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 SA AIG Geopub 3rd August 2023“Four Topics. Four Geos. For one night. Four Honours students from the University of Adelaide” First SpeakerPresenter: Lucy Stokes Drilling into the T(r)ooth: Stable Isotopes reveal Mid-Pleistocene Climate Cycling at the Naracoorte CavesTalk Description Understanding how species have reacted to past climate change is essential to understanding the impacts of modern, human-altered climate change. Without being able to directly measure past climate however, proxies are required. Enter: cave deposits. The Naracoorte Caves are a World Heritage fossil site, which have recorded the recent natural history of south-east South Australia. The site of focus (Fossil Chamber, Victoria Fossil Cave) spans multiple glacial and interglacial cycles from ~500 to 220 ka. My project aims to examine local climate and environmental variables, such as relative humidity and diet, via oxygen (?18O) and carbon (?13C) stable isotopes in grey kangaroo and Red-Necked Wallaby tooth enamel, over four depositional units. Second SpeakerPresenter: Ted Schmaal The Mystery of Kanmantoo’s Paragenesis; Getting to the ‘rock’ bottom of it.Talk Description The Paragenesis of the Kanmantoo Cu-Au deposit has been a topic of debate since research on the site commenced in the late 60’s. Due to the pervasive metamorphic and deformational history of the host rock at the forefront of the Delamerian Orogen, pinning down the source of the ore forming fluid has been difficult. This project focusses on compiling data from geochemical and petrological analyses on one of the ‘Stella’ drill holes, located 1km south of the open pit mine in Kanmantoo. Through a suite of multiple analytical methods, we aim to provide more data to this field of research. Third SpeakerPresenter: Holly Cooke Nature knows no waste. Opportunities for mine tailings reprocessing.Talk Description Earth took over 1 billion years of ground-breaking, rock-melting, and mineral-making to create the Antakirinja Matu-Yankunytjatjara land we call Prominent Hill. OZ Minerals took 13 years of mining, milling, and floating to create the tailings we reimagine as an anthropogenic critical metal deposit. Residing in the Prominent Hill tailings storage facility (TSF) is over 120 million tonnes of earth’s finest minerals. Since we didn’t extract them, previously unconsidered elements now reside in processing waste. Yet … nature knows no waste. Nature knows hematite, quartz, and dolomite. Nature knows neodymium, praseodymium, and cerium. And given we understand Prominent Hill’s geological and metallurgical history, we suspect these materials are contained within Prominent Hill’s TSF. These metals mean something important for our modern lives, as does the considered management of ever-increasing quantities of mine waste across the globe. In collaboration with the Sustainable Minerals Institute, Think & Act Differently, and the University of Adelaide, Holly’s honours geochemically and mineralogically characterises Prominent Hill tailings to inform critical mineral reprocessing opportunities. Fourth SpeakerPresenter: Alice McIntyre Turkana and the Evolution of the East African OrogenTalk Description The East African Orogen (EAO) was the largest mountain belt of the last billion years, forming as the supercontinent Gondwana amalgamated during the late Neoproterozoic. Understanding the evolution of this mountain belt is crucial to understanding both the tectonic history of the Earth and the influence of orogenesis on earth surface systems. The EAO was a multiphase process, recording collision of continental fragments and the progressive accretion of island arcs during ocean closure. The Turkana province, situated on the margin of the Congo craton in present day Kenya, encompasses an understudied region of this orogenesis. New research aims to characterise the nature of high-grade metamorphism in this region and examine how these rocks fit into the existing time-space framework of the East African Orogen. By integrating geochronology and P-T pseudo sections with studies from adjacent areas, this research will also improve the global plate tectonic model of the Neoproterozoic.
For Geologists, geophysicists and students – everyone is welcome! Thanks to Bureau Veritas Group for sponsoring the night.
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