Research School of Earth Sciences NewsletterUnearthed

In this issueGeology legends 2VC launches an Endowment Fund

Mission to Mars 4Dr Penny King's involvement with the Curiosity rover

Alumni Profile 6Professor Weidong Sun reflects on his days at RSES

A N U C O L L E G E O F P H Y S I C A L A N D M A T H E M A T I C A L S C I E N C E S

Issue 2 | Summer 2012/13

Allan White Scholarship 7 2012 Meet Helen Cocker:recipient of the inaugural scholarship

Awards 8International awards recognising some stellar careers

This newsletter is published twice a year and is archived at rses.anu.edu.au/unearthed

Editing: Ian Jackson and Mary Anne King

Contact Mary Anne King to submit content.

VC Staff Excellence Awards: School Manager, Mike Avent was recognised for Innovation & Excellence in Service; Tony Beasley was acknowledged for his commitment and achievement over his 25 years of service; and in Public Policy and Outreach, Natalie Balfour and Michelle Salmon received the team award for their Australian Seismometers in Schools project (AuSIS). From left to right: Tony Beasley, Natalie Balfour, Andrew Roberts (Dean, College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences), Michelle Salmon, and Mike Avent (photo: Stuart Hay).

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ROCK LEGENDS MEMORIALISED

The work of life-long research collaborators and ‘legends of geology’ the late Professors Allan White and Bruce Chappell has been commemorated with the unveiling of a memorial and the launch of a new PhD scholarship.

Both men were world-renowned granite experts, who began their seminal work and 40-year research partnership at ANU in the 1960s. Professor White was a member of the Geology Department from 1960 to 1971. He was an undergraduate student of the famous Australian geologist and Antarctic explorer, Professor Sir Douglas Mawson.

Professor Chappell’s career at ANU spanned more than 30 years, from 1960 to 1997. In the months before his death, in April this year, Bruce Chappell was instrumental in establishing The Allan White Endowment in honour of his friend and colleague, who died in 2009. The inaugural Allan White Scholarship, funded by the Endowment, was presented to PhD student Helen Cocker by members of Professor Chappell’s and Professor White’s family during an event at RSES on Friday 19 October.

In his speech on the day, Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Young paid tribute to the achievements of the two researchers.

“Allan and Bruce were renowned scholars and experts in their field. Both men, in their own unique ways, were also exemplars of philanthropy. Generous with their time and expertise, they mentored many young scientists,” he said.

The event also included the unveiling of the Bruce Chappell & Allan White Memorial – a bench designed around one of the pair’s most influential legacies: a classification system in which granites are classed as either I-type (formed from igneous rocks) or S-type (formed from sedimentary rocks).

The memorial seat is made of two boulders of S-type and I-type granite sourced from the Snowy Mountain region, connected by a wooden bench. The memorial, which sits behind the new RSES Jaeger 8 building, was unveiled by esteemed geologist and friend of the late professors, Dr Shunso Ishihara, who travelled from Japan for the event. Many ex-students and colleagues of Professors Chappell and White also gathered to mark the occasion.

From the Director

2012 has been a year of outstanding achievement and recognition for the Research School of Earth Sciences and its distinguished alumni. Amongst these achievements, Emeritus Professor Kurt Lambeck won the prestigious Balzan Prize for his work on the relationship between post-glacial rebound and sea-level change. Professor Hugh O’Neill’s election to Fellowship of the Royal Society recognizes fundamental contri-butions in the study of mineral equilibria and their application to understanding planetary processes, while Professor Mike Roderick was awarded the Dalton Medal of the European Geosciences Union for research into hydrology. Awards this year from the Australian Academy of Science include Fellowship for Professor Patrick DeDeckker, the Mawson Medal to Professor Gordon Lister, and the White Prize to Dr. Andy Hogg. In aggregate, these awards to individuals maintain and enhance the reputation of our remarkable commu-nity of scholars. Academic efforts in research, research training and teaching are underpinned by talented technical staff in the School’s workshops and research groups, and by information-technology and administrative staff. The whole School takes justifiable pride in

these achievements.

