Origin of jaws - the greatest unsolved mystery of early vertebrate evolution. The 2008 discovery of an unborn embryo in the 380 million-year-old "Mother Fish" from the famous Gogo fossil deposit in NW Australia has attracted a collaboration of Australian, American and Chinese scientists to a new international collaboration. The team will study spectacular new fossils from central Australia and southern China, the oldest known back-boned animals with jaws and a hard skeleton. Innovative 3D X-ray ....Origin of jaws - the greatest unsolved mystery of early vertebrate evolution. The 2008 discovery of an unborn embryo in the 380 million-year-old "Mother Fish" from the famous Gogo fossil deposit in NW Australia has attracted a collaboration of Australian, American and Chinese scientists to a new international collaboration. The team will study spectacular new fossils from central Australia and southern China, the oldest known back-boned animals with jaws and a hard skeleton. Innovative 3D X-ray computer tomography, and the Australian synchrotron, will be used to investigate ancient cells and preserved soft tissue structures, to search for evidence that copulation and internal fertilization, as in modern mammals, might have originated when jaws first evolved. Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE0882854
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$6,000,000.00
Summary
Australian Membership of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. Membership of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) will provide high-leverage access to the largest, and most effective international geoscience program.
Results from drilling within Australia's marine jurisdiction will give understanding of the oceans' state under past climates through high resolution records of the range of oceanographic and biological responses to climate change, the role of the deep biosphere in shapin ....Australian Membership of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program. Membership of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) will provide high-leverage access to the largest, and most effective international geoscience program.
Results from drilling within Australia's marine jurisdiction will give understanding of the oceans' state under past climates through high resolution records of the range of oceanographic and biological responses to climate change, the role of the deep biosphere in shaping oil and gas deposits, hydrothermal and igneous processes involved in ore genesis, and enhanced understanding of some of the world's largest earthquake- and tsunami-generating processes.
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A detrital apatite archive to track crustal growth. This project will establish apatite as a new tool to study the evolution of the continental crust. The crust shaped the composition of the atmosphere and the oceans with consequences for the evolution of life through the availability of oxygen and nutrients. However, when and how the continental crust was generated remains a core question. Current models for continental crust development rely on the mineral zircon. However, zircons only record ....A detrital apatite archive to track crustal growth. This project will establish apatite as a new tool to study the evolution of the continental crust. The crust shaped the composition of the atmosphere and the oceans with consequences for the evolution of life through the availability of oxygen and nutrients. However, when and how the continental crust was generated remains a core question. Current models for continental crust development rely on the mineral zircon. However, zircons only record the history of evolved rocks. To address this bias we will use the mineral apatite which forms in less evolved rocks. We will develop a detrital apatite database of Pb-Nd (model) ages and integrate this with the zircon record to provide a more holistic description for how our planet developed.Read moreRead less
What goes on inside subduction zones? This project aims to decipher how rocks behave inside subduction zones. Subduction is a central tenant of plate tectonic theory and the project will test the hypothesis rocks can become trapped within giant long-lived eddies that circulate material within subduction zones. This international collaborative project will generate new knowledge regarding the time scales rocks can remain trapped inside subduction zones using pressure–temperature–age constraints f ....What goes on inside subduction zones? This project aims to decipher how rocks behave inside subduction zones. Subduction is a central tenant of plate tectonic theory and the project will test the hypothesis rocks can become trapped within giant long-lived eddies that circulate material within subduction zones. This international collaborative project will generate new knowledge regarding the time scales rocks can remain trapped inside subduction zones using pressure–temperature–age constraints from subducted rocks. We will use this information as a framework for numerical simulations of subduction zone behaviour. The project will provide significant benefits in training a new generation of Earth scientists, and in broadening public awareness of fundamental Earth science.Read moreRead less
Garnet speed dating: Innovation for fast tectonic problem solving. This project aims to develop and apply a novel way to rapidly date the mineral garnet within rocks using the analytical technique of laser ablation mass spectrometry to calculate Lutetium-Hafnium ages. Garnet is the most important mineral we have to determine the depths of burial and the temperatures rocks experienced during the tectonic processes that shaped the continents. Our novel in situ laser ablation method will allow ga ....Garnet speed dating: Innovation for fast tectonic problem solving. This project aims to develop and apply a novel way to rapidly date the mineral garnet within rocks using the analytical technique of laser ablation mass spectrometry to calculate Lutetium-Hafnium ages. Garnet is the most important mineral we have to determine the depths of burial and the temperatures rocks experienced during the tectonic processes that shaped the continents. Our novel in situ laser ablation method will allow garnet to be rapidly and easily dated, permitting routine collection of large age datasets for tectonic problem solving. It will also offer a rapid means to determine ages of garnet-bearing rocks across prospective mineral exploration regions, providing explorers with key exploration data.Read moreRead less
