Industry

Title: Getting warmer: the search for geothermal resources in Tasmania

Presenter: Dr John Bishop, Spa*ark Energy

Date: Thursday 28th April

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_NRi6Imp9T9-en85l2oSRdQ

Abstract:

Geothermal power plants provide emission-free, baseload or load-following (i.e., dispatchable) electricity 24/7 from the smallest footprint of all generators. And excess heat from the plants has several applications including drying, aquaculture, spas, etc.  Two large, code-compliant inferred geothermal resources have been defined in eastern Tasmania, associated with some of Australia’s highest recorded heat flows. A suite of geophysical surveys suggests that one has zones of high permeability, making it akin to a conventional hydrothermal play, albeit a non-volcanic one.  Recent developments in mineral extraction from geothermal brines add to the potential utility of the resources.

Asia Pacific Meeting on Near Surface Geoscience & Engineering returns for its 5th edition and the flagship conference on Near Surface APAC is set to be held from 6-9 March 2023 in Taipei, Taiwan. As we concluded the last edition, we  are pleased to welcome all of you to a yet another successful conference in Taipei, Taiwan next year. 

This year's conference is Co-Organized with Taiwan Geotechnical Society (TGS) and National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University, Taiwan under the overarching theme of: Global Challenges and Regional Experiences. The theme is set as it is important to welcome submissions that focus on the challenges faced by the Near-surface industry; regional centric as well as globally. 

If you are interested to share your work and be part of the speakers' line-up, submit your extended abstract  before 15 November 2022.

Submit abstracts here.

Title: Would you know a good decision if you saw one?

Presenter: Emeritus Professor Steve Begg, University of Adelaide; and, Decisions, Decisions

Date: Friday 29th April

Time: 1730 (for 1815)

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ARsn4xqKQQqZy0AdoFVUrA

Cost: Free (members). $10 - non-members

Abstract:

Making decisions is a key component of most technical and managerial jobs – the only bit of control an organization has over its future are its decisions (and their implementation), the rest is  up to nature, chance, decisions of others … all uncontrollable.  Like many other spheres, good decision-making abilities do not arise from “natural talent”, but from learning and developing a set of skills, honed by experience.  But most people have not been taught how to make good decisions in uncertain, complex or novel situations – or even what a good decision is.  This talk will introduce some key decision-making concepts (based on decision science) including the six dimensions of Decision Quality (DQ) that enable the user to make, and know they have made, a good decision (the only thing they can control) before they know the outcome.    The concepts are decision-agnostic, so equally applicable to personal decisions.

Bio:

Steve is an Emeritus Professor and former Head of School at the Australian School of Petroleum & Energy Resources (formerly ASP), University of Adelaide. His focus is on: tools and processes for decision-making under uncertainty; project/ asset and portfolio evaluations; and psychological factors in eliciting expert opinions. Steve’s prior roles include: Director for Decision Science and Strategic Planning with Landmark (a Halliburton company), a variety of senior roles for BP Alaska that spanned uncertainty in geological, engineering and economic models and Researcher and Project Manager with BP Research, where his focus was on uncertainty and variability modelling. He has twice been an SPE Distinguished Lecturer on uncertainty & decision-making topics. In 2014, he was elected to the Board of the Society of Decision Professionals (SDP). In 2016 he received the SPE’s top international award for the Management & Information discipline for his work on biases in decision-making. Steve is co-author, with Reidar Bratvold, of the book “Making Good Decisions”. He holds a PhD degree in Geophysics and a BSc degree in Geological Geophysics from Reading University in the UK and has taken executive education courses at MIT and U. Texas, Austin.

Title: Multi-parameter FWI imaging: high-resolution imaging directly from raw field data

Presenter: Tom Rayment, Chief Geophysicist, DUG Technology

Date: Tuesday 10th May 2022

Time: 7pm AEST

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_CN-_WOEpTemeHTx7FF_gtA

Abstract:

Traditional seismic processing workflows can be extremely time-consuming since subsequent stages are only begun after extensive testing and QC of the current process. This linear approach takes the raw field data and passes it through a plethora of conditioning tools (such as designature, deghosting, demultiple and regularisation) to transform the data into a form that can be imaged by legacy migration algorithms, such as Kirchhoff 3D preSDM.

Full waveform inversion (FWI) imaging is a multi-scattering least-squares approach uses the raw field data to estimate many subsurface parameters, including reflectivity, simultaneously ahead of a conventional processing workflow. Since it is using the primaries, multiples and ghosts during imaging, the result is a set of higher resolution subsurface models but in a fraction of the time of a conventional processing workflow due to the fact that little to no pre-processing is required.

In this presentation we demonstrate an 85 Hz comparison between a conventional processing workflow and a novel FWI imaging technique that utilises an augmented wave equation and an advanced optimisation scheme. The FWI imaging approach is simultaneously inverting for velocity and an intercept-reflectivity vector which is fit for structural and amplitude analysis.

