News – Page 14 – EarthByte

2016 supercomputing resources

15 January, 2016 by Michael Chin

The EarthByte group has been awarded 11 million computing hours, representing the equivalent of k$AU440, to carry out research for the Basin GENESIS Hub on the supercomputers Raijin (National Computational Infrastructure) and Magnus (Pawsey Supercomputing Centre) for 2016 through the National Computational Merit Allocation Scheme (7.25 MSUs, one of the top 4 allocations across all disciplines … Read more…

EarthByte Welcomes Xianshi Cao

2 March, 201715 January, 2016 by Ruken

EarthByte Welcomes visiting student Xianshi Cao.

GPlates Portal receives a major facelift

1 March, 201814 January, 2016 by Michael Chin

The GPlates Portal has received a major facelift, using state-of-the-art web design. The primary design principle of the new front page is to convey the most important information to users in an effective way. The new grid layout guarantees the presentation of information is always in a user readable format on the screen of any … Read more…

EarthByte/Scripps research features on NASA Earth Observatory

13 January, 2016 by Michael Chin

Triplejunction gis 2014 (Copyright NASA Earth Observatory)

NASA Earth Observatory features a piece on the recent Mammerickx Microplate discovery. Their Image of the Day for 13 January 2016 is a satellite gravity map of the Indian Ocean, and the associated article, entitled ‘New Seafloor Map Helps Scientists Find New Features‘, discusses the power of satellite data for seafloor mapping and details the … Read more…

Earth and Planetary Science Letters – Oceanic microplate formation records the onset of India–Eurasia collision

13 October, 201713 January, 2016 by Michael Chin

Author List: Kara Matthews, Dietmar Müller and David Sandwell Citation: Matthews, K. J., Müller, R. D., & Sandwell, D. T. (2016). Oceanic microplate formation records the onset of India–Eurasia collision. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 433, 204-214. Oceanic microplate formation records the onset of India–Eurasia collision

Incredibly detailed, billion-year-old ancient maps of Earth produced by researchers

6 April, 201712 January, 2016 by Michael Chin

An article discussing GPlates and research that EarthByte is involved in has been featured on the IFL Science! website entitled ‘Incredibly Detailed, Billion-Year-Old Ancient Maps Of Earth Produced By Researchers‘.

Data Processing and Plotting Using  Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) Course

4 February, 201911 January, 2016 by Michael Chin

Course Overview
This course is designed to introduce students to different types of spatial data, data processing and interpolation functions and data plotting using GMT (Generic Mapping Tools). GMT is a set of public domain tools that will be used in conjunction with UNIX general processing tools (awk, grep) and basic shell programming. The examples presented in the course will focus on marine geophysical data, however many of the principles are applicable to other scientific data.

The learning outcomes for the course include: … Read more…

Software Developer required at EarthByte

6 October, 201710 January, 2016 by Michael Chin

A Software Developer position is available at EarthByte. The position will focus on the development, engineering, and maintenance of complex open-source, surface processes and geodynamics modelling software for the ARC-ITRH Basin GENESIS Hub. The total package offered is $100K-$127K p.a. for a full-time, fixed term 12 months (renewal possible). Applications close 24 January 2016. Click … Read more…

History and current advances in reconstructing the Earth through deep geological time

6 January, 20164 January, 2016 by Michael Chin

Time machine: History and current advances in reconstructing the Earth through deep geological time – an article on Quartz by Steve LeVine. The article is a review of the development of ideas and technologies in reconstructing the Earth through deep time, aimed at understanding supercontinent assembly, breakup and dispersal, starting with Alfred Wegener. The article focusses on research activities in the context of the IGCP 648 project ‘Supercontinent Cycles and Global Geodynamics‘ led by Zheng-Xiang Li. The piece provides some historical context, and highlights the work of a number of leading scientists, postdoctoral researchers and PhD students currently involved in this work. … Read more…

EarthByte Welcomes Amy l’Anson

2 June, 20173 January, 2016 by Ruken

EarthByte welcomes visiting student Amy l’Anson.

Mammerickx Microplate media coverage

6 April, 20176 December, 2015 by Michael Chin

The recent EPSL article on the discovery of the Mammerickx Microplate, by Dr Kara Matthews, Prof Dietmar Müller and Prof David Sandwell, has received lots of media attention from many different countries around the world including Australia, UK, USA, India, Pakistan, Mexico, Nepal and Honduras.

