Biomarkers
Life in the Precambrian was dominated by bacteria and archaea, organisms that rarely leave diagnostic cellular remains in the fossil record. However, hydrocarbon biomarkers, the molecular fossils of natural products such as lipids and pigments, can yield a wealth of infor­mation about...

These projects aim to monitor how environmental processes change chemistry and mineralogy both in the field and in lab simulations using spectroscopy. The projects can be adjusted for different levels of students.

Using Porites coral cores to examine elemental and isotopic proxies to develop proxy reconstructions of the environment.

Exposure dating is based on the principle that cosmogenic nuclides accumulate in surface rocks as a function of time. After a geological process freshly exposes a rock surface, these cosmogenic nuclides build up at a known rate. Measurement of their present-day abundance, in conjunction with knowledge of the rate...

This project will investigate controls on the abundances of niobium and tantalum, two important "critical metals", in cassiterite mineralisation associated with Paleozoic granitoid intrusions in eastern Australia. A further key aspect will investigate novel technologies for extraction of Nb and Ta from cassiterite.

This research program uses laboratory experiments and geophysical imaging techniques to constrain the thickness and density structure of continental crust and investigate its relationship to mineral systems.

Utilize elemental, isotopic and radiometric proxies trapped in deep sea coral skeletons to examine past climate.

The project aims to reconstruct deep water carbonate ion and nutrient contents at millennial timescales using high sedimentation cores from the Atlantic Ocean.

Developing ultra-green hydrogen technologies

The extensive early Archean rock records preserved in southwest Greenland and western Australia carry a wealth of information on the formation of Earth's early chemical domains, the age and composition of the oldest continents and the character of the early atmosphere and hydrosphere.  Although these rocks range...

Experimental petrology is about subjecting rocks and minerals to pressure, temperature and other conditions that occur in the Earth, in order to investigate and understand processes that lead to diverse processes including volcanism, plate tectonics, ore deposit formation, differentiation of the Earth and many others.

Cosmogenic nuclides have become indispensable for dating lava flows. Drs Masahiko Honda and Timothy Barrows are dating lavas that have proven too young to date using traditional K/Ar and Ar/Ar techniques. Volcanism has occurred in western Victoria from the Pliocene throughout the Pleistocene. The style of eruption...

The Himalaya are the world’s largest mountain belt formed in response to Cenozoic collision of the Indian continent & the Eurasian plate. This project assesses uplift history of the Himalaya, its erosional landscape response, & the preservation potential of critical mineral systems in this region.

Revising the chlorite geothermometer to understand the formation mechanisms of ore deposits

Exposure dating has revolutionised the study of the history of glaciers and ice sheets. By directly dating glacial debris and eroded bedrock, the timing of the advance and retreat of the ice (a sensitive indicator of climate) can be determined with unprecedented reliability. Dr Timothy T. Barrows is using this...

Small zircon crystals found in sediments from the Jack Hills, Western Australia are the oldest terrestrial materials yet identified and provide a unique perspective on Earth's early history, before the start of the preserved rock record at about 4 Ga. The difficulty is that the most ancient zircons, with ages >4 Ga...

Production of the classic Barrovian metamorphic facies series in Scotland was associated with a period mountain building referred to as Grampian orogenesis. Recent geochronological work from the Grampian terrane, Scotland has the Grampian orogenic episode beginning at c . 478 Ma and lasting for less than...

High-temperature gases are found in many environments on Earth and other planets, but they have been overlooked because they leave little trace. These projects aim to investigate these gases in magmas, volcanoes and metamorphic rocks using geochemistry and mineralogy of natural samples and experiments.

Pyrochlor is the main ore mineral for the critical metal niobium, and is most commonly found in carbonatites. This project aims to use experimental petrology to understand the conditions under which economic deposits of pyrochlor can form, during crustal evolution of carbonatite magmas.

Diatoms are an important primary producer group and currently account for 40% of global primary production. The sequestration of carbon into the deep ocean by diatoms makes them key players in the modulation of atmospheric CO2 levels and global climate.
There is growing evidence from both laboratory and...