Christmas Luncheon Menu 2024
25th December 2024: The menu for Christmas Day. On schedule and as expected, a fine time was had by all. »
Deciphering the Surface Expressions of Subduction-Driven Mantle Flow
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. »
Scriptura Continua: When Words Flowed Without Spaces
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. »
Research Review: North Australian Craton Margin Geometry and Relationship to Deep Crustal Structures
Craton margins: Craton margins are dipping discontinuities, wedge-shaped crustal and lithospheric geometries where younger, weaker rocks collide with stronger, older craton rocks. They can be found in locations with high topography, higher metamorphic grade, and boundaries or transitions in lithospheric geometry found in geophysical data. There are two types of »
A New Model for the Age of This Universe: 26.7 Gyr.
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 »
Research Article Summary: 2 Billion Year mafic rocks with Microbial Life
“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 »
Research Article Summary: A 485-million-year history of Earth’s surface temperature
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 »
Book Review: Kar-Kar Mitakoodi Traditional Medicinal Plant Uses of the Cloncurry Region
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 »
Australian Aboriginal Diet – A Model for a Modern Diet?
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 »
Australian Aboriginal Diet – A Model for a Modern Diet?
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 »
Major Advance in Telephone Communications
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 »
Old Moreton Bay Tribes. Their Lost Languages.
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 »
Fluid flow Model for the Mt Isa Cu and Pb-Zn-Ag Mineralization
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. »
Tracing Mantle-Oxygen Fugacity Changes Through the Great Oxidation Event: Insights from Apatite Inclusions in Brazilian Igneous Zircons
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 period is known as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE) and marks the most dramatic change in Earth’s surface chemistry and habitability. However, »
A Pioneer’s Recollections – Part 2
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 975 Oz CURTIS NUGGET – FOUND AT GYMPIE
Charles Collin was the son of Jules Andre Colin de Souvigny, who with the family emigrated to Brisbane, Australia in 1826, from Poitier, France. During the passage they shortened the family name to Colin likely to accommodate English sensitivities. Gustav Colin, the lad to center right of the image below, »
Formation Environments of Advanced Argillic Minerals & The Exploration Implications
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 »
A Pioneer’s Recollections – Part 1
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 »
A new Lithospheric and Tectonic Model for Earth
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 »
How Will AI Impact Employment Opportunities
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Oppenheimer – The Hagiography of a Scientist
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 »
The Taylor Zn-Pb-Ag Deposit – South32 Writes off Acquisition Cost
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 »
Mining News and Developments – Cloncurry and Gympie, Queensland, 1923
MINES AND MININGThe Brisbane CourierJune 30th 1923 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 of co-operation and »
A Miarolitic Cavity in Section
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 »
Unravelling the Mystery of Graphite-Rich Magmatic-Hydrothermal Mineral Systems: MT Imaging Results from Australia and the US
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 »
Is this an Analogue for the Massive Mt Isa Cu-Pb-Ag Deposit
The purpose of this post is to delineate the key characteristics of the Mt Isa deposit from an explorer’s pragmatic perspective and then discuss a possible analogue in the Eastern Succession, north of Cloncurry. Beside the fascinating tectonic, geological and structural history of the Mt Isa region, it represents the »
The Geophysical Signature of Mt Isa Cu, Zn-Pb-Ag Ore Bodies
At a regional scale the Mt Isa Cu and Zn-Pb-Ag deposits do not have a noticeable gravity or magnetic response. In addition there is little recent literature on the geophysical signature of the deposits and the data which is available is dated. Fallon and Busuttil 1992 and Valenta 2020 provide »
The Eastern Creek Volcanics: Source for the 8 Mt Copper Deposits at Mt Isa
Silver-lead ore was discovered at Mt Isa in 1923 but it was not until 1927 that a surface drill hole aimed to test silver-lead bodies at depth intersected 15 m of oxide copper and chalcocite grading 17% copper in the Black Rock area. This secondary mineralization was explored underground in »
A Giant Cu-Pb-Zn Deposit Geochemical and Geophysical Signature
The Mount Isa Province in northern Australia is one of the world’s most prospective regions for minerals. It hosts three of the ten largest Zn–Pb deposits in the world, the world-class sediment- hosted Mount Isa copper deposit, and the Ernest Henry IOCG. The Mount Isa copper (225 Mt at 3.3% »
A revised model for the George Fisher and Hilton Zn-Pb-Ag deposits, NW Queensland
This post is a review and summary of an excellent paper: Bradley Cave, Richard Lilly, Alexander Simpson, Lucy McGee, A revised model for the George Fisher and Hilton Zn-Pb-Ag deposits, NW Queensland: Insights from the geology, age and alteration of the local dolerite dykes, Ore Geology Reviews 154 (2023) 105311. »