See below for a list of media items:

Online Media
The biggest continental collision in Earth’s history: Scientists pinpoint crashing together of continents that created the Himalayas 50 million years ago – Daily Mail
Scientists fix date for earth-shattering Himalayan birth pangs – The Sydney Morning Herald
Microplate discovery dates birth of Himalayas – EurekAlert!
Himalayas: Discovery of first ancient Indian Ocean microplate hints at new date of formation of mountain range – Yahoo! News … Read more…

EarthByte welcomes Sally Carney

30 November, 2015 by Michael Chin

EarthByte welcomes Sally Carney from the University of Wollongong who has just started a 6 week summer scholarship in the EarthByte group working with Dr Maria Seton on the evolution of the Panama gateway.

Nicky Wright is awarded the Chris Powell Medal

1 December, 201529 November, 2015 by Michael Chin

Nicky Wright Receives Chris Powell Medal

A big congratulations to PhD student Nicky Wright who was awarded the Chris Powell Medal for Postgraduate Research in Tectonics and Structural Geology from the Geological Society of Australia SGTSG. The medal is awarded at each regular field conference of the SGTSG for an outstanding research paper arising from postgraduate research on some aspect of … Read more…

EarthByte welcomes Megan Korchinski

29 November, 201526 November, 2015 by Michael Chin

EarthByte welcomes Megan Korchinski, a visiting PhD student from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA. Megan will be studying with us for the next 3 months at the University of Sydney. Megan is part of the Structure Tectonics And Metamorphic Petrology (STAMP) research group, and is interested in the exhumation mechanisms of subducted continental crust. … Read more…

Gordon Bell Prize 2015

30 November, 201524 November, 2015 by Michael Chin

Long-term EarthByte collaborator, Prof Mike Gurnis (Caltech), is part of a team that has just received the prestigious Gordon Bell Prize for pushing the boundaries of supercomputing in the application of the most realistic numerical model of mantle convection and plate tectonics. Related News IBM wants to predict earthquakes and volcanoes with Watson Gordon Bell … Read more…

Ancient Indian Ocean microplate discovery dates birth of Himalayas

10 June, 201611 November, 2015 by kara

An international team of scientists led by the University of Sydney’s School of Geosciences has discovered that the crustal stresses caused by the initial collision between India and Eurasia cracked the Antarctic Plate far away from the collisional zone and broke off a fragment the size of Tasmania in a remote patch of the central Indian Ocean.

The ongoing tectonic collision between the two continents produces enormous geological stresses that build up along the Himalayas and lead to numerous earthquakes every year – but now scientists have unravelled how stressed the Indian Plate became 47 million years ago when its northern edge first collided with Eurasia. … Read more…

EarthByte projects available for Honours students in 2016

6 October, 201710 November, 2015 by Michael Chin

EarthByte has now released a list of projects for potential Honours students for 2016. The project topics span: The role of mechanical stratigraphy in the structural style of deformed sedimentary basins Understanding the formation Earth’s largest continental ribbon: The Lord Howe Rise Evolution of the Australian climate and landscape over the last 100 Myr Unravelling … Read more…

GMT version 5.2 released!

3 November, 2015 by kara

Version 5.2 of the Generic Mapping Tools (GMT) software was released today! GMT is the widely used open-source software for manipulating and visualising geographic and cartesian data. The latest EarthByte global plate rotation model (Müller et al., in press) is now the default rotation model used in the GMT ‘SPOTTER‘ supplement.

Dr Nico Flament receives a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award

29 November, 201531 October, 2015 by Michael Chin

Congratulations to Dr Nicolas Flament for being awarded a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) from the Australian Research Council!