Title: Selling Planet Earth: Communicating Geoscience for Society

Presenters: A/Prof Heather Handley and Prof Iain Stewart

Date: Thursday 31st March

Time: 6pm AEDT

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_2noRTD4zTSmZvnFBpFoVGQ

Biographies:

Professor Iain Stewart:

Iain Stewart is the El Hassan bin Talal Research Chair in Sustainability at the Royal Scientific Society (Amman, Jordan), co-Director of the Centre for Climate Change & Sustainability at Ashoka University (India), and Professor of Geoscience Communication at the University of Plymouth. The founding director of the University of Plymouth’s ‘Sustainable Earth Institute’, Iain’s long-standing research interests are in natural hazards, sustainable geoscience, and earth science communication. 

His geo-communication work has built on a 15 year partnership with BBC television presenting geoscience programmes (notably ‘Earth: The Power of the Planet’, ‘Earth: The Climate Wars’, ‘How Earth Made Us’, ‘How To Grow A Planet’, ‘The Rise of the Continents’ and ‘Planet Oil) and recently was academic advisor on Sir David Attenborough’s acclaimed BBCseries ‘Severn Worlds, One Planet’. 

Awarded an MBE for his services to geography and geology education, he is President of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, and was Communications Lead and Evidence Chair for the Scottish Government’s Climate Citizen’s Assembly. A global champion of Earth science, Iain leads the UNESCO International Geoscience Programme project 685 on Geology and Sustainable Development and holds a UNESCO Chair in Geoscience and Society.

Associate Professor Heather Handley:

Heather Handley is a volcanologist and geochemist and has worked on some of the most active volcanoes on the planet. She uses the chemistry of volcanic rocks and their minerals to better understand how volcanoes work and what triggers volcanic eruptions in order to reduce volcanic risk. 

 Heather holds a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Geology from The University of Edinburgh and a PhD in Volcano Geochemistry from Durham University in the UK. She was awarded an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship in 2012 to advance our understanding of the timescales of Earth-system processes. Heather is an Associate Professor in Volcanic Hazards and Geoscience Communication at the University of Twente and Adjunct Associate Professor at Monash University. She is a member of UNESCO IGCP 685 Project Team and Governing Councillor of the Geological Society of Australia.

 Heather is driven to communicate the critical role of geoscience in our sustainable future. She is Co-Founder and Director of the Earth Futures Festival and part of an international team currently creating an atlas to highlight the many contributions of geoscientists to global sustainability challenges. Heather is a Science and Technology Australia 2021-2022 Superstar of STEM and passionate science communicator. She has led and participated in over 70 geoscience outreach events and workshops. She frequently writes for The Conversation and has given more than 90 television, radio and print interviews on volcanoes. Heather has featured in documentaries for National Geographic and Discovery Science and is currently writing a popular science book on Australia’s volcanoes.

 Heather strongly advocates for Women in STEM, diversity and inclusion and is Co-Founder and Inaugural President of the Women in Earth and Environmental Science Australasia (WOMEESA) Network. Heather received an AIPS NSW Young Tall Poppy Award in 2014 and the Geological Society of Australia’s Beryl Nashar Medal in 2021. Heather is also mum to two very curious young girls. 

Title: Surface wave tomography in engineering: Move over MASW, FTAN is here.

Presenter: Dr Craig O’Neil

Date: Wednesday 16th March 2022

Time: 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm AEDT

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_cAHHIn2YQDe9VOWKmH-T6Q

Abstract:

Many large scale civil works, such as dams and foundations, require a detailed knowledge of the shear-wave velocity and elastic properties of the underlying bedrock. These properties determine the earthquake risk and ground acceleration of a dam, or the vibrational response of built structures. Over recent years, multichannel analysis of seismic waves (MASW) has been widely adopted to provide this information, and has been incorporated into engineering guidelines such as ANCOLD.  However, these methods are time intensive, and a high level of interpreter skill is needed to identify phase velocity modes within noisy data, and misinterpretation of fundamental modes can lead to unrealistic geological models.  Here we develop an approach from the research seismology realm - frequency time analysis (FTAN) - to provide an alternative approach. Field acquisition can co-opt existing refraction surveys, and uses a Gaussian-band filtering to identify fundamental and higher group velocity modes in the data, which can be inverted for vertical S-wave velocity structure. I show a number of field examples, and highlight the approache's ability to discern site-specific engineering information such as rock-mass classification, degree of weathering, and earthquake risk to structures. An explosion of development in renewable infrastructure, from wind onshore and offshore wind turbines and foundation characterisation, pumped hydroelectricity schemes, and geothermal reservoir development, is being seen recently, and the FTAN approach offers a reliable and affordable way of characterising local geotechnical properties

