The Roman Empire, a civilization whose power and influence once spanned the known world, ultimately succumbed to a variety of pressures, but a major factor in its decline was the combination of unchecked deficit spending and the unsustainable growth of its government. The Roman state, compelled to finance a vast »
January 4th, 2025: This post investigates the cause of crustal-scale electrical conductivity anomalies observed in magnetotelluric (MT) imaging of mineral provinces, specifically in the Olympic Dam region of Australia and the Southeast Missouri Iron Province (SMIP) in the United States and is derived from and a review of Graphite as »
1st January 2025: This is a reflection on pivotal events in human history 100 years ago – 1924. This was a pivotal year in many ways, but much remains the same in human affairs, particulalry the chaos of politics. The most significant event in science in 1924 was the proof »
28th December 2024, John C. Menzies: This post is a review of a paper on the impact of mantle oxidation and transport of gold rich fluids from the mantle to the near surface. Overall, this study demonstrates that mantle oxidation by S–bearing aqueous fluids is a key trigger mechanism for »
25th December 2024: The menu for Christmas Day. On schedule and as expected, a fine time was had by all. »
Mantle flow in subduction systems and its effects on surface tectonics and magmatism, Valentina Magni, Ágnes Király, Colton Lynner, Pilar Avila & James Gi, Nature Reviews, Earth and Environmental, 2024 doi.org/10.1038/s43017-024-00612-3 This review article examines the complex interplay between subduction dynamics, mantle flow, and their resulting expressions on Earth’s surface. »
In early writing, words were not separated by spaces, a format known as scriptura continua. Scribes wrote without breaks between words, reflecting the way language was originally spoken. Just as we don’t pause between every word when we speak, early writers didn’t think to insert spaces between words when writing. »
This is a review of an interesting extended abstract presented at the AEGC Conference held in Brisbane in 2023. Geometry of the margins of the North Australian Craton and correlations with upper crustal structures Authors: Fatemeh Amirpoorsaeed, Peter Betts, Anindita Samsu, Robin Armit, Alexander Cruden. Craton margins: Craton margins are »
Rajendra Gupta from the University of Ottawa published a paper in the Astrophysical Journal based on a modified Lambda CDM + TL model which suggests an age of the universe since the Big Bang of 26.7 Gyr as compared with the consensus view of 13.8 Gyr. Given that zircon age »
“Subsurface Microbial Colonization at Mineral-Filled Veins in 2-Billion-Year-Old Mafic Rock from the Bushveld Igneous Complex, South Africa,” focuses on the examination of microbial life in ancient igneous rocks from the Bushveld Igneous Complex in South Africa. The study investigates the possibility of long-term microbial survival in stable subsurface environments over »
Emily J. Judd, Jessica E. Tierney, Daniel J. Lunt, Isabel P. Montañez, Brian T. Huber, Scott L. Wing, Paul J. Valdes, Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.adk3705 An interesting approach to palaeo-temperature modelling – produced by assimilating observational data during the last 485 million years with climate model predictions. This paper introduces a »
Authors Pearl Connelly & Lynley Wallis Purchase: Mitakoodi Traditional Medicinal Plant Uses of the Cloncurry Region can be purchased on-line Most photos are the copyright of Pearly Connelly & Lynley Wallis The country around Cloncurry comprises the traditional lands of the Mitakoodi People. In this book, Mitakoodi Elder Pearl Connelly teams »
This post does NOT contains images of deceased Australian Aboriginals – some Australian Aboriginal people find seeing the images and or hearing names of the deceased disturbing as it may disturb that person’s spirit. Australian Aboriginals were hunter gatherers surviving on “Bush Tucker” and photographs of traditional tribal groups in »
WARNING: This post contains images of deceased Australian Aboriginals – some Australian Aboriginal people find seeing the images and or hearing names of the deceased disturbing as it may disturb that person’s spirit. Australian Aboriginals were hunter gatherers surviving on “Bush Tucker” and photographs of traditional tribal groups in the »
This article from the Brisbane Courier of Saturday, December 22nd, 1923, puts our modern world of global and near earth communications in perspective – this was a mere 100 years ago. TELEPHONIC CHAIN. LINKING UP. FOUR STATES CONNECTED. SYDNEY, December 21. There Is now a complete chain of telephone lines »