Below are some details about Nico’s project (2016-2019) entitled ‘The geodynamics of past sea level changes‘:

This project is designed to quantify the effect of flow deep within Earth’s interior on past sea-level changes and on the flooding history of Australia over the last 550 million years. The rise and fall of sea level has shaped our planet over time. This project plans to combine recent advances in tectonic reconstructions and dynamic Earth models with the global and Australian rock record. … Read more…

Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) proposal funded

25 November, 201531 October, 2015 by Michael Chin

A Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) Proposal, designed to study the interaction of subduction zones with carbonate platforms through time in terms of CO2 cycles, submitted to the Smithsonian Institution and prepared to a large extent by Dr Sabin Zahirovic and EarthByte Research Assistant Jodie Pall, was successful, raising $US36k. The DCO actually doubled our proposed budget from … Read more…

Basin Hub features in NCI Newsletter

22 November, 201530 October, 2015 by Michael Chin

The Basin GENESIS Hub was featured in NCI’s Newsletter entitled ‘Basin GENESIS Hub Launched‘. NCI Director Professor Lindsay Botten said NCI’s role in the Hub highlighted the importance of high-performance computing in industry-relevant research. “NCI is delighted to support this high-profile ARC Industry Transformation Hub, led by Professor Müller,” Professor Botten said. “Projects of this excellence, and … Read more…

Congratulations to the EarthByte Honours students

30 October, 2015 by Michael Chin

Congratulations to the EarthByte Honours students for submitting their theses and delivering their final presentations! Well done Carmen, Mandi, Jono, Nikita and Luke!

EarthByte welcomes PhD Student Xuesong Ding

30 November, 201530 October, 2015 by Michael Chin

EarthByte welcomes new PhD student Xuesong Ding who’s PhD project focuses on exploring the interplay between changes in sea level and in dynamic topography on the sequence stratigraphy of Australia’s northern margin, from the North West Shelf (NWS) to Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Ore Geology Reviews – Prospectivity of Western Australian iron ore from geophysical data using a reject option classifier

16 December, 201525 October, 2015 by Michael Chin

Prospectivity of Western Australian iron ore from geophysical data using a reject option classifier - figure

Merdith, A. S., Landgrebe, T. C., & Müller, R. D. (2015). Prospectivity of Western Australian iron ore from geophysical data using a reject option classifier. Ore Geology Reviews. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.oregeorev.2015.03.014 Prospectivity of Western Australian iron ore from geophysical data using a reject option classifier Download supplementary material – zip file

Basin GENESIS Hub features in PESA News

19 October, 2015 by Michael Chin

The EarthByte-led Basin GENESIS Hub has been featured in a recent PESA newsletter. See online article below, or download a reader-friendly PDF version. Basin Genesis Hub: A new ARC – Industrial Transformation Research Hub – issuu.com Basin Genesis Hub: A new ARC – Industrial Transformation Research Hub – pdf

Simon Williams reports from the TECTA Cruise

6 October, 20156 October, 2015 by Michael Chin

Water Column mapping of the Tasman Sea from the TECTA voyage

EarthByter Simon Williams is currently part of an international team of scientists sailing around the Tasman Sea on board the French Research Vessel ‘L’Atalante’. The voyage is collecting geophysical data that will help to unravel the mysteries of Earth’s geodynamic evolution and subduction initiation East of Australia, as well as profound changes in Southwest Pacific climate and ocean currents through geological history. To read the news from the voyage, download the PDF newsletters below.

Newsletter Number 1, 10 September 2015 – pdf
Newsletter Number 2, 17 September 2015 – pdf
Newsletter Number 3, 25 September 2015 – pdf
Newsletter Number 4, 1 October 2015 – pdf
… Read more…

Homeward Bound… Big Data Reveals Geology of World’s Ocean Floor

21 October, 20152 October, 2015 by Michael Chin

The 2015 Ocean Innovation (OI) conference takes place in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada during October and focuses on “mapping our oceans.” For each OI conference, a special issue of The Journal of Ocean Technology (JOT) that complements the conference’s theme is released. A series of essays, peer review technical papers, and columns are included and … Read more…

Homeward Bound… Big Data Reveals Geology of World's Ocean Floor

2 October, 2015 by Ruken

Earth and Planetary Science Letters – Influence of subduction history on South American topography

16 December, 201527 September, 2015 by Michael Chin

Flament, N., Gurnis, M., Müller, R. D., Bower, D. J., & Husson, L. (2015). Influence of subduction history on South American topography. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 430, 9-18. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2015.08.006. Influence of subduction history on South American topography

Congratulations to Dr Sabin Zahirovic who graduated today

25 September, 2015 by Michael Chin

Dr Sabin Zahirovic with his family and fellow EarthByters

Today, EarthByter Sabin Zahirovic was officially conferred his degree. Sabin’s PhD thesis was entitled ‘Post-Pangea global plate kinematics and geodynamic implications for Southeast Asia’.

Congratulations Dr Zahirovic! … Read more…