nation's economy.
TMVC students work within three research themes: detecting proximity to ore, optimising geometallurgical prediction, and minimising geoenvironmental risks. These themes are integrated around the application of technology developed at the TMVC and applied to drill core at the industry partners' mine sites. The anticipated outcome from this collaboration is the development of more efficient and environmentally sustainable exploration, mining and waste disposal practices that will lead to extended mine lives and employment opportunities in Australia's regional mining centres, and help in the discovery of new resources near existing mines.
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Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies
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The IMAS facility is the base of operations for University of Tasmania scientists and collaborators working to improve our understanding of temperate marine, Southern Ocean and Antarctic environments, their resources, and their roles in global systems.
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Students at IMAS use a range of tools to improve our knowledge and management of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Ecology and Biodiversity, and the Oceans and Cryosphere, under the cross disciplinary themes of Climate Change, Ocean-Earth Systems, and Ocean-Antarctic Governance.
The Oceans and Cryosphere Research Centre encompasses Antarctic and ocean governance, physical oceanography, bio-geochemical oceanography, and marine geophysics. Research at the Fisheries and Aquaculture Research Centre is aimed at delivering significant increases in production while minimising environmental impacts, so that we are able to provide adequate and sustainable nutrition to an increasing world population. Major lines of research at the Ecology and Biodiversity Research Centre are concerned with understanding the structure and functioning of marine ecosystems, including global environmental change, nature and roles of key species and functional groups in pelagic and reef systems, and the practice and effectiveness of marine conservation ecology.
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Centre for Ore Deposit and Earth Sciences
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CODES was founded in 1989 at the University of Tasmania and is home to 51 highly qualified research staff and over 120 postgraduate students, cementing its position as the largest university-based team of ore deposit researchers in the world.
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Located within the University of Tasmania's School of Physical Sciences, part of the Faculty of Science, Engineering and Technology (SET), CODES’ strengths include economic geology (metallic mineral deposits), volcanology, igneous petrology, tectonics, marine geology, geophysics, geochemistry and geometallurgy.
Students and professionals use their wealth of ore body knowledge to provide the tools and techniques to gain a better understanding of specific rock properties and relate these to ore body and halo footprints in a modern mining setting, thus enhancing the prospects for new discoveries, and ensuring optimisation of existing reserves.