International

Title: NextGen Geoscience Professionals: What is important for their career development

Presenter: A team of young geoscientists from Fender Geophysics.

Date and Time: May 23, 2024 at 1800 AES

Location: Level 2, Club York (99 York St. Sydney. Room: ‘ANZAC’) + Zoom

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_iMKDwSunS0qualVCL_0XDg#/registration

Abstract:

NextGen Geoscience Professionals: What is important for their career development

Educating the next generation of geoscientists is a constant discussion in many forums around Australia. However, formal education as part of a degree program is only a partial aspect of career development. Education generally happens under an instructor's guidance and may involve both theory and practice often within a school or university. Whereas training is usually more focused on practical skills and can be provided either in an educational setting or on the job. Mentoring also provides a significant role in career development and is also seen as crucial for bridging generational differences in the workplace.

This talk is going to focus on the importance of community, mentorship, and career development. Or more specifically, the importance of mentorship and how that builds a strong sense of community. To support this vision, we will have some early career geoscience professionals from a range of backgrounds provide insights into why they started careers in the industry and give their feedback on the community as it is now, how they would like to see it in the future, and some of their thoughts on how to reach that goal.

As a special highlight of the evening, we will be presenting the Lindsay Ingall Memorial Award to the family of the late Bob White in recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of exploration geophysics.

Agenda for ASEG Annual General Meeting 2024

Meeting Venue & Date: 30 April 2024, XXXX Alehouse 20 Paten St, Milton QLD 4064
Meeting time: 5.30pm (AEST)
Zoom Registration link. https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIkduyvrj4pGtfXoAxDHMTFGTIsQHlLO1_m
Chairs:  Eric Battig and Janelle Simpson
Guest Speaker: Dr Tim Dean, Specialist Project Geoscientist, AngloAmerican

Documents:

• Agenda
• Audited Accounts
• 2023 AGM Minutes

Title: Advanced geomodelling to reveal buried deposits

Presenter: Addison Tu

Date and time: Wednesday, 24th April 2024 at 1800 (NSW)

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_uVDLEHa8TFOByizyPdGRAQ

Abstract:

Porphyry deposits are of important societal significance as critical sources of copper. 

Copper demands are projected to increase significantly to supply the transition to net-zero, but discoveries have dwindled in recent decades. The finite number of deposits exposed at the surface are nearing depletion, and advancements to exploration techniques must target buried deposits. Here we present a workflow which incorporates machine learning predictions for deposit formation within the crust, with a highly calibrated landscape evolution model to track the vertical motion of deposits through geological time. The results inform where deposits may be preserved and at what depth, or where deposits have been destroyed by erosion. We tested this approach on the mountains of New Guinea, which feature abundant volcanism responsible for deposit formation at depth and extreme erosion to exhume deposits toward the surface. Our approach identified high prospectivity in accordance with the spatial extents of known surface deposits, identified several highly prospective regions for near-surface deposits and where deposits have been destroyed by erosion. Our workflow provides a region-scale prospecting tool to de-risk the economic and environmental cost of field-based exploration. Importantly, the workflow is open-source, scalable to other regions and even adaptable to other mineral systems (with constraints on the depth of formation

Bio:

Addison is a PhD student and Research Assistant within the Earthbyte group, working closely with Dr. Sabin Zahirovic and Dr. Tristan Salles. His research focuses on Eastern Australia, particularly concerning the eastward accretion of microcontinents and volcanic arc-islands since the Cambrian. Geological events in this region and period involve the formation of mountains and the closing of seaways, with many implications for climate, past landscapes and environments, and the formation and preservation of economic deposits.

Addison utilises landscape evolution modelling, tectonic models, and thermochronology with a focus on linking Earth’s surface processes and evolution to other Earth Systems such as the tectonics, climate and the ocean. He also has experience developing landscape evolution models and landform design tools within industry.

The European Association of Geoscientists and Engineers (EAGE) together with the Society of Exploration Geophysicists of Japan (SEGJ) are proud to announce that the 6th edition of Asia Pacific Meeting on Near Surface Geoscience and Engineering (NSGE) with the theme of "Smart Technologies Kind to the Planet" will take place in Tsukuba, Japan from 13-15 May 2024 incorporating the 15th SEGJ International Symposium.  

More information can be found here.

Title: What we can and cannot know from unconstrained inversion of regional magnetic field data

Presenter: Clive Foss / CSIRO Mineral Resources

Date and time: 4pm (AEST time), 27th Sep 2023

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_4o61GZALT9e7daAhyQKDzg#/registration

Abstract:

For many years regional magnetic field data acquired by Geoscience Australia and State and Territory geological surveys has enabled and transformed geological mapping across Australia where many areas are beneath extensive cover and/or pervasive deep weathering. As computing power and availability have increased by orders of magnitude the same data that so successfully supports geological mapping is being re-purposed for building continuous three-dimensional magnetisation models. These models are in some cases accepted by their users in confidence that they are true representations of the subsurface achieved by spectacular powers of computing. However, while aeromagnetic surveys perform extremely well in mapping the horizontal locations and extents of magnetisations, recovery of models of subsurface magnetisation is severely restricted by extensive non-uniqueness. Magnetic field data is so useful for geological mapping because of the dominant expression of shallow magnetisations, in many cases directly beneath a basement unconformity. The sharp curvature of these field variations carries all the reliable information in the magnetic field data. Deeper magnetisations may cause the bulk of amplitude changes in the magnetic field without giving rise to diagnostic curvature of the field. These parts of the magnetisation cannot be reliably assigned to a specific depth or depth range. In space-filling voxel inversions this task is achieved by depth-weighting functions included in the inversion algorithms. It is these functions, not the distribution of magnetisation in the ground, that determine the depth distribution of magnetisation in the models.

