Seeds of Science is creating a national PODs repository that safeguards raw geochemical data, strengthens FAIR and Open Science practices, and links samples, instruments, and publications through a transparent chain of custody.

This project aimed to advance critical minerals research by providing access to the Geoscience Atom Probe (GAP) Facility at Curtin University, enabling nanoscale analysis of mineral elements crucial for Australia's economic and security interests.

Expanding our knowledge of Australia’s geological ‘architecture’ and mineral potential: Extensions to the National Argon Map

The Mapping Australia’s Crust In Four Dimensions (MAC4D) project aimed to enhance ANU's SHRIMP-II age-mass spectrometer's capabilities, enabling the measurement of multiple isotopes crucial for mapping Australia's crust in four dimensions. This initiative helped facilitate the creation of integrated isotope-age maps, aiding in the discovery of new critical minerals.

This project aims to update outdated software across Ar-Ar laboratories in Australia to a unified open-source platform, enabling long-term accessibility, adaptability, and international compatibility.

Development of new dating methods will help push the boundaries of geochronology. Through the installation of a new laser system at Adelaide Microscopy, earth scientists can enhance their analyses of geological materials at an unprecedented rate, providing new temporal frameworks to resource exploration.

Groundwater sampling will receive a boost through the combined effort of the CSIRO and University of Adelaide’s noble gas facilities to contribute to the development of the AusGeochem database and subsequent research in water security and industry sectors.

AuScope is unlocking new insights into geological processes crucial for accumulating critical mineral deposits via revolutionising Sr-isotope micro-analysis in a range of geological materials using cutting-edge laser ablation multi-collector mass spectrometry (LA-MC-ICP-MS).

The AGN+ project piloted the expansion of the AuScope Geochemistry Network (AGN) through the addition of several new university geochemistry analytical facilities to enhance accessibility to key geochemical data sets.

Securing advanced analytical technology for novel minerals exploration research

The Australian Atom Trap Trace Analysis (ATTA) is a state-of-the-art sovereign facility for measuring noble gas radioisotope concentrations better than parts per trillion. It enables the full understanding of groundwater systems, with a strong focus on provenance and residence time.

Announcing the winners of AuScope’s 2024 Opportunity Fund. This initiative funds research projects to boost earth science infrastructure capacity and access.

In June 2024, NCRIS-enabled researchers joined a JAMSTEC mission off Japan's coast to explore deep-sea volcanoes to enhance our understanding of Earth's mantle dynamics, biogeochemical cycles, and tsunami mechanics.

The AuScope Geochemistry Network (AGN) brought together NCRIS enabled AGN scientists from Australia’s top universities with national and global Earth science organisations to showcase diverse projects and explore future digital infrastructure.

The 2023 Australian Earth Sciences Convention (AESC) held on Noongar Whadjuk boodja (country), will feature new geoscience insights from the Australian lithosphere to Earth's evolution and resources. Join us for NCRIS talks, workshops, presentations, and a shared booth with ANZIC.

The NCRIS enabled partnership between Australia’s national science agency CSIRO and the AuScope Geochemistry Network (AGN) has successfully preserved a valuable collection of geochemical data.

David Upton from Precompetitive Review explores AusGeochem's ability to visualise diverse data. He takes a closer look at the North Australia Craton and North China Craton in the Proterozoic with Dr Samuel Boone.

Recently, teams from our AuScope Geochemistry Network team and Museums Victoria collaborated to enhance researcher access to an extensive collection of data for museum-held rocks and mineral specimens via the NCRIS enabled AusGeochem platform. Here collaborators share details of their successful project.

Through AuScope’s AGN+ pilot project, the AuScope Geochemistry Network has expanded to 13 facility-based nodes from partner institutions across Australia. Recently, this expanded team consortium of Earth Science institutes met in Melbourne for the first time.