Professor Ian Jackson

Director

Allan White and Bruce Chappell

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Teachers go back to school ANU hosted the Australian Science Teachers Associations annual conference. Teachers from across Australia were taken on a tour of some of the world-class facilities at RSES and our researchers gave a brief overview of some of their work including the movement of tectonic plates, groundwater resources, evolution of the early Earth, geobiology and ocean dynamics.

Climate Change and its impact on oceans

Three invited speakers, Edouard Bard (France), Paul Tregoning (Aust) and Eelco Rohling(UK) all experts in the field of global warming and sea level rise provided a unique scientific perspective on this global challenge at a public forum held at ANU in July. The audience was given the opportunity to ask the experts about scientific facts behind sea level rise and the impact it will have on our world. The seminar focussed on sea level rise associated with planetary warming.

Brisbane Reunion

It was wonderful to see so many people at the Earth Sciences Alumni event in August during the 34th International Geological Congress in Brisbane. Director, Andrew Roberts, welcomed everyone and provided a brief snapshot of RSES news including the new Jaeger complex bringing research and teaching together and the recent international awards given to our researchers in recognition of their distinguished

careers. PhD student, Aditya Chopra, gave an insight into his studies and Sue Keay, Director of UQ Business School Commercial, reminisced about student life fifteen years ago. Sue was Bill

Compston’s last PhD student.

Transit of Venus

Brief News

Rio+20 UN Conference

This year I attended The Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development as one of a delegation representing the ANU. It was the ‘largest environmental conference of our time’ and certainly the largest United Nations conference to date. It attracted world leaders, government, the private sector, NGOs and other groups, all coming together to shape how we can reduce poverty, advance social equity and ensure environmental protection on an ever more crowded planet. It was a gathering to forge a sustainable future, ‘the future we want’.

Defining development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs was never going to be achieved in three days, but the pledge to work towards this with a united front is a good start.

- Sarlae McAlpine PhD student

ANU Delegates with Prime Minister the Hon. Julia Gillard. Sarlae McAlpine beside the PM. (RHS)

Teachers watch an experiment in the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Lab

Sea Level Change Forum

Joerg Hermann, Daniela Rubatto and Jean Braun

Joe Cali captures the Transit of Venus at Nyngan, NSW. In an interview with BBC Joe said: "It is exciting. It may be just a black dot on the Sun but if you think about it, it's one of the few times you actually get to see a planet in motion."

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Research Highlights

MISSION TO MARSby Tegan Dolstra

As the Curiosity rover bumped gently down onto the surface of Mars on 6 August, a cloud of other-worldly dust billowed and bloomed around it in a frantic whirl.

The contrast between the calm minutes just before touchdown and the uproar that followed was mirrored by the emotions in the NASA control room.

Dr Penny King from the Research School of Earth Sciences, part of the ANU College of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, was one of those on the edge of her front-row seat.

“You could feel the tension in the air,” she says. “When Curiosity finally landed, a cheer went up. Everyone was excited – people were jumping up and down, clapping and cheering.”

Ironically, the live footage of the landing was being streamed from Mars to NASA via the Tidbinbilla Tracking Station, just 30 kilometres from King’s office back at ANU.

“I kept thinking about my family watching the same video back home and I was wondering how many questions my twin girls would be asking,” she says.

“There were years of work riding on the landing. This type of approach had never been tried before. As one colleague said, it was like sending your kid off to the Olympics and watching them compete: you had no control of the situation!”

King is working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, and the University of Guelph, Canada, analysing data from an instrument on Curiosity called the alpha-particle X-ray spectrometer.

This piece of equipment will gather information from Mars that will yield exciting clues about the chemical makeup of the Martian surface, helping to build a picture of the red planet’s history and past environment. Based on previous rover missions, the team expect to find that the Martian surface is more diverse and interesting than ever imagined, says King.

“Curiosity will be looking for areas where life such as bacteria could have survived. In particular, we’ll take a close look at the Gale Crater, which likely has some of the ingredients that we think are important to life, including water, energy and carbon, as well as rocks that might preserve organic matter.

“This is the most complicated rover ever to explore a planet. So far, Curiosity has passed all the tests with flying colours, suggesting that this mission will tell us more about Mars’s chemistry, isotopes and minerals than ever before.”

