b'Branch newsASEG newsVictoria Victorian Branch meetings are generallyIn WA monthly technical meetings held on the third Thursday of each monthare generally held on the second Why, oh why does our plucky Editorfrom 17:30 in the Kelvin Club, 1830Wednesday of each month and highlight inflict such a draconian deadline forMelbourne Place, Melbourne. Meetingtopics within the geophysical fields of submission of branch news to Previewnotices, addresses and relevant contactpetroleum, mining, exploration, near-as the first week in January?!?! Maybedetails can be found on the Victoriansurface, and hydrogeology. Please refer if I pretend to forget to write theBranch page of the ASEG website. to the Events page on the ASEG website Victorian contribution as I did thisfor details of upcoming presentations time last year, Lisa will write a genericThong Huynh and events.one for me? LOL. As I attempt to putvicsecretary@aseg.org.aupen to paper (who does this still?), ITodd Mojeskyam trying my hand at angling on theWestern Australia wapresident@aseg.org.auTambo River in picturesque Metung. At the same time, I am compelled toFirstly, as the new WA PresidentAustralian Capital Territorydiscover more about this regional arearepresenting the rest of the 2020 of the Gippsland Basin that was onceCommittee, Id like to wish you all aThe ACT Branch held its Christmas Australias premier hub of the oil andgreat new year. We, ourselves, had aDinner on November 28 at the Rubicon gas industry. Of course, no sooner hadvery successful ASEG WA 2019 BranchRestaurant in Griffith, ACT. This followed I started writing this piece that my lineChristmas party and AGM on Decemberan excellent talk by Dr Babak Hejrani on caught a snaga common hazard on11, with 30 Members attending.the subject of Earthquake catalogues the amateur circuit Im told. Although the General Meeting itself wasand 3D earth structure: a coupled Onto business! Our last speaker ofshort, decisions were made, budgetsproblem. An interesting aspect of 2019 was Hammad Tariq, whose talkdiscussed, the 2019 Committee properlyBabaks talk was the revelation that the was titled Vertical Seismic Profiling orthanked, gifts were given, and the 2020International Seismological Centre (ISC) VSP to the layman. Hammad gifted theWA Committee finalised. The selfie belowfixes the depth parameter of earthquakes unusually large audience in attendancecaptures a bit of the energy that wasarbitrarily, with peaks at 10, 33 and on that unforgettable November night athere. The fresh and new 2020 WA Branch35km. This is done when the depth recital on exploiting VSPs to help unravelCommittee is: cannot be constrained and, as such, the subsurface under investigation.Todd Mojesky, President the values should not be interpreted. I counted at least 14 ways one couldBabak also discussed his new earthquake configure a VSP survey to achieve aPartha Pratim Mandal, Secretary catalogue for Papua New Guinea and specific outcome. Strewth! It remindedthe Solomon Islands and showed a me of the Forrest Gump movie sceneMathew Cooper, Treasurer high-frequency simulation of the 2016 where Bubba tells Forrest the number ofCarolina Pimentel, Mentor programmePetermann Ranges earthquake in central ways he could prepare shrimp. Shrimpofficer Australia, based on 3D earth models.is the fruit of the sea. You can BBQ it,Our program for 2020 is not fixed at boil it, broil it, bake it, saut it, theresTom Hoskin, University officer present, but will certainly feature the uhshrimp kebabs, shrimp creole,Andrew Fitzpatrick, Golf officer andpresentation of the initial Dr Peter shrimp gumbo, pan fry, deep fry, stir fry,Brett Harris, Amir HashempourMilligan Student Award for Geophysics to theres pineapple shrimp, lemon shrimp,Charkhi, Karen Gigallon, LuisaRebecca McGirr at our AGM, to be held coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimpHerrmann, Jennifer Market, Tasmanin February or March. This presentation soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimpGillfeather-Clark, Darren Hunt was postponed from November 2019.and potatoes, shrimp burgers, shrimp sandwiches. Anyway, you get the idea.Many thanks from the 2020 WA BranchGrant ButlerTheres probably VSPs for vegetarians too,Committee to the 2019 WA Branchactpresident@aseg.org.auIm sure. Committee for all their contributions to I hope all Members had a relaxing andthe success of the Society here in WA.New South Walesenjoyable break during the festiveAgain, best wishes to all in the New season. We had a great line-up ofYear. In November, Andrea Sosa Pintos presenters last year, but in 2020 Ive(CSIRO Manufacturing) presented a talk decided to raise the ante. All presentersentitled Nanosensors for groundwater at a Victorian Branch Technical Meetingquality monitoring in real-time. Andrea Night this year will go in the running tofirstly described the development of win $1 000 000 in cold hard cash whenchemiresistor sensor technology, while voted the best presenter for 2020*. Ofa nanosensor was passed around the course, Ive yet to gain clearance from theaudience (the sensor was very small Federal Executive Committee to emptyindeed!). The presentation focused their bank accounts but Im sure I wonton the use of nanosensors to detect encounter any pushbacks whatsoever.benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene Honest. Anyway, back to my drinkingIand xylenes (BTEX) in groundwater meant fishingunderneath petrol stations, this method provides accurate, continuous data in * Payable at the rate of $1 per year over the nextreal time, thereby eliminating risk of one million years. The 2019 WA Branch AGM and Christmas party sampling errors and delayed assessment 9 PREVIEW FEBRUARY 2020'