News

Here are all the latest EarthByte news posts. See News Archive for recent years.

EarthByte also publishes the ‘GPlates News‘ newsletter every quarter. The GPlates newsletter contains features such as the latest GPlates updates, tutorials and datasets, EarthByte news highlights and much more! Click here to view the latest and past editions of ‘GPlates News‘, or subscribe to receive the newsletters.

A High-resolution 3-D Shear Velocity Model for Cameroon using Ambient Noise Tomography: Constraints from the CPSO algorithm

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The Cameroon Volcanic Line (CVL) and other tectonic features in Cameroon remain enigmatic, prompting ongoing debates about their detailed crustal structure, composition and geodynamic evolution. To shed light on the structural complexities and the underlying crustal processes, we leverage the two-step ambient noise tomography method to obtain the 3-D shear wave velocity (Vs) and the P-to-S wave … Read more…

Heterogeneous Earth’s mantle drilled at an embryonic ocean

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Mantle processes control plate tectonics and exert an influence on biogeo- chemical cycles. However, the proportion of mantle sampled in-situ is minimal, as it is buried beneath igneous crust and sediments. Here we report the lithological characteristics of two mantle sections from an embryonic ocean drilled by the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) in the … Read more…

Thermo‐mechanical rift evolution of large igneous province crust

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Numerical models, coupled with observational data, have proven crucial for addressing fundamental questions regarding extensional processes from continental rift to mid-ocean ridge (MOR). However, extensional processes at Large Igneous Provinces (LIP), a distinct type of lithosphere, have not been examined, leaving a thorough comprehension of rift mechanics unresolved. Here, we model the thermo-mechanical evolution for … Read more…

Geology-Geophysics Seminar Series: Kim Bente

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We are excited to invite you to the next seminar of the 2025 Geology and Geophysics Seminar Series, featuring Kim Bente, who is a PhD candidate at the School of Computer Science, University of Sydney. Kim will be presenting on “Mass Conservation on Rails: Modelling Ice Flow Vector Fields with Probabilistic Physics-Informed Machine Learning“. In this engaging talk, … Read more…

Earth’s ‘boring billion years’ created the conditions for complex life

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Sydney University Media Release, 20 October 2025 Plate tectonics played central role shaping life-supporting oceans Between 1.8 and 0.8 billion years ago, Earth’s tectonic activity locked atmospheric carbon dioxide into carbonate minerals within the oceanic crust, paving the way for oxygen-rich seas and evolving life. Source: research paper A study led by researchers from the … Read more…

Breakthroughs powering tomorrow’s industries

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Making sense of an ever-changing world Professor Dietmar Müller leads the EarthByte Group, which builds a deep-time virtual Earth via geodata synthesis across space and time. The group aims to better understand the dynamic Earth, its paleogeography, and past climates. Its primary applied research focus is critical mineral exploration in the context of the energy transition. “Understanding the … Read more…

Automated Detection of Mineralization-Related Craton Structures Using Geophysical Data and Unsupervised Machine Learning

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Internal structures and discontinuities within cratons are economically significant due to their history of tectonic reactivation from varying intraplate stress fields, which open pathways for fluid flow and facilitate mineral deposition. However, the complex overprinting tectonic processes that make cratons prospective can also lead to uncertainty regarding their internal geometries. To address this, we take … Read more…

Geology-Geophysics Seminar Series: Ioan Sanislav

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We are excited to invite you to the next seminar of the 2025 Geology and Geophysics Seminar Series, featuring Ioan Sanislav, who is an A/Prof of Economic Geology and the head of the Economic Geology Research Centre (EGRU) at James Cook University. Ioan will be presenting on “Archean gold mineralization in Tanzania – linking tectonics, magmatism and ore … Read more…

The Moving Mantle Beneath Hawaii: A New Look at an Old Bend

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The Hawaiian–Emperor Bend (HEB) has long been a geological Rosetta Stone for probing the link between plate tectonics and mantle dynamics. In a compelling new study in PNAS, Zhang and Hu (2025) revisit this classic problem with global mantle convection models constrained by plate reconstructions. They reveal that in addition to the widely accepted southward … Read more…

