AuScope funds $1M Curnamona Earth Imaging Project
Mineral discoveries in the Curnamona Province have been made in and around bedrock exposures, which account for less than 10% of the landscape, leaving the remaining 90% under regolith (cover rock sequences) unexplored — this new AuScope funding is set to help geoscientists explore under it. Image: Simon Maisch
We are excited to announce $700K of funding for a collaborative research infrastructure project in the Curnamona Province located across South Australia and New South Wales, between 2020 and 2022. Together with operational funding, this Curnamona Earth Imaging Project represents over $1M of NCRIS investment via AuScope, and creates a golden opportunity to map an entire geological province in 3D to help find new deposits of critical minerals.
Project Overview
The Curnamona Deep Earth Imaging Project (the Project) is designed to help scientists see through the thick geological cover rock sequences that blankets the Curnamona Province which is situated across the South Australian and New South Wales state border. It is one of the most remote and poorly known locations on Earth. For mineral explorers, it represents great opportunity, as Program leader, Prof Graham Heinson from from The University of Adelaide explains:
“Despite hosting the world’s richest and largest zinc-lead ore deposit at Broken Hill, much of the Curnamona Province is greenfields, due to extensive sedimentary cover. However, the tectonic and metamorphic evolution of the Province shares similarity to the eastern Gawler Craton and Stuart Shelf, and the Mount Isa Province, suggesting that the Curnamona Province may similarly host additional resources.”
The Project will involve two phases: first, the Curnamona Cube Program, which will generate a deep earth image of the whole Curnamona Province; and second, the Curnamona SuperSite Program which will form a pilot observatory site to peer into earth’s interior, eventually linking with similar SuperSites across Australia.
Curnamona Cube Program (Roving)
The Curnamona Cube represents the volume of crust from the surface to the base of the Australian continental plate within the Curnamona Province. In the Curnamona Cube Program, we will collect data across a total of 400 sites across the surface of the Curnamona Cube, including 200 magnetotellurics (MT) and 200 seismic sites (yellow triangles) in a grid with spacing of 20 km.
Location of the Curnamona Province and other Proterozoic terrains in Australia (left) and location of AuScope earth imaging sites within the Curnamona Province. Images: Barovich and Hand and Prof Graham Heinson, respectively.
AuScope funding will provide the logistics of deployment and data collection over an area approximately 90,000 square kilometres across two States. New data will generate models of the Curnamona’s physical properties of the crust and mantle, with dimensions of 300 km east-west, 300 km north-south and up to 300 km into the Earth. The resulting model, the Curnamona Cube, will give unique insights into the evolution of this ancient Province and unlock opportunities for mineral exploration.
Curnamona SuperSite (In Situ)
Concurrently, we will develop the Curnamona SuperSite located in the centre of the Curnamona Province. We will collect ultra-long time-series MT, passive seismic and heat-flow data to provide insights as to how data are processed and analysed in the academic community and as a long-term observatory platform (over many years) to probe deep into the Earth. The heat flow measurements are particularly novel using heat-needle technology developed by Dr Graeme Beardsmore from AuScope’s NDI-Heatflow Pilot Project.
We will create a grid of nine multi-instrument observation sites, spaced 1 km apart, and potentially link them to satellites to provide real-time data analytics remotely. We may also incorporate edge computing technologies in which data processing is undertaken at the instrument site. The Curnamona SuperSite will be a hub for future Earth observations with a wide variety of sensors.
Impact
Prof Graham Heinson explains that the Project will bring together scientists from Adelaide, Canberra and Melbourne to provide unique insights into the deep Earth:
“AuScope will bring together researchers from the University of Adelaide, ANU and University of Melbourne, the State Geological Surveys of South Australia and New South Wales, Geoscience Australia, and industrial partners at Fleet Space Technology and Havilah Resources.”
He says it will provide global communities across academia, government and industry with data and model packages that will be a globally unique resources:
“This project will define an entire Province geophysically, from the surface to the asthenosphere. Aside from the deep geophysical imaging, other geophysical data sets (magnetics, gravity), geology (mapping, structure) and geochemistry (isotopes, geochronology) will be integrated over time into the Curnamona Cube release to characterise the Province.”
AuScope CEO, Dr Tim Rawling is excited that it will mark the birth of AuScope’s expanding capability known conceptually as the Downward-Looking Telescope (DLT), allowing researchers to ‘see clearer and deeper’ into Earth to help address Australia’s decadal geoscience challenges:
“This Project is our first foray into multiple co-located infrastructure deployment. The project will serve not only as a pilot study for the DLT but will also provide valuable geoscience data from a complex and important geologic province.”
LEARN MORE
Please contact Prof Graham Heinson
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