News 2017

Improving global paleogeography since the late Paleozoic using paleobiology

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Author List: Wenchao Cao, Sabin Zahirovic, Nicolas Flament, Simon Williams, Jan Golonka, Dietmar Müller Citation: Cao, W., Zahirovic, S., Flament, N., Williams, S., Golonka, J., and Müller, R. D., 2017, Improving global paleogeography since the late Paleozoic using paleobiology: Biogeosciences, v. 14, no. 23, p. 5425-5439. Paleogeographic maps, linked to plate tectonic reconstructions, are key components required for climate models … Read more…

Degassing from Continental Rifts Controls Earth’s Thermostat

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As a greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has played a major role in regulating Earth’s climate throughout its history. There are vast stores of carbon in the subsurface, but the global carbon cycle controls how much of that carbon enters the atmosphere. As methods for monitoring and tracking the carbon dioxide that moves … Read more…

GESSS NSW Conference

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Congratulations to the EarthByte students who recently represented the School of Geosciences, University of Sydney at the student-run GSA Earth Sciences Student Symposium (GESSS) NSW conference. The event aims to bring together Honours, Masters and PhD students from across NSW to present and discuss their research in a relaxed, supportive environment; a primary goal of GESSS is … Read more…

Continental breakup triggered massive CO2 emissions

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Plate Models

Currently, human activity is the primary driver of elevating atmospheric CO2, but the Earth fluctuated from greenhouse to icehouse conditions and back long before humans existed. The question is:  what triggered these long-term climate cycles? Now research at the University of Sydney’s EarthByte Group, in collaboration with the German Research Centre for Geosciences, reveals how … Read more…

Early Career Researcher Grant Scheme Awarded

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Congratulations to Sara Moron-Polanco on receiving the 2018 Early Career Researcher Grant Scheme, an internal grant of the University of Melbourne. The funds will be used to obtain thermochronological information to better understand the onshore tectonic and denudation history of the NWS, which will ultimately help to link the onshore and offshore geological history of the … Read more…

2017 PESA Postgraduate Student Scholarship Awarded

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Congratulations to Amy l’Anson on receiving the 2017 PESA Postgraduate Student Scholarship. The aim of the scholarship is to promote and encourage petroleum-related research and education in Australia. This format of sponsorship is designed to provide continual engagement of the recipient with PESA over the period of their research.

Modelling the evolution of the Eromanga Sea in the context of tectonics, geodynamics and surface processes

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Lauren Harington from School of Geoscience and EarthByte Group gives presentation a Seminar on her Honours project “Modelling the evolution of the Eromanga Sea in the context of tectonics, geodynamics and surface processes” Watch full presentation here: Link   ABSTRACT: The Eromanga Sea is an epeiric, epicontinental seaway that dominated the eastern Australian landscape during the Cretaceous. Previous … Read more…

GitHub Constellation event: University-wide GitHub code repository

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The University of Sydney has committed to transformational investments in our research infrastructure resulting in a rapidly increasing demand for new and innovative software to capture, create, and analyse data. We have partnered with GitHub to build a site-wide code repository for all researchers and students, and to leverage Github.com to deliver on the University’s … Read more…

The Mapping Sciences Institute of Australia (NSW Division): Annual MSIA Seminar

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The Mapping Sciences Institute of Australia (NSW Division) recently hosted its Annual MSIA Seminar at the Aspire Hotel in Ultimo, celebrating its 65th year promoting mapping. Prof. Dietmar Müller gave a presentation on “Using big data analytics to reveal what controls seabed geology”. World’s ocean basins contain a rich and nearly continuous record of environmental fluctuations … Read more…

University-wide code repository rolled out

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Sydney Informatics Hub provides free repository service for code development and management. Sydney is the first university in Australia to offer staff and students access to GitHub Enterprise, a code development and management system that allows collaborators to work together to develop, test and distribute code. The platform is operated by Sydney Informatics Hub and is part of the … Read more…

2018 Ph.D. Projects Available

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Interested in cutting-edge geo- and data-science? This Ph.D. project will connect the Basin GENESIS Hub approaches and objectives of modeling basin evolution, with the statistical and data science advancements made by the Centre for Translational Data Science. See the link below for more information. Ph.D. opportunity in data science with application to geoscience and solid Earth evolution: http://sydney.edu.au/resea…/opportunities/opportunities/2254  

The lost Tethyan seaways: A deep-Earth and deep-time perspective on eastern Tethyan tectonics

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Every 8 weeks we turn our attention to a Remarkable Region that deserves a spot in the scientific limelight. Following from the first entry which showcased the Eastern Mediterranean, we move further east, and back in time, to the realm of the Tethys. The southern and southeastern region of Eurasia represents one of the most tectonically complex areas in … Read more…

EarthByte Honours and Masters Projects 2018

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EarthByte has now released a list of Honours/Masters projects to be offered in 2018. These projects are outlined below. Project Title Supervisor(s) Dynamic Earth models, landscape dynamics and basin evolution in Australasia Dietmar Müller, Sabin Zahirovic, Tristan Salles, Rohit Chandra, Sally Cripps (Centre for Translational Data Science) Incorporating modern plate tectonic reconstructions into box models of the deep-time deep-Earth … Read more…

The origin of contractional structures in extensional gneiss domes

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Author List: Patrice Rey, Luke Mondy, Guillaume Duclaux, Christian Teyssier, Donna Whitney, Marie Bocher, cécile Prigent. Citation: Rey, Patrice & Mondy, L & Duclaux, G & Teyssier, Christian & Whitney, Donna & Bocher, Marie & Prigent, cécile. (2017). The origin of contractional structures in extensional gneiss domes. 45. 263-266. 10.1130/G38595. Abstract: The juxtaposition of domains of shortening and extension at different … Read more…

Sydney Science Forum: The world builders – Creating an experimental planet

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Presented by Professor Dietmar Müller School of Geosciences, University of Sydney What makes our planet habitable? Rapid global environmental change compels us to better understand what makes Earth suitable for life. Find out how the Experimental Planet being developed by the EarthByte Group in the University of Sydney’s School of Geosciences, is exploring different pathways … Read more…

Stable release of Underworld 2.3.