King says she can’t wait to discover Mars’s secrets.

“It is the opportunity of a lifetime to be involved in a mission that explores new areas in our solar system,” she says.

“I feel privileged to work with both the scientists on the Mars Science Laboratory team and my colleagues at ANU. It is a wonderful honour to work with such inspiring people on both sides of the world.”

Chinese sands shed new light on pollution

New research will help create a better understanding of how much pollution is being caused by the global increase in car usage.

PhD student Jung-Woo Park Sciences said that his research, which measured the levels of precious metals in the sands of China, will help scientists measure the impact of car pollution in the Earth’s soil. The paper was published in September at Geochimica et Cosmo-chimica Acta and is availble online.

Dr Penny King. Photo courtesy of Graham Tidy.

Curiosity rover. Image source: jpl.nasa.gov

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The Warramunga Seismic and Infrasound Research Station (WRA) was established in 1968 as a seismic array approximately 35 kilometers southeast of the township of Tennant Creek in the Northern Territory. A configuration of the array has been designated as a primary station for both seismic and infrasound in the International Monitoring System for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO). The 24 element L-shaped seismic array can be described as an “inverted telescope” for observing the Earth’s interior, and the fact that the site is remote and far from

the ocean and anthropogenic noise makes it ideal for capturing weak signals from earthquakes and explosions occurring around the world. The seismic data recorded on the array have also been used to image the deepest parts of the planet, including the Earth’s

lowermost mantle and the core.

WRA has been operated by the RSES for the last thirty-five years. Two enthusiastic employees, Mr Lobo Fraser, station operator and Mr Sam Prakash Rayapati, technical officer, have been working on the site since earlier this year under the academic supervision of Dr Hrvoje Tkalčić.

The station has worked closely with the Traditional Owners to ensure that the “Flying Fox Dreaming” of the Waramangu people is respected.

Research Highlights

Some recent research highlights

Digging into Antartic climate history

Research into Antarctic climate history has revealed the unusual nature of the recent rapid warming in the Antarctic Peninsula. Dr Nerilie Abram was part of an international research team that drilled into the ice on James Ross Island and extracted the first comprehensive temperature record for the Antarctic Peninsula. Details have been published in Nature.

Earth’s plates slower to the table

The mystery of erratic changes in the history of Earth's past and current plate motions has been cracked by a team of academics led by Dr Giampiero Iaffaldano. The team found true changes in plate motions occur on timescales no shorter than a few million years. Read the findings in Nature Communications

New dating of sea level records

For the first time, scientists are able to accurately date continuous sea-level records, to allow detailed comparisons of the ice-volume variability with independently dated ice-core records from Antarctica and Greenland.

Read Professor Eelco Rohling and his team's study in Nature.

Getting to the bottom of the Fijian Ocean

Professor Arculus and his team have been investigating the widespread submarine volcanism and hydrothermal activity along this highly active part of the Australian-Pacific tectonic plate boundary. The rock samples collected on the voyage will help Australian scientists understand what is happening through time deep in the Earth beneath Fiji. Read the article online.

WARRAMUNGA STATION

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Profiles

PROFESSOR WEIDONG SUN

Share your story: rses.alumni@anu.edu.au

We were lucky enough to catch up with our distinguished alumnus Professor Weidong Sun who is Director of Key Laboratory of Mineralogy and Metallogeny at the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry and was a finalist in the 2012 Australia China Alumni Awards. He stopped by whilst he was back in Australia this year to share some of his thoughts on his time at RSES and how that connection is still benefiting him, even today, writes Fiona Preston.

Weidong grew up in a small village in Eastern China and began studying at the University of Science and Technology of China. He was about to finish his PhD in China when he contacted Dr. Shen-su Sun who suggested that he should apply for an international scholarship to study a PhD at ANU. Weidong remembers it was a big decision “my wife and I had good jobs in China, and my daughter Xixi was only six months old, but in 1999 we decided to move to Canberra. It turned out to be the most life-changing decision I have ever made”. Weidong remembers that his family very much enjoyed their time in Canberra, where his wife worked in the National Library cataloguing the Chinese books. Weidong also proudly remembers that whilst he was in Canberra he was President for one year of the Chinese Scholars and Students in Canberra and helped to set up the Federation of Chinese Associations.

