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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Sedimentology Of Acid Saline Lakes In Southern Western Australia: Newly Described Processes And Products Of An Extreme Environment, Kathleen Counter Benison, Brenda Beitler Bowen, Francisca Oboh-Ikuenobe, Elliot A. Jagniecki, Deidre A. Laclair, Stacy L. Story, Melanie R. Mormile, Boyoung Hong Mar 2007

Sedimentology Of Acid Saline Lakes In Southern Western Australia: Newly Described Processes And Products Of An Extreme Environment, Kathleen Counter Benison, Brenda Beitler Bowen, Francisca Oboh-Ikuenobe, Elliot A. Jagniecki, Deidre A. Laclair, Stacy L. Story, Melanie R. Mormile, Boyoung Hong

Geosciences and Geological and Petroleum Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Naturally acid saline systems with pH values between 1.7 and 4 are common on the Yilgarn Craton of southern Western Australia. a combination of physical and chemical processes here yield a previously undescribed type of modern sedimentary environment. Flooding, evapoconcentration, desiccation, and eolian transport at the surface, as well as influx of acid saline groundwaters, strongly influence these lakes. Halite, gypsum, kaolinite, and iron oxides precipitate from acid hypersaline lake waters. Shallow acid saline groundwaters affect the sediments of the lakes and associated mudflats, sandflats, channels, and dunes by precipitating early diagenetic halite, gypsum, iron oxides, clays, jarosite, and alunite. …


Cosmogenic Mega-Tsunami In The Australia Region: Are They Supported By Aboriginal And Maori Legends?, Edward A. Bryant, G. Walsh, D. Abbott Feb 2007

Cosmogenic Mega-Tsunami In The Australia Region: Are They Supported By Aboriginal And Maori Legends?, Edward A. Bryant, G. Walsh, D. Abbott

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Mega-tsunami have affected much of the coastline of Australia over the past millennium. Such catastrophic waves have left an imprint consisting predominently of bedrock sculpturing of the rocky coastline and deposition of marine sediments to elevations reaching 130 mabove sea level. One of the largest of these events occurred in eastern Australia in the fifteenth century. This event may be related to the Mahuika impact crater found at 48.38 S, 166.48 E on the continental shelf 250 km south of New Zealand. A comet at least 500 m in diameter formed the crater. Maori and Aboriginal legends allude to significant …


Spatial And Temporal Patterns Of Abundance And Recruitment Of Ghost Shrimp Trypaea Australiensis Across Hierarchical Scales In South-Eastern Australia, Douglas Rotherham, R. J. West Jan 2007

Spatial And Temporal Patterns Of Abundance And Recruitment Of Ghost Shrimp Trypaea Australiensis Across Hierarchical Scales In South-Eastern Australia, Douglas Rotherham, R. J. West

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Spatial and temporal variation in abundance and recruitment of burrowing ghost shrimp Trypaea australiensis was examined across 3 south-eastern Australian estuaries using a hierarchical sampling design, over a 2 yr period. We tested the hypothesis that abundances of shrimp were different between plots (10s to 100s of metres apart), sites within estuaries (kilometres apart), estuaries (100s of kilometres apart) and through time. More frequent sampling at 1 site also examined temporal variation at scales of months, seasons and years. Another aim was to investigate the reliability of using counts of burrow openings to indirectly measure the relative abundance of T, …


Water Quality In The Illawarra-South Coast Region Of New South Wales, Australia, Robert John Morrison, Mark R. O'Donnell Jan 2007

Water Quality In The Illawarra-South Coast Region Of New South Wales, Australia, Robert John Morrison, Mark R. O'Donnell

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

Water quality is a serious environmental concern in the South Coast region of New South Wales as many aspects of human ecology and the economy are dependant on good water quality. Apart from drinking water for residents and visitors, tourism and agricultural productivity rely on good quality water. This paper presents an overview of general issues with regard to the development of water quality assessment procedures and programs, and discusses a number of issues considered important for the region. These include the impacts of increasing urbanisation, industrial activity (including mining), the potential wider use of groundwater and the improved management …


Structural, Metamorphic, And Geochronological Constraints On Alternating Compression And Extension In The Early Paleozoic Gondwanan Pacific Margin, Northeastern Australia, Christopher L. Fergusson, R A Henderson, I. W. Withnall, C M Fanning, D. Phillips, K. J. Lewthwaite Jan 2007

Structural, Metamorphic, And Geochronological Constraints On Alternating Compression And Extension In The Early Paleozoic Gondwanan Pacific Margin, Northeastern Australia, Christopher L. Fergusson, R A Henderson, I. W. Withnall, C M Fanning, D. Phillips, K. J. Lewthwaite

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

The Ross-Delamerian orogenic belt formed along the early Paleozoic active Pacific margin of the newly merged Gondwana supercontinent. In its northern-most segment in the Townsville region of northeastern Australia, we have identified a short contractional phase of the Delamerian orogeny in the Argentine Metamorphics postdating formation of a mafic breccia with a U-Pb zircon age of 500 ± 4 Ma. Contraction was followed by widespread inferred extensional deformation with formation of flat-lying foliation, domal features, and amphibolite grade and greenschist retrograde metamorphism all synchronous with latest Cambrian to Early Ordovician extensional backarc volcanism, sedimentation and intrusions. One of these intrusions …


Detrital Zircon Ages In Neoproterozoic To Ordovician Siliciclastic Rocks, Northeastern Australia: Implications For The Tectonic History Of The East Gondwana Continental Margin, Christopher L. Fergusson, Robert A. Henderson, C Mark Fanning, Ian W. Withnall Jan 2007

Detrital Zircon Ages In Neoproterozoic To Ordovician Siliciclastic Rocks, Northeastern Australia: Implications For The Tectonic History Of The East Gondwana Continental Margin, Christopher L. Fergusson, Robert A. Henderson, C Mark Fanning, Ian W. Withnall

Faculty of Science - Papers (Archive)

U–Pb detrital zircon ages in variably metamorphosed, dominantly fine-grained clastic successions are used in northeastern Australia to identify two major successions along the East Gondwana margin. The older succession is of probable Late Neoproterozoic age and is considered part of a passive margin associated with rifting at c. 600 Ma. Most detrital zircons have ages in the range 1000–1300 Ma and were probably derived from an extension of a Late Mesoproterozoic (1050–1200 Ma) orogenic belt from the central Australian Musgrave Complex located 1500 km to the west. No evidence has been found for 600–800 Ma rifting of a Rodinian supercontinent …