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Underworld’s new release! Check out Underworld 2.3.0b – available via Docker & GitHub. Check out Underworlds’s blog for change details. http://www.underworldcode.org/posts/StableRelease https://hub.docker.com/r/underworldcode/underworld2/ https://github.com/underworldcode/underworld2 Enhancements: Improved swarm reload times for parallel simulations. Efficiency improvements for large proc count (>128) parallel simulations. Faster algorithms for swarms with deformed mesh. Many updates to visualisation routines. Compressible Stokes general … Read more…

Volcanoes, geysers and earthquakes! – 89.7 Eastside FM

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A recent trip to Iceland piqued Sylvia’s curiosity about nearly every geological feature she saw. Back in Sydney, she explored those features – volcanoes, geysers, earthquakes, tectonic plates – with Dietmar Muller, Professor of Geophysics at the University of Sydney. That conversation went to air on Arts Wednesday 16 August 2017 and you can listen … Read more…

The Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences

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The Encyclopedia of Marine Geosciences was selected for the 2017 Mary B. Ansari Best Geoscience Research Resource Work Award of The Geoscience Information Society (GSIS). The formal award will be given at the GSA 2017 conference in October in Seattle/USA. EarthByters Dietmar Muller and Maria Seton contributed two chapters on “Paleophysiography of Ocean Basins” and “Plate Motion”. This Encyclopedia … Read more…

Rock solid insights deepen our understanding of the world

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Final year undergraduate student, Madison East is based in the School of Geosciences EarthByte Group, a leading international collaboration between Australian universities, industry partners and centres of excellence. “I began a research scholarship with Dietmar Müller and the EarthByte Groupin the summer of 2016/17 looking at how subduction zones have evolved since the Jurassic,” said … Read more…

Global patterns in Earth’s dynamic topography since the Jurassic: the role of subducted slabs

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Author List: Michael Rubey, Sascha Brune, Christian Heine, Rhodri Davies, Simon Williams, and Dietmar Müller. Citation: Rubey, M., Brune, S., Heine, C., Davies, D. R., Williams, S. E., and Müller, R. D.: Global patterns in Earth’s dynamic topography since the Jurassic: the role of subducted slabs, Solid Earth, 8, 899-919, https://doi.org/10.5194/se-8-899-2017, 2017. Abstract: We evaluate the spatial … Read more…

Summer Projects 2017/2018

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Available Summer Scholarships Applications from 2nd or 3rd year University of Sydney students studying geoscience are invited to apply for summer scholarship positions with EarthByte. These projects bring undergraduate students into active research projects, and provide valuable insight into the inner workings of dynamic teams working on real-world problems. Research projects run for a duration … Read more…

Five minutes with Tristan Salles

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Avid traveller and explorer, geophysicist Dr Tristan Salles, discusses his childhood in Africa and his experiences as an early-career researcher. What is your background, and why did you decide to join the University? I grew up in Africa, living in Madagascar, Cameroon and Senegal before moving to France at 17. My dad was an avid lepidopterist [the … Read more…

Tectonic speed limits from plate kinematic reconstructions

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Abstract The motion of plates and continents on the planet’s surface are a manifestation of long-term mantle convection and plate tectonics. Present-day plate velocities provide a snapshot of this ongoing process, and have been used to infer controlling factors on the speeds of plates and continents. However, present-day velocities do not capture plate behaviour over … Read more…

Summer Vacation Internships with Chevron.

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Applications are invited for summer internships with Chevron. The program offers students the opportunity to work collaboratively with a team to discover new energy reserves by focusing on a producing field or exploration project. The intake is from late November to February (12 Weeks) during the summer vacation period. The work will be paid, with … Read more…

Earth is estimated to be around 4.5 billion years old, with life first appearing around 3 billion years ago.

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EarthByter Andrew Merdith, Alan Collins from the Univ. of Adelaide and colleagues produced an animated plate tectonic map that changes the history of our planet as we know it. Of course it’s not just an animation, it’s an elaborate computer model that took years to be built, assimilating tons of geological and geophysical observations, in a … Read more…

The deep Earth origin of the Iceland plume and its effects on regional surface uplift and subsidence

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Abstract The present-day seismic structure of the mantle under the North Atlantic Ocean indicates that the Iceland hotspot represents the surface expression of a deep mantle plume, which is thought to have erupted in the North Atlantic domain during the Palaeocene. The spatial and temporal evolution of the plume since its eruption is still highly … Read more…

Postdoctoral Research Fellow – Computational Tectonics and Evolution of Sedimentary Basins

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Applications are invited for a 2-year postdoctoral fellowship working as a member of the EarthByte Group in the School of Geosciences as part of the Basin Genesis Hub, an ARC-Industrial Transformation Research Hub. The position will focus on geodynamic modelling relevant for understanding the dynamics of basin evolution. This will include regional thermo-mechanical models of … Read more…