Geology-Geophysics Seminar Series: Fabrizio Magrini

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We are excited to invite you to the 17th seminar of the 2025 Geology and Geophysics Seminar Series, featuring Fabrizio Magrini, who is a Research Fellow/Lecturer at RSES, Australian National University. Fabrizio will be presenting on “Bayesian Inference with Transport Maps“. In this engaging talk, he will show how advances in computational statistics and optimal transport improve MCMC … Read more…

Craton boundary detection from full-waveform tomography model reveals links to critical metal deposits

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Craton margins play a crucial role in mineral exploration as they host faults, fractures, and shear zones that facilitate hydrothermal fluid movement, transporting and depositing dissolved metals into valuable mineral deposits. We use the high-resolution full-waveform seismic inversion model REVEAL to extract horizontal shear wave velocity (VSH), vertical shear wave velocity (VSV), and isotropic P-wave … Read more…

Geocoastal research group and Geology-Geophysics seminar series: Laura Wallace

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We are excited to invite you to the 2025 GRG (Geocoastal Research Group) and Geology-Geophysics seminar, featuring Prof. Laura Wallace, who is a geophysicist and a professor at GEOMAR and the ANZIC’s first female Co-Chief Scientist of IODP. Laura will be presenting on “Unlocking the secrets of slow slip events with IODP drilling“. In this engaging talk, … Read more…

Geology-Geophysics Seminar Series: Lu Li

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We are excited to invite you to the 16th seminar of the 2025 Geology and Geophysics Seminar Series, featuring Lu Li, who is a geophysicist and research scientist in CSIRO Mineral Resources. Lu will be presenting on “From sea-level to mineral systems, why do we care about lithosphere and how do we understand it with multiphysics?” In this … Read more…

Geology-Geophysics Seminar Series: Sascha Brune

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We are excited to invite you to the 15th seminar of the 2025 Geology and Geophysics Seminar Series, featuring Prof. Sascha Brune, who leads the Geodynamic Modelling Section at GFZ and holds a professorship at the University of Potsdam. Sascha will be presenting on “Process Interactions at Plate Boundaries: Rifts, Mountains, Resources“. In this engaging talk, he will … Read more…

GPlately 2.0.0 Released

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GPlately

We are excited to announce the release of GPlately 2.0.0, a major update that brings significant improvements and new features, offering a significantly better programming experience and marking a major step forward in the evolution of the platform.  This release introduces a completely redesigned online documentation, providing users with a much more intuitive and enjoyable reading experience. … Read more…

Geology-Geophysics Seminar Series: Maria (Coti) Manassero

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We are excited to invite you to the 13th seminar of the 2025 Geology and Geophysics Seminar Series, featuring Maria (Coti) Manassero, a post-doctoral research fellow in Geophysics, School of Natural Sciences (Physics), University of Tasmania. Coti will be presenting on “Thickness and ice loss potential of Denman Glacier, East Antarctica: Insight from magnetotelluric data and interdisciplinary studies“. … Read more…

Geology-Geophysics Seminar Series: Hamish Brown and Martina Monaco

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We are excited to invite you to the 12th seminar of the 2025 Geology and Geophysics Seminar Series. This session will feature two engaging talks. Our first speaker is Hamish Brown, a postdoctoral research fellow in the Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University. Hamish will be presenting on “Constraining mantle viscosity using dynamic … Read more…

EarthByte PhD candidates Elnaz and Hojat awarded two prestigious scholarships and a research prize.

