AGN Webinar 7: An Isotopic Atlas of Australia: foundational data for national benefit
Building Australia’s Isotopic Atlas.
In the AGN’s 7th public webinar, Dr Geoff Fraser and Kathryn Waltenburg (both of Geoscience Australia) delivered a webinar on the development of an Isotopic Atlas of Australia, encompassing five different isotopic systems.
Opportunity to reveal the inner workings of Australia
Geological maps and geophysical models provide increasingly high resolution images of the current configuration of the Australian continent, revealing a range of features from the shallow crust to the base of the lithosphere. These modern day features are a result of ~4 billion years of continental evolution and appropriate interpretation of their origin requires additional constraints, some of which can be provided by radiogenic isotopes. In general, however, the collation and visualisation of age and isotopic data has not kept pace with the development of images and maps based on geophysical datasets, limiting the systematic spatial integration of geochemical and geophysical observations. There is an opportunity for the geochemical and isotopic community to address these limitations by providing regional and national-scale datasets and derivative maps.
Data for all
Geoff and Kathryn noted that the scope and interest in this style of work extends well beyond Geoscience Australia. Indeed, recent developments within the AuScope-funded Australian Geochemistry Network (AGN) have demonstrated broad community support for a more coordinated and integrated approach to geochemistry and isotopic studies. There is opportunity across the geochemistry community to maximise the value of our legacy data, and to garner support for additional data and geochemical tools, by demonstrating how those data provide unique insights into the evolution of our continent, and the practical applications of those insights.
We were fortunate to see the progress being made by Geoscience Australia, and the exciting future opportunities to broaden the range of chemical and isotopic maps, for a range of geoscience applications.
You can watch the webinar in full here.
An Isotopic Atlas
Geoscience Australia have embarked on the path of developing an “isotopic atlas” utilising five different isotopic systems (Sm-Nd, Lu-Hf, U-Pb, K-Ar, Pb-Pb). In recent years we have worked to: (i) expand the geographic coverage of these data, and (ii) upgrade the underlying data infrastructure to allow more flexible and powerful visualisation and data delivery (e.g. via web services).
WRITTEN BY
Hayden Dalton and the AGN team