Bio:

Dr Craig O’Neill has over 17 years’ experience in geophysics, engineering geology, and computational geoscience. He has utilised geophysical techniques and geological approaches to deliver on diverse projects from groundwater exploration in remote communities, archaeological excavations in Italy, electromagnetics for copper mineralisation, and geothermal characterisation of deep sedimentary basins. He has supervised projects in slope stability and landslide risk in developing countries, drone photogrammetry, and rock mechanics. He developed a geotechnical laboratory and teaching program at Macquarie University, where he was also director of a major Research Centre. He also has a long experience with computational geoscience and machine learning. He has over 74 highly cited Earth Science papers, and was a member of the Australian Academy of Science’s National Committee for Earth Science, where he helped draft the National Decadal Plan

Title: A Bayesian Re-appraisal of Australian Heat Flow: insights on science questions and inverse modelling

Presenter: Dr Marcus Haynes, Geoscience Australia

Date: 28-July-22

Time: 12:30 (ACT)

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_hntBrADWS963cOBcMF81ng

Short abstract: Geothermal data offers a unique perspective from which to image the Earth. However, geothermal data is difficult to collect and this has necessitated a reliance on industrial data collection during the exploration for mineral and petroleum resources. Resulting data quality issues have limited previous studies in their ability map the information contained in the data into robust model inferences. In this presentation, I will reflect on aspects of my PhD research where I employed a Bayesian statistical framework to address the above issues, predominantly through the re-appraisal of Australian crustal heat flow data. A novel inverse model will be discussed and used to infer the surface heat flow field across Australia. Alongside insights into Australia’s heat flow field, I will also reflect on my own personal insights into the nature and application of Bayesian inverse methods in geophysics.

Bio:

Dr Marcus Haynes is the module leader for the Lithospheric Geophysics and Economic Fairways projects under Geoscience Australia’s Exploring for the Future program. He holds a Bachelor of Global and Ocean Sciences (Hons) and a PhD in geophysics, both from the Australian National University. He joined Geoscience Australia fifteen years ago, initially as a cadet, and has experience in multidisciplinary geoscience with a focus on geophysical inference and mineral potential assessments.

More details to follow. 

Date: 27/09/2022

Time: 1600 (Canberra)

Speaker: Constanza Manassero

Title: Including 3D Magnetotelluric Data into Joint Probabilistic Inversions for Imaging the Deep Earth

Registration: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_h0re9idHQteBaeln9u3-eg

Abstract

Multi-observable inversions are gaining popularity for imaging the structure of the lithosphere (Afonso et al., 2016). Of particular interest is the joint inversion of magnetotelluric (MT) with seismic data as their complementary sensitivity to the thermal structure, hydrogen content and small volumes of fluid or melt offer a powerful means to detect fluid pathways in the lithosphere including the locus of partial melting, ore deposits and hydrated lithologies. This unique potential has given impetus to the acquisition of collocated MT and seismic data over large regions (e.g., AusLAMP/AusArray in Australia).

Probabilistic inversions provide complete information about the unknown parameters and their uncertainties conditioned on the data and modelling assumptions. Joint probabilistic inversions of MT and seismic data have been successfully implemented in the context of 1D MT data only. For the cases of 2D and 3D MT data, however, the large computational cost of the MT forward problem has been the main impediment for pursuing probabilistic inversions. To overcome this limitation, we have presented a novel strategy (Manassero et al., 2020, 2021) that reduces the computational cost of the 3D MT forward solver and allows us to perform full joint probabilistic inversions of MT and other datasets for the 3D imaging of deep thermochemical anomalies and fluid pathways.

In this webinar I will introduce our novel strategy and, as part of the Exploring for the Future program, I will present preliminary results of the first joint probabilistic inversion of 3D MT in southeast Australia using the AusLAMP data and a seismic velocity model derived from teleseismic tomography (Rawlinson et al.,2016). We also make interpretations of our conductivity models using the code MATE (Özaydın and Selway, 2020). These results demonstrate the capabilities of our conceptual and numerical framework for 3D joint probabilistic inversions of MT with other geophysical data sets and open up exciting opportunities for elucidating the Earth’s interior in other regions.

Bio

Dr. Manassero has graduated with a PhD in Geophysics at Macquarie University, Australia, in December 2019. Her project consisted of the development of new methodologies to help study the lithospheric structure and mapping the location of mineral deposits and energy sources within Australia. In particular, she has developed a new methodology for probabilistic inversion of 3D magnetotelluric (MT) data as part of an ARC-funded research program. She is currently working as a Post-doctoral Research fellow at Macquarie University in the same research field as part of an ARC Linkage Grant with UNSW, Geoscience Australia and several Australian Geological Surveys.