When Weidong commenced his PhD at RSES he identified that the behaviour of Rhenium was not very well understood. He decided he would concentrate his thesis on Rhenium as he hoped it would provide some useful information about the crust-mantle interaction during plate subduction and he believed it was important to understand the behaviour of the Rhenium as the Re-Os isotope system is controlled by it. He notes, however, that this wasn’t so easy! Yet Weidong credits his supervisory panel, chaired by Dr Vickie Bennett and Dr Ian Williams, as he had access to world-class academics to learn from and collaborate with on his panel. He remembers that the first project he did when he started during his PhD was to work with Ian Williams on determining the age of eclogite from the Dabie Mountains in China, which used multiple methods to constrain the geological meaning of zircon ages.

When asked about some of his favourite memories at RSES Weidong exclaims that “RSES is a wonderful place, it’s one of the greatest institutions for this in the world – it is very special in terms of geochemistry because of the Shrimp facility. I got to do a lot of analysis and lab work here and it was the most important part that helped me to upgrade my research”.

After Weidong finished his PhD at ANU, he was successful in applying for an Alexander von Humboldt fellowhip at the prestigious Max-Planck Institute of Chemistry in Germany. He considers himself very lucky to have been a post-doc fellow studying with Professor Hofmann, a famous geochemist. It wasn’t long however until his talents were recognised in China and after two and a half years in Germany Weidong returned to China as a Professor as part of the ‘100 talented Young Scientists Project’ operated by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Even though he graduated in 2003, Weidong notes that he still has a strong connection to RSES. “When I returned to China, I was able to start to introduce ANU to my colleagues”. He mentions that he is still in touch with this PhD supervisors and has just submitted a paper with Ian Williams. From his time at ANU, Weidong has been able to strengthen the relationship between the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, “We have lots of ANU visitors in China from Earth Sciences and I am thinking of sending a PhD student here”. Weidong also notes that he came back to RSES twice in 2011 to talk about shrimp and established a collaboration agreement between RSES and the Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry.

Whilst Weidong says that he plans to stay in China he shares some final advice for his fellow alumni and aspiring PhD students “try hard when you are at ANU because it is such a good place for scientific training and research. Try to speak to other supervisors. If you learn from different people it is very easy for you to become a better scientist. RSES provides the best opportunity for you to do the best work on your PhD and it totally changed my career”.

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Profiles

Helen Cocker: Recipient of the inaugural Allan White Scholarship 2012 I moved to Canberra from New Zealand earlier this year after completion of my Masters at the University of Auckland followed by employment as a research assistant. I had two main research focuses: mineralisation and fluid geochemistry of an epithermal gold-silver deposit in New Zealand, and mineralogy and petrology of an ironsands deposit and effects of kiln reduction of the ironsand grains.

The aim of my PhD project here is to analyse the Platinum Group Element (PGE) concentrations in barren and ore-bearing felsic suites to identify the timing of sulphide saturation during the magmatic evolution of an igneous suite, and to determine its influence on whether or not ore mineralisation occurs, and if it does, what type of mineralisation results.

PGE have very high sulphide-silicate melt partition coefficients, so when sulphide melt forms they very strongly partition into the sulphide melt. Therefore they are good indicators of when sulphide saturation occurs in an evolving magmatic system.

PGE are very low in concentration in felsic igneous rocks. I will use a nickel sulphide fire assay isotope dilution method with ICP-MS to analyse the PGE abundances in suites of rocks.

Finally, thank you to all the people who have contributed to the Allan White Endowment fund that makes this opportunity, and future opportunities possible.

John FosterMy first job at the ANU was in the chemistry department working as a research assistant for Dr. Naida Gill in 1963. I had spent several months picking grapes after completing my undergraduate degree at Sydney University and the job offer in Canberra came as a welcome surprise. After completing a Masters degree I started in another position in Chemistry as a Senior Demonstrator and commenced a PhD under the head of the department, Professor Arthur Hambly. While working in this position I met Ian Williams who was an undergraduate student. Unfortunately, due to low enrolments, my position was

disestablished at the end of 1972 and I needed another job so that I could stay in Canberra and complete my PhD.

