In lakes and oceans, organic matter from dead organisms is usually recycled back into CO 2 and water. However, a small fraction of this dead biomass, particularly pigments and lipids, escapes the remineralization process and accumulates in the bottom sediment. Over millions of years, the lipids will turn into...

Utilize the state of the art AMS and radiocarbon preparation labs at RSES to trace carbon through the environment.

Copper ore

The Early Paleozoic is a critical time for the evolution of life on Earth, deposition of organic-rich rocks and the generation of global petroleum accumulations. Canning Basin Ordovician cores contain the microfossils G. prisca and E. maureeniae, representing a unique opportunity to investigate their molecular fossils

Research supports
The group has funding to support one highly motivated PhD student, based on competition of applicants (academic background, research ideas, etc). Contact me if you are interested.
We also welcome candidates who can raise fund (e.g., China Scholarship Council,...

The Proterozoic saw the emergence of eukaryotic life on Earth. The Carrara 1 well in the South Nicholson Basin will recover pristine cores of Mesoproterozoic, Paleoproterozoic and Cambrian age. These cores offer a unique opportunity to investigate the ancestry of eukaryotes using molecular fossils preserved in rocks.

At 4.567 billion years old, refractory inclusions are the oldest known objects to have formed in the solar system. They are often referred to as calcium-aluminium-rich inclusions (CAI) because their chemistry is dominated by the refractory oxides of Ca and Al, as well as Ti, forming minerals such as hibonite (CaAl...

This research program explores the geodynamic history recorded by sedimentary basins and its influence on lithospheric architecture, geological processes, and critical mineral systems.

Condensation around stars leads to a predictable mineralogy based on the composition of the atmosphere of the star. The condensates, like stars, may be oxygen-rich or carbon-rich. The first presolar grains discovered were all C-rich. Minerals such as diamond, silicon carbide and graphite are resistant to acid...

Linking plate tectonic reconstructions, mantle convection and volcanism to unravel the first-order geodynamic controls on mineral formation and preservation across the Tasmanides.

The rocks of the Sydney Basin and Lachlan Fold Belt exposed along the south coast of NSW contain numerous basaltic (basalt and dolerite) intrusions (e.g. Bingie Bingie Point, Dolphin Point, Snake Bay, Long Reef, North Bondi).  The ages of these dykes and sills are unknown, however, they are assumed to be Tertiary...

Lake Tyrrell is a large salt lake in outback Australia . We aim to make the lake one of the most completely understood hypersaline ecosystems in the world. To achieve this, we are combining environmental genomics where the genome of all predominant microorganism in the lake water are sequenced (>1 billion base...

New analytical techniques, developed to analyse the platinum group elements (PGEs) at the ultra low levels in which they are found in granitic rocks, allow us to make the first reliable analyses of the PGEs in these rocks. The aim of this fundamental research is to identify the timing of, and understand the causes...

Classical petrological and geochemical tools provide only limited insights into extreme metamorphism because fast diffusion of major elements and annealing effectively eliminate crucial information.We are developing new and innovative tools for high-resolution investigation of partial melting and high-grade...

The recycling of elements through convergent plate boundaries strongly influences the chemical differentiation of Earth. It is widely accepted that hydrous fluid sourced from dehydrating subducting crust promotes melting in the mantle wedge and the formation of arc magmas. We investigate the liberation of volatiles...

The amount and site of hydrogen in the upper mantle is important for understanding the geochemical recycling of volatiles, and the evolution of the mantle, atmosphere, and oceans. It has been proposed that the entire water budget of the upper mantle may be accommodated at defect sites in nominally anhydrous...

Today, Earth's oceans are teaming with life, and even deep marine trenches contain enough oxygen to support complex organisms. However, oceans in Earth's distant past were fundamentally different. In the first half of Earth history, ~4.5 to 2.3 billion years (Ga) ago, the world's oceans and atmosphere were almost...

Zircon (ZrSiO4) and monazite (CePO4) are common minor minerals in granites.  Although they are not abundant they are important because they are the host of many elements that are incompatible in the rock-forming minerals.  For example, the ability of zircon to incorporate U has made it the...

Zircon and monazite are the two most important accessory minerals in metamorphic and igneous rocks that can be dated by the U-Th-Pb method. Garnet is a key-mineral to establish metamorphic or magmatic conditions encountered by rocks. These minerals all contain significant amounts of trace elements such as Y and REE...