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.

EarthByte joins ACTER

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Simon Williams' ACTER talk photoRecently, EarthByte joined the Australia-China Joint Research Centre for Tectonics and Earth Resources (ACTER). The joint research centre is led by the Institute for Geoscience Research at Curtin University and the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, with involvement of Australian and Chinese universities and industry partners. The aim of the centre is to promote joint research activities, the exchange of staff and students, and to foster long-term mutually-beneficial collaboration between Australian and Chinese research groups. … Read more…

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Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems – Semi-automatic fracture zone tracking

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Wessel, P., Matthews, K. J., Müller, R. D., Mazzoni, A., Whittaker, J. M., Myhill, R., & Chandler, M. T. (2015). Semi-automatic fracture zone tracking. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. doi: 10.1002/2015GC005853. Semi-automatic fracture zone tracking This paper includes an update to the global seafloor tectonic fabric data set by Matthews et al. (JGR, 2011).  Based on the vertical gravity … Read more…

Dietmar Müller attends Australian open research data showcase in Canberra

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ANDS Showcase June 2015Today Prof Dietmar Müller attended the Australian open research data showcase in Canberra. The showcase featured a variety of talks and discussions around the benefits and issues concerning open research data. It was an important milestone towards consolidating the Australian effort towards involving Universities and individual researchers in sharing their data.

A highlight was Ian Chubb’s presentation that pointed out that if you look at all papers published in the last 115 years, about 50% were either never cited or only cited once. The hope is that open access publications and associated open research data will improve these sorts of statistics. George Bernard Shaw was quoted by geologist Geoffrey Boulton (Univ. Edinburgh) as pointing out: “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. … Read more…

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Lithos – Overlapping Sr-Nd-Hf-O isotopic compositions in Permian mafic enclaves and host granitoids in Alxa Block, NW China: Evidence of crust-mantle interaction and implications for the generation of silicic igneous provinces

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Dan, W., Wang, Q., Wang, X. C., Liu, Y., Wyman, D. A., & Liu, Y. S. (2015). Overlapping Sr–Nd–Hf–O isotopic compositions in Permian mafic enclaves and host granitoids in Alxa Block, NW China: Evidence for crust–mantle interaction and implications for the generation of silicic igneous provinces. Lithos, 230, 133-145. doi:10.1016/j.lithos.2015.05.016. Overlapping Sr–Nd–Hf–O isotopic compositions in … Read more…

School of Geosciences Awards Evening winners

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Tonight was the annual School of Geosciences Awards Evening held at the Macleay Museum. Congratulations to EarthByters Mike Tetley, Dr Sabin Zahirovic, Andrew Merdith, Sarah MacLeod, Carmen Braz, Luke Hardiman and Serena Yeung for receiving academic and School service awards! Dr Maral Hosseinpour was photographer for the evening and took some brilliant photos!

Nature Geoscience – Long-term interaction between mid-ocean ridges and mantle plumes

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Whittaker, J. M., Afonso, J. C., Masterton, S., Müller, R. D., Wessel, P., Williams, S. E., & Seton, M. (2015). Long-term interaction between mid-ocean ridges and mantle plumes. Nature Geoscience, 8(6), 479-483. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2437. Summary Plate tectonic motions are commonly considered to be driven by slab pull at subduction zones and ridge push at mid-ocean … Read more…

Geochemisty, Geophysics, Geosystems – Provenance of plumes in mantle convection models

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Hassan, R., Flament, N., Gurnis, M., Bower, D. J., & Müller, D. (2015). Provenance of plumes in global convection models. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. doi: 10.1002/2015GC005751. Provenance of plumes in global convection models

Geophysical Journal International – Absolute motion of Africa around Hawaii-Emperor bend time

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Maher, S. M., Wessel, P., Müller, R. D., Williams, S. E., & Harada, Y. (2015). Absolute plate motion of Africa around Hawaii-Emperor bend time. Geophysical Journal International, 201(3), 1743-1764. doi: 10.1093/gji/ggv104. Absolute plate motion of Africa around Hawaii-Emperor bend time Download supplementary materials – zip file

Sabin Zahirovic attends Deep Carbon Observatory workshop in Washington DC

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Dr Sabin Zahirovic attended a Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO) workshop at the Smithsonian Institution’s Ripley Center in Washington DC this week. The workshop focused on visualising and modelling deep carbon, and also communicating findings to the scientific community and general public. Sabin gave a presentation and live demonstration of GPlates, highlighting how the software could … Read more…

Nature Geoscience – Deformation-related volcanism in the Pacific Ocean linked to the Hawaiin-Emperor bend

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O’Connor, J. M., Hoernle, K., Müller, R. D., Morgan, J. P., Butterworth, N. P., Hauff, F., … & Stoffers, P. (2015). Deformation-related volcanism in the Pacific Ocean linked to the Hawaiian-Emperor bend. Nature Geoscience, 8(5), 393-397. doi: 10.1038/NGEO2416. Deformation-related volcanism in the Pacific Ocean linked to the Hawaiian–Emperor bend

Earth and Planetary Science Letters – Climate changes control offshore crustal structure at South China Sea continental margin

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Clift, P. D., Brune, S., & Quinteros, J. (2015). Climate changes control offshore crustal structure at South China Sea continental margin. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 420, 66-72. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2015.03.032. Climate changes control offshore crustal structure at South China Sea continental margin Download supporting information – pdf

Lord Howe Rise IODP workshop held at University of Sydney

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Date: 2015 April 7-10 Venue: The University of Sydney Description: A science meeting at the University of Sydney was held to discuss details of the seven science themes in the Geoscience Australia (GA) – Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) initiated Lord Howe Rise IODP Pre-proposal, IODP proposal 871-Pre. The purpose of the meeting was to look … Read more…