A job was advertised for an analytical chemist in the Department of Geophysics and Geochemistry (later to become the Research School of Earth Sciences), in the Research School of Physical Sciences. I started working for Bill Compston in1973 as an analyst to replace Mike Vernon who had become building manager. My first job was to prepare strontium and rubidium separates from lunar samples brought back from the Apollo missions. This work continued through till the end of 1975 and involved data collection on a state of the art mass spectrometer the MSZ, designed by Steve Clement for his PhD project. Unknown to me at that time Steve was starting to work on the design of an ion microprobe, a project that I was to become heavily involved in.

As well as working on lunar samples I also worked in the lead lab, separating lead and uranium from zircons, which had been dissolved in high-pressure bombs. Ironically the development of the SHRIMP eliminated the messy wet chemistry required for Zircon geochronology and opened up a whole new aspect of this type of isotope dating.

Based on my experience with SHRIMP I as a builder and analyst, I was given the job of Project Manager for the building of the commercial prototype instrument SHRIMP II for the School in 1989 and co-jointly assisted Australian Scientific Instruments with their first production instrument for Curtin University. Since then I have constructed SHRIMP RG 1996, SHRIMP SI 2006 and the SHRIMP II Multicollector.

As part of my daily routine I have been running, walking or cycling, which I have maintained for over 40 years. For relaxation I play my piano in the evening or do Tai chi. On weekends I either drive or work on my 1965 Land rover, which has just returned relatively unscathed from a trip of nearly 5000 kilometres along the Birdsville track via Broken Hill.

When I first started working for Bill Compston in 1973 it was only meant to be a temporary position so that I could complete my PhD and continue a career as an X-ray crystallographer. How differently things have turned out as I am still working in the Research School after nearly 40 years.

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Coming up...

2013 ANU Alumni Awards

Celebrating the outstanding contributions of ANU alumni and students.Do you know an ANU graduate or student who is making a real difference in the world? Nominate them for the University’s Alumni Awards.

The Awards recognise the extraordinary and significant personal contributions of our alumni and students to their community, the University, industry or the world in the following categories:

• Alumni of the Year Award

• International Alumni of the Year Award

• Young Alumni of the Year Award

• Student of the Year Award Nominations close 5pm AEST 4 January 2013

To find out more visit quicklinnk.anu.edu.au/alumniawards or call 02 6125 7486

Claim the date: 9 March ANU Gala Alumni Awards Dinner at University House.

Support our research by making a giftOur scientists are aiming to find solutions to critical global issues - energy resources, climate, ground water storage and natural hazards like earthquakes and tsunamis.

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ROCK STARS Emeritus Professor Ken Campbell 2013 Raymond C. Moore Medal for Excellence in Palaeontology

For the first time The Society for Sedimentary Geology has awarded their most prestigious medal to an Australian who lives and works in Australia. The award recognises the breadth and global significance of Dr Campbell’s research, his international collaborations and the ‘exceptional scientific progeny his teachings have spawned’.

Professor Kurt Lambeck 2012 International Balzan Prize

In November Professor Lambeck was recognised by the International Balzan Foundation for his ‘exceptional contribution to the understanding of the relationship between post-glacial rebound and sea level changes’. Professor Lambeck has dedicated his career to understanding how the Earth system, in its broadest sense, works.

Dr Michael Roderick 2013 John Dalton Medal

Awarded by the European Geosciences Union. Michael’s work has led to path breaking contributions in the areas of ecohydrology and remote sensing science. The award also recognises his ‘seminal contribution to the science of evaporation, including the interpretation of changes in evaporation in the context of global environmental change’.

Emeritus Professor Ross Taylor AC 2012 Shoemaker Distinguished Lunar Scientist Award

This award recognises Professor Taylor’s long history of scientific contributions to the field of lunar science research. He has been involved with lunar science research since its onset and has made outstanding contributions to planetary petrology and mineralogy.