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’s plate tectonic animation added to NOAA’s SOS database

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An EarthByte plate tectonic animation has recently been added to NOAA’s Science on a Sphere database. NOAA produces large interactive 3D spherical projection systems that are installed at museums, universities, schools and other institutes across the world (see Science On a Sphere map locations). The EarthByte animation is from the recent Gibbons et al. (2015) … Read more…

EarthByte's plate tectonic animation added to NOAA's SOS database

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An EarthByte plate tectonic animation has recently been added to NOAA’s Science on a Sphere database. NOAA produces large interactive 3D spherical projection systems that are installed at museums, universities, schools and other institutes across the world (see Science On a Sphere map locations). The EarthByte animation is from the recent Gibbons et al. (2015) … Read more…

Summer Scholarship opportunities available within the School of Geosciences

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The Division of Natural Sciences at the University of Sydney offers a variety of Summer Scholarship opportunities for students in the 2nd or 3rd year of their undergraduate degree.

Research projects are available in most disciplines for a duration of between 4-6 weeks over the Summer holiday period (November-February).

The program is open to both current University of Sydney students as well as students from other Australian Universities. Each scholarship is valued at $497 (in accordance with APA rate) per week for the duration of the project.  … Read more…

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EarthByte welcomes Nicolas Coltice and Claire Mallard

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This week we’re excited to host our long-term collaborators from France, Prof Nicolas Coltice and PhD student Claire Mallard. They will be presenting their work as part of the Augury Project – a European Research Council funded initiative to study the Earth’s evolution of mantle convection and plate tectonics. They spent two weeks field mapping in … Read more…

EarthByte helps the International Science School

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Nikita and Jono at the International Science SchoolEarthByte helped run the 2015 geosciences workshop for the University of Sydney’s International Science School, with over 140 high school students engaging in activities from a wide range of research topics and teaching areas at the School of Geosciences. Thanks to all the brilliant EarthByte volunteers, including Mandi Thran, Nikita Golkin, Luke Hardiman, Jono Leonard and Carmen Braz.

 

See the School of Geoscience’s Facebook page for more info and photos from the day!  … Read more…

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Gondwana Research – A tectonic model reconciling evidence for the collision between India, Eurasia and intra-oceanic arcs of the central-eastern Tethys

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Gibbons, A. D., Zahirovic, S., Müller, R. D., Whittaker, J. M., & Yatheesh, V. (2015). A tectonic model reconciling evidence for the collisions between India, Eurasia and intra-oceanic arcs of the central-eastern Tethys. Gondwana Research. doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2015.01.001. A tectonic model reconciling evidence for the collisions between India, Eurasia and intra-oceanic arcs of the central-eastern Tethys

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