CEO's update
Studying earth sciences doesn’t just let you understand how the Earth works, it makes you a storyteller. From mountains to pebbles, and oceans to salt lakes, everything has a story waiting to be told. Image: Henry Rawling.
Happy #EarthScienceWeek, AuScopers. I hope that all your crystals are recharged. There is much to celebrate in our space, so check out our social media channels for great stories, profiles, gadgets and animations.
One of the most significant activities of the last quarter was the establishment of the AuScope Geochemistry Network (AGN). This is a change in the way that the AuScope Earth Composition and Evolution project will be managed and is intended to develop a national network of geochemistry laboratories in response to recommendations delivered in the 2018 Independent Review.
The AGN will produce greater coordination, visibility, impact and better aligned data management practices across the existing laboratory partner nodes and will reach out to other laboratories to explore opportunities for collaboration and future expansion.
The changes will also allow deeper cooperation between AuScope’s ECE and AVRE programs, with the ultimate goal of using the AuScope Discovery Portal as a centralised repository of multiple isotopic data sets of international scale. The Australian geoscience community will be able to access this “isotopic atlas” to create derivative maps that highlight Earth system processes that have shaped the formation and evolution of Australia and its resource endowment.
We are delighted to welcome Dr Alexander Prent into the new AGN Coordinator role. Alexander will be based at Curtin University and will focus on developing the network in the coming years. Follow along with developments on Twitter and Instagram.
We would also like to draw your attention to the new ANSIR website which is now hosted by AuScope. ANSIR is the community managed organisation responsible for providing access to the various suites of geophysical tools made available to the Australian geoscience community through AuScope/NCRIS and other investments and we are very happy that we have been able to better align with our related program pages.
We are also excited to be developing the much discussed AuScope Strategy and Investment plans and will be releasing draft versions to the community for discussion before the end of the year. Stay tuned here for more details later in November.
I hope you enjoy this edition of the AuScope newsletter. As usual it contains a number of interesting articles covering everything from new interpretations from the recently released Alpine Reflections Seismic dataset in Victoria and NSW, new ways to model the Earth’s temperature, mixing art and science with HyLogger data at the Darwin Festival, and a bunch of amazing outreach and science promotion activities including the GEMS event at ANU targeted at engaging more young women in geoscience.
Until next quarter, keep on rocking. Tim
IDEAS?
If you would like to discuss opportunities for collaboration with AuScope, please get in touch with Tim Rawling.