More than fifteen months of work for the AuScope Geochemistry Network (AGN) and partners Lithodat have recently culminated in the release of the AusGeochem platform. Let’s meet the faces behind the platform!

The AGN Project Team and collaborators Lithodat are excited to announce that the first iteration of the AusGeochem platform is now live! AusGeochem is a cloud-hosted open geochemistry data platform that is simultaneously a geosample registry, a geochemistry data repository, and an active research tool.

In the AGN’s 6th public webinar, Dr Matthew Gard, Dr Derrick Hasterok (both University of Adelaide) and Dr Jacqueline Halpin (University of Tasmania) delivered a webinar on building an internally consistent whole rock geochemical database, and analysis tools that are easily accessible and usable.

In the AGN’s fifth public webinar we heard from Dr Marnie Forster of ANU, the project leader for The National Argon Map project (NAM), who discussed the motivations behind the initiative and how geoscientists can get involved.

The AGN project team, together with the development team at Lithodat, continue to make fantastic progress on the construction of AusGeochem, with user experience front of mind. The platform is now in the internal alpha testing phase, where sample information can be uploaded and displayed graphically on the interactive map display.

Since our last update members of the AuScope Geochemistry Network (AGN) have presented at a number of conferences, developed proposals for the expansion of the network and made great progress on the development of the AusGeochem platform and a new project, LabFinder.

Scientists from Curtin University have used an NCRIS-enabled analytical technique, normally applied to rocks, in a different way; determining the concentration of metals accumulating in the scales of snakes living in urban wetland environments. The results are concerning, but the non-lethal approach to tissue sampling will be advantageous in the future.

The year 2021 started quickly for the Australian Earth Science community, with the Australian Earth Science Convention (AESC) taking place in February. This year, proceedings took place completely online and with an innovative format including both pre-recorded and live-streamed presentations, allowing participants to take conversations deeper during Q and A sessions.

It’s rare to have a mineral named after oneself, but it’s something that distinguished Professor Sue O’Reilly can now add to her extensive accolades after a rare and exotic mineral from the Mt Carmel Ranges in Israel was recognised in an NCRIS and AuScope enabled Macquarie GeoAnalytical (MQGA) facility in Sydney.

In the AGN’s fourth webinar in the series we heard from the Macquarie University GeoAnalytical (MQGA) team as they discussed their evolution in analytical capabilities over the past 25 years and the development of the TerraneChron methodology.

In the AGN’s third webinar, we heard from the Melbourne Low-Temperature Thermochronology Research Group and Lithodat about the history of their extensive sample archive and successful integration into AusGeochem.

In our second webinar, we heard learned about the vast McNaughton SHRIMP collection in Western Australia, and previewed the fast-growing AusGeochem Platform.

The Government of Western Australia announced a $3.2M co-investment with AuScope and Curtin University today to enable the replacement of a 27-year old instrument at the John de Laeter Centre (JdLC), allowing researchers to continue to unveil secrets of the universe.

In our first webinar, the AGN team discussed our progress in building the AusGeochem platform and introduced our aims to create a collaborative network for all Australian geochemistry laboratories.

In the hunt for new mineral deposits in Western Australia, researchers at Curtin University have turned their attention to the mineral rutile as a possible indicator, revealing a potentially game-changing insight for mineral explorers.

Despite a challenging start to the year, we have been working busily behind the scenes around the country to co-design with the geochemistry community a digital solution that makes geochemical data FAIR. And excitingly, our team has grown.

Recently, scientists at Curtin University analysed samples from the second-largest asteroid in our solar system, Vesta. We had a hand, quite literally, in preparing samples for this analysis at the John De Laeter Centre. But even more exciting than handling extraterrestrial samples are the researchers’ findings about Vesta’s early life.

Introducing the AuScope Geochemistry Network (AGN), a new project within the AuScope Earth Composition and Evolution (ECE) Program which aims to create, coordinate, promote and develop national geochemistry research infrastructure and maximise its use by the Australian research community.