The atlas has been updated with images from the Onto Deposit in Indonesia courtesy of David Burrows. The Onto deposit currently has an indicated resource of 0.76 billion tonnes (Gt) at 0.93% Cu, 0.56 g/t Au, 5 g/t Ag, and 350 ppm As (7 Mt contained Cu, 13 Moz Au) »
Brisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 – 1933), Saturday 1 December 1923, page 19 By A. MESTON. Few people have any knowledge of the vast amount of works, reports, and papers that have been written on the anthropology, ethnology, and geological history of the aboriginals of Australia and Tasmania. Many of »
Ben Andrew, Senior Geologist at Mt Isa Mines submitted a captivating PhD thesis (Andrews, B.S., 2020) in 2020 on alteration at Mt Isa and its implications for fluid flow of the hydrothermal fluid that formed the world class Cu and Pb-Zn-Ag orebodies. Here we summarize some of his δ18O results. »
Moreira, H., Storey, C., Bruand, E. et al. Sub-arc mantle fugacity shifted by sediment recycling across the Great Oxidation Event. Nat. Geosci. 16, 922–927 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-023-01258-4 Substantial accumulation of free oxygen in the atmosphere occurred between ~2.45 and 2.20 billion years ago , with permanent atmospheric oxygenation commencing between 2.3 and 2.2 Ga. This »
Queensland’s Early DaysBY C. Duncan LaidleyBrisbane Courier (Qld. : 1864 – 1933), Saturday 27 October 1923, page 19 I find it most interesting to read the Brisbane Courier from 100 years ago on a Saturday morning. It brings into stark relief the modern world, that which remains much the same »
The Curtis Nugget, the largest in Queensland, was discovered in Gympie, Queensland in 1868 by Curtis and Brigg on a lease close to the initial claim of the discoverer of the Gympie Goldfield, James Nash. The claim where the Curtis nugget was found had been pegged earlier by George Curtis »
This post is a summary of the excellent recent paper on the above topic in Economic Geology: Jeffrey W. Hedenquist, Antonio Arribas; Exploration Implications of Multiple Formation Environments of Advanced Argillic Minerals. Economic Geology 2022;; 117 (3): 609–643. https://doi.org/10.5382/econgeo.4880 Introduction Hydrothermal ore deposits are associated with alteration minerals, and one such alteration type »
I find it most interesting to read the Brisbane Courier from 100 years ago on a Saturday morning. It brings into stark relief the modern world, that which remains much the same and that which has evolved beyond belief in such a short period of time. Here is a transcription »
Introduction The Earth’s lithosphere is its rigid outer shell, which rests on the more fluid asthenosphere. The thickness of the lithosphere varies, from a few kilometers at ocean spreading centers to 250-300 kilometers within continental cratons. There are two significant seismic boundaries in the crust and upper mantle: the Mohorovicic »
Let us ask an AI about the impact of AI on employment opportunities Q: Create a list of jobs that can be replaced with AI A: As AI technology continues to advance, there are several jobs that could potentially be replaced or significantly impacted by automation. However, it’s essential to »
The newly released film, “Oppenheimer“, directed by Christopher Nolan, seeks to examine the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer and indeed re-write the history of this pivotal figure in the rapid development of the first atomic weapons. My expectation was that Oppenheimer would dramatize the events surrounding the Manhattan Project and »
South32 has undertaken a review of the carrying value of the Hermosa Project consisting of the Taylor Zn-Pb-Ag deposit and the Clark Mn deposit. South 32 acquired the Hermosa Project through the all-cash offer for TSX listed Arizona Mining Inc. in August 2018, paying C$6.20 per share. This was a »
MINES AND MININGThe Brisbane CourierJune 30th 1923 The Cloncurry Field There is no question that the future of the Cloncurry copper field is of vital moment, not only to Queensland, but to Australia. Here we have some of the richest copper deposits in the British empire, but, possibly, through lack »
Siem Reap has 98km of new roads and new sidewalks much of which has been paved with interesting felsic intrusive rocks from quarries in Shandong Province in China. The composition ranges from granodiorite to tonalite and is locally granophyric and pegmatitic. The intrusive consists dominantly of plagioclase, quartz, pyroxene and »
This post is a summary and review of Murphy, B., Hjuizenga, J. and Bedrosian, P., 2022. Graphite as an electrically conductive indicator of ancient crustal-scale fluid flow within mineral systems. Earth and Planetary Science Letters. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117700 Summary Magnetotelluric (MT) imaging has shown an apparent connection between crustal-scale electrical conductivity anomalies »