Just add water: a recipe for the deformation of continental interiors. By integrating geochemical, geochronological and microstructural datasets, this project aims to provide a novel framework for fluid–rock systems in the lithosphere. Plate tectonics argues that continental interiors are usually stable, rigid and undeformable, yet mountain belts have formed in these locations. Their existence suggests that strong crust can be weakened to allow the accommodation of deforming forces, but the unde ....Just add water: a recipe for the deformation of continental interiors. By integrating geochemical, geochronological and microstructural datasets, this project aims to provide a novel framework for fluid–rock systems in the lithosphere. Plate tectonics argues that continental interiors are usually stable, rigid and undeformable, yet mountain belts have formed in these locations. Their existence suggests that strong crust can be weakened to allow the accommodation of deforming forces, but the underlying causes for this change in behaviour are not clear. This project aims to investigate the largely unexplored impact of fluid flow on the characteristics of intraplate deformation. This would improve our understanding of what modulates the strength of continental crust, including its susceptibility to seismic activity, and the ways in which fluids interact with the deep crust, including their mineralisation potential.Read moreRead less
Novel isotope techniques to explore the Centralian Superbasin, Australia. This project will leverage new advances in analytical instrumentation and isotope techniques to generate improved geochronological and stratigraphic framework for the Centralian Superbasin, a vast ancient depositional system covering much of central Australia. The project aims to apply novel laser-based dating of sedimentary rocks, coupled with metal isotope proxy reconstructions of the basin’s palaeogeography, hydrologica ....Novel isotope techniques to explore the Centralian Superbasin, Australia. This project will leverage new advances in analytical instrumentation and isotope techniques to generate improved geochronological and stratigraphic framework for the Centralian Superbasin, a vast ancient depositional system covering much of central Australia. The project aims to apply novel laser-based dating of sedimentary rocks, coupled with metal isotope proxy reconstructions of the basin’s palaeogeography, hydrological connectivity and past redox conditions, which are all critical parameters to guide and de-risk future exploration of sediment-hosted resources in this frontier basin. Anticipated outcomes will benefit Australia's resources economy, while providing insights into the evolution of Earth’s surface environment in deep time.Read moreRead less
Constraining conditions and timing of orogeny and reworking in the west Musgrave Province. The remote Musgrave Province is one of Australia's prime areas of mineral exploration interest, with about 30 companies holding more than 120 leases over the region. A major factor determining the economic prospectivity of a terrane is the availability of high quality geoscientific data. This project will produce pre-competitive structural, petrological, isotopic, geochemical and geophysical datasets for t ....Constraining conditions and timing of orogeny and reworking in the west Musgrave Province. The remote Musgrave Province is one of Australia's prime areas of mineral exploration interest, with about 30 companies holding more than 120 leases over the region. A major factor determining the economic prospectivity of a terrane is the availability of high quality geoscientific data. This project will produce pre-competitive structural, petrological, isotopic, geochemical and geophysical datasets for the west Musgrave Province that will rival or surpass that available for other regions of Australian crust. This project directly aligns with the National Research Priority goal, developing deep Earth resources, and will reduce the risk to mineral explorers and facilitate economic development within the Ngaanyatjarra Native Title Lands of Western Australia.Read moreRead less
Linkage Infrastructure, Equipment And Facilities - Grant ID: LE210100028
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$3,000,000.00
Summary
Australian Membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program. This proposal is for an 18-month membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), the world’s largest collaborative research program in Earth and Ocean sciences. The Program studies the history and current activity of the Earth by conducting seagoing coring expeditions and monitoring of instrumented boreholes, using globally unique infrastructure that Australians would otherwise have no access to. Program outcomes ....Australian Membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program. This proposal is for an 18-month membership of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), the world’s largest collaborative research program in Earth and Ocean sciences. The Program studies the history and current activity of the Earth by conducting seagoing coring expeditions and monitoring of instrumented boreholes, using globally unique infrastructure that Australians would otherwise have no access to. Program outcomes include understanding past global environmental change on multiple time scales, the deep biosphere, plate tectonics, formation and distribution of resources, and generation of hazards. These outcomes are paramount to Australia’s national science and research priorities, and societal and economic prosperity.Read moreRead less