I propose separation of features of sharp curvature that carry the most reliable source information (that I term ‘sweet spots’) from the remaining, much less informative field variations. This results in subsurface models that are much sparser in their apparent level of detail. It may seem a negative message, but it is not, because the distilled information can be treated with much higher confidence than continuous models in which it is not clear which aspects can be trusted and which cannot. I use examples of Australian regional magnetic field data to demonstrate analysis and interpretation of sweet-spots suitable for estimation of depth to magnetisation and sweet-spots suitable for estimation of magnetisation direction.      

Biography

Clive is a senior principal research scientist in CSIRO Mineral Resources where he works mostly on magnetic field inversion and interpretation. He has a BSc and PhD from two Earth Science departments where he learnt to integrate studies of physics and geology. His particular interest since his PhD (a long time ago) on Archean rocks of Southern Africa is in the magnetic field expression of remanent magnetisation and how direction of magnetisation can be recovered from magnetic field data. After his PhD Clive taught exploration geophysics at the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur where living between the geographic and magnetic equators provoked an interest in low inclination magnetic fields. Clive then moved to Bandung to work for the Bureau of Mineral Resources (BMR, now Geoscience Australia) on the AIDAB funded Indonesia – Australia Geological Mapping Project in Kalimantan. Following that Clive returned to Kuala Lumpur to work as a consultant and for ARK Geophysics based in Kuala Lumpur providing services in gravity and magnetic methods for petroleum companies throughout Southeast Asia. In 1995 Clive moved to Sydney, Australia to work with Encom Technology both contributing to the ModelVision development team and acting as senior consultant on gravity and magnetic projects worldwide. In 2009 Clive moved to his present position in CSIRO. 

Title: Scalable Streamlining of Ambient Noise Tomography: A Simple Automated Approach for Dispersion Curve Estimation and Quality Control in the Era of Big Data

Speaker: Babak Hejrani

Date/Time: Jul 20, 2023 16:00

Bio:

Babak Hejrani is a seismologist specializing in the field of geophysics within GA's Onshore Seismic and Magnetotelluric Section. With a decade-long background as a researcher in academia, Babak joined GA in 2018 and has since made contributions to developing new technologies for passive seismic imaging. He has established fruitful collaborations with international organizations in Europe, Asia and Australia with a primary focus around developing and implementing advanced imaging technologies that provide enhanced insights into the lithospheric structure of Australia. Babak strives to push the boundaries of seismic imaging, enabling more accurate interpretations of subsurface features.

Teams meeting:

International Meeting for Applied Geoscience & Energy (IMAGE)

28 August–1 September | Houston, Texas

The SEG are pleased to extend an invitation to you on behalf of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists (AAPG), the Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG), and the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM) to the 2023 International Meeting for Applied Geoscience and Energy (IMAGE) at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. The event will take place from 28 August to 1 September, marking our third year of scientific excellence and collaboration at the premier meeting for energy professionals.

Title: Induced Polarization effects in Electromagnetic data: opportunity or waste of time?

Speaker: Francesco Dauti, PhD student at University La Statale of Milan

Date/Time: 30/03/2023 @ 1645

Zoom Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6tN9sU_uQNmzPI0s3EaWow

Abstract: 

The possibility to model the Induced Polarization (IP) effects from the time-domain Airborne Electromagnetic (TD-AEM) data has gained considerable interest in the last two decades from both industry and academia. 

Recently, it has been physically demonstrated that IP effects can distort AEM data that, if not recognized and properly treated, can lead to artefacts in the modelled resistivities.   What it is still unclear though is if these distortions can be robustly recovered and modelled, providing useful information on polarisation effects within the ground.

Results on two aspects of airborne IP (AIP) modelling will be discussed:

(i) if modelled AIP effects can give significant information for exploration, and

(ii) if it is possible to measure and model AIP in AEM fixed-wing systems.

Francesco Dauti is a Ph.D. student in exploration geophysics at University La Statale of Milan. He took a bachelor’s and a master’s degree at University of Pisa, in geological sciences and in exploration and applied geophysics. His current research field is about the integration of galvanic and inductive Induced Polarization techniques for mineral exploration, both in terms of modelling, inversion, and interpretation.

Bio:

Francesco Dauti is a Ph.D. student in exploration geophysics at University La Statale of Milan. He took a bachelor’s and a master’s degree at University of Pisa, in geological sciences and in exploration and applied geophysics. His current research field is about the integration of galvanic and inductive Induced Polarization techniques for mineral exploration, both in terms of modelling, inversion, and interpretation.

More details to follow

On Tuesday 19th October, 6:00pm AEDT, ASEG NSW is bringing you a talk by Derecke Palmer (UNSW) titled Is there a seismic refraction signature for sulphide mineralisation?

Although I accepted retirement from UNSW almost two decades ago, I have continued with my longstanding research interests in near surface refraction seismology. The major theme of my research has been full trace processing. Inexorably, full trace processing leads into detailed model building with traveltimes and amplitudes. My presentation addresses three important questions.

The first is “Is there a seismic refraction signature for sulphide mineralisation at the base of the regolith?” The second is: “Will full waveform elastic inversion rapidly replace traveltime acoustic tomographic inversion, and become routine with most geotechnical investigations?” The third is: “Would a detailed analysis of the refraction component of selected regional reflection profiles recorded by GA be useful?” The presentation employs seismic data recorded by GA near a major operational gold mine.

Attendance is by joint Zoom virtual + physical presentation at Geoscience Australia.

Register Here: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vdsnFZAuRp2egjpFX1QLbQ

Please bring your own drinks and nibbles if attending online.