ScienceNews features an article on Pacific plate motions paper

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EarthByte paper ‘Revision of Paleogene plate motions in the Pacific and implications for the Hawaiian-Emperor bend‘ is featured in ScienceNews with an article entitled ‘Plate loss gave chain of Pacific islands and seamounts a bend‘. Revision of Paleogene plate motions in the Pacific and implications for the Hawaiian-Emperor bend

Sabin Zahirovic features in Science Magazine

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Congratulations to Sabin, who has made it to the News front page of the Science Magazine with a news article entitled ‘Earth’s tectonic plates skitter about‘ about a recently published paper in Earth and Planetary Science letters: Tectonic speed limits from plate kinematic reconstructions. Well done Sabin! Link to download the paper

Geophysical Research Letters – Ridge subduction sparked reorganisation of the Pacific plate-mantle system 60-50 million years ago

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Seton, M., Flament, N., Whittaker, J., Müller, R. D., Gurnis, M., & Bower, D. J. (2015). Ridge subduction sparked reorganization of the Pacific plate‐mantle system 60–50 million years ago. Geophysical Research Letters, 42(6), 1732-1740. doi: 10.1002/2015GL063057. Ridge subduction sparked reorganization of the Pacific plate‐mantle system 60–50 million years ago

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

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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. doi: 10.1016/j.oregeorev.2015.03.014. Prospectivity of Western Australian iron ore from geophysical data using a reject option classifier

Geology – Revision of Paleogene plate motions in the Pacific and implications for the Hawaiian-Emperor bend

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Wright, N. M., Müller, R. D., Seton, M., & Williams, S. E. (2015). Revision of Paleogene plate motions in the Pacific and implications for the Hawaiian-Emperor bend. Geology, 43(5), 455-458. doi: 10.1130/G36303.1. Revision of Paleogene plate motions in the Pacific and implications for the Hawaiian-Emperor bend

Earth and Planetary Science Reviews – Absolute plate motions since 130 ma constrained by subduction zone kinematics

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Williams, S., Flament, N., Müller, R. D., & Butterworth, N. (2015). Absolute plate motions since 130 Ma constrained by subduction zone kinematics. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 418, 66-77. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2015.02.026. Absolute plate motions since 130 Ma constrained by subduction zone kinematics

Research voyage on RV Investigator funded for 2016

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Dr Maria Seton and Dr Simon Williams from the School of Geosciences and colleagues from GNS Science and the Geological Survey of New Caledonia were awarded ship time on Australia’s new, state-of-the-art research vessel, the RV Investigator. The supplementary voyage, with Dr Seton as Chief Scientist, will investigate the continuity of Australian terranes into Zealandia … Read more…

GPlates 1.5 software and data sets

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GPlates 1.5 Promo

GPlates 1.5 PromoGPlates is a free desktop software for the interactive visualisation of plate-tectonics. The compilation and documentation of GPlates 1.5 data was primarily funded by AuScope National Collaborative Research Infrastructure (NCRIS).

GPlates is developed by an international team of scientists and professional software developers at the EarthByte Project (part of AuScope) at the University of Sydney, the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS) at CalTech, the Geodynamics team at the Geological Survey of Norway (NGU) and the Centre for Earth Evolution and Dynamics (CEED) at the University of Oslo.  … Read more…

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Specialised short courses available in April 2015

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Coming up in April 2015 we will be running our annual short courses for Honours students and post graduate geoscientists. These courses offer students a unique opportunity to engage in specialised studies aimed at introducing them to some of the powerful computational tools used today in leading-edge research of Geoscience. Below are links to the appropriate information if you wish to enrol:  … Read more…

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Earth and Planetary Science Letters – Tectonic speed limits from plate kinematic reconstructions

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Zahirovic, S., Müller, R. D., Seton, M., & Flament, N. (2015). Tectonic speed limits from plate kinematic reconstructions. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 418, 40-52. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2015.02.037. Tectonic speed limits from plate kinematic reconstructions

Experimental release of GPlates 1.5+Hellinger

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GPlates 1.5 Promo

An experimental release of GPlates 1.5+Hellinger was released this week. This version includes all GPlates 1.5 functionality as well as a Hellinger Tool to calculate best-fitting poles to segmented magnetic pick data points. The tool uses a Python implementation of the FORTRAN program by Chang and others and is compatible with FORTRAN data files which can … Read more…

Paper published in Lithos – Geochemistry and radiogenic isotope characteristics of xenoliths in Archean diamondiferous lamprophyres: Implications for the Superior province cratonic keel

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Wyman, D. A., Hollings, P., & Conceição, R. V. (2015). Geochemistry and radiogenic isotope characteristics of xenoliths in Archean diamondiferous lamprophyres: Implications for the Superior Province cratonic keel. Lithos. doi: 10.1016/j.lithos.2015.02.018. Geochemistry and radiogenic isotope characteristics of xenoliths in Archean diamondiferous lamprophyres: Implications for the Superior Province cratonic keel

Tectonophysics – Timing of formation and exhumation of the Montagne Noire double dome, French Massif Central

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Roger, F., Teyssier, C., Respaut, J. P., Rey, P. F., Jolivet, M., Whitney, D. L., … & Brunel, M. (2015). Timing of formation and exhumation of the Montagne Noire double dome, French Massif Central. Tectonophysics, 640, 53-69. doi: 10.1016/j.tecto.2014.12.002. Timing of formation and exhumation of the Montagne Noire double dome, French Massif Central