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EarthByte Group PhD candidates Elnaz Heidari and Hojat Shirmard have recently been awarded two competitive scholarships: the Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists (ASEG) Research Foundation Scholarship (2025–2027) and the Edgeworth David Travelling Scholarship, in recognition of their innovative geoscience research. In addition to these honours, Hojat has also been selected to receive the Faculty of … Read more…

New Kinematic Model of the Early Opening of the Equatorial Atlantic Realm

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The opening of the Equatorial Atlantic Ocean constitutes the final stage of Gondwana’s breakup, leading to the separation of the African and South American continents. The early spreading has been debated due to the absence of magnetic anomalies related to the Early Cretaceous opening at low latitude, and an incomplete fracture zone record, hidden by … Read more…

Regional Carbonate Compensation Depth variability in the Pacific Ocean since the Oligocene

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Deep-sea carbonates constitute the primary deep carbon reservoir, playing a critical role in regulating the long-term global carbon cycle. Reconstructing the temporal evolution of carbonate flux to the seafloor requires estimating the changes in carbonate compensation depth (CCD), a key proxy, revealing the depth where the rate of calcium carbonate supply from biogenic ooze equals … Read more…

Subducting seafloor anomalies promote porphyry copper formation

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Oceanic seafloor is scarred by age discontinuities, seamounts, and large igneous provinces (LIPs) over normal bathymetry. The recycling of these seafloor anomalies has been speculated to alter subduction regimes which may locally prime some regions for porphyry copper deposit formation. Using a tectonic plate reconstruction encompassing the last 100 Ma paired with a machine learning classifier … Read more…

A tectonically driven 60 million-year biogeochemical redox cycle paces marine biodiversity

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The fossil record shows a prominent 60 million-year biodiversity cycle during the Phanerozoic Eon, the origin of which is still unknown. Here we use time-series analysis and correlation of empirical and model datasets of Earth’s interior and sur cial processes to demonstrate that this cycle is a pervasive feature in marine animal genus-level diversity data … Read more…

Convolutional Neural Networks for Mineral Prospecting Through Alteration Mapping with Remote Sensing Data

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Traditional geological mapping methods, which rely on field observations and rock sample analysis, are inefficient for continuous spatial mapping of geological features such as alteration zones. Deep learning models such as convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have ushered in a transformative era in remote sensing data analysis. CNNs excel in automatically extracting features from image data … Read more…

Geology-Geophysics Seminar Series: Patrice Rey

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We are excited to invite you to the 11th seminar of the 2025 Geology and Geophysics Seminar Series, featuring Patrice Rey, a Professor of Structural Geology, Tectonics and Geodynamics in the School of Geosciences, University of Sydney. Patrice will be presenting on “A Thermo-Mechanical Framework for Proterozoic Basins“. This interesting talk will delve into how elevated thermal conditions … Read more…

Geology-Geophysics Seminar Series: Maxwell Lechte

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We are excited to invite you to the 10th seminar of the 2025 Geology and Geophysics Seminar Series, featuring Maxwell Lechte, a Research Fellow who works on Precambrian geobiology and sedimentary geology at the School of Geography Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Melbourne. Max will be presenting on “Using the sedimentary iron record to track environmental change … Read more…

Remote sensing framework for geological mapping via stacked autoencoders and clustering

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Supervised machine learning methods for geological mapping via remote sensing face limitations due to the scarcity of accurately labelled training data that can be addressed by unsupervised learning, such as dimensionality reduction and clustering. Dimensionality reduction methods have the potential to play a crucial role in improving the accuracy of geological maps. Although conventional dimensionality … Read more…

Magnetization of Oceanic Lithosphere From Modeling of Satellite Observations

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Magnetic observations from the oceans have made fundamental contributions to our knowledge of plate motions and the evolution of the geomagnetic field over the past ∼200 Myr. Here we construct updated models of magnetization for the oceanic lithosphere, taking advantage of the most recent models for Earth’s past plate motions. We then evaluate these models using … Read more…

Machine Learning and Big Data Mining Reveal Earth’s Deep Time Crustal Thickness and Tectonic Evolution: A New Chemical Mohometry Approach

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Quantitative analysis of crustal thickness evolution across deep time poses critical insights into the planet’s geological history. It may help uncover new areas with potential critical mineral deposits and reveal the impacts of crustal thickness and elevation changes on the development of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and biosphere. However, most existing estimation methods are restricted to … Read more…