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Research Highlights (May 2011 to May 2012)

Other Highlights 
*Absolute calibration of satellite altimeters in Bass Strait, Australia
Earth Environment 
*The rise and fall of great earthquakes in Sumatra
*Tektites, minitektites and microtektites from the Kalgoorlie region, Western Australia
*Dramatic Vegetation Changes on the Island of Flores 71,000 years ago
*Rewriting human evolution with lasers
*Climatic and natural hazards in southern Australasia
*A record of 300 years of sea-surface temperatures from the Tasman Sea
*The composition of Australian aeorosols
*Coralline red algae record historical mining activity in New Caledonia.
*“Unmixing” Magnetic Mixtures
*The Indo-Australian Monsoon of the Last 25 ka: A Continuous Stalagmite Record from Sulawesi, Indonesia
*The World Heritage Fragum Shell Ridges of Shark Bay
*Seasonal variations in the coral environmental proxies from the southern Great Barrier Reef
*Nutrient signals in coral cores.
*New archaeological finds below Liang Bua: a split-level home for the Hobbit?
*Groundtruthing coral chemo-geodesy
*Indonesian stalagmite record of abrupt Heinrich stadial changes in the Australian monsoon 
*The Caribbean coral bleaching crisis
*Millennial-scale changes in the Australasian monsoon during the last deglaciation
*Australian landscapes
*The chronology of the WLH 50 human remains, Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area, Australia
*Coral records of calcification and reef water chemistry from the southern Great Barrier Reef
*High-pressure experiments on anhydrous carbonated eclogite at 9-20 GPa
*IODP Expedition 325 to the Great Barrier Reef 
*The 8.2 ka event in southern Australasia: a different response between the ocean and atmosphere?
*Sea Level variation and the Zonation of Stromatolites in Hamelin Pool, Shark Bay
*Studying the Earth by oceanic scientific drilling
*Rhodoliths: archives of environmental change.
*Air-breathing adaptation in a marine Devonian lungfish
*Characterising the macro and micro-nutrient status of the North Tasman Sea
*Fate and transport of chemicals in an ACT municipal wastewater treatment plant, its effluent, and receiving waters
*Which climate signals are captured in tropical speleothem records?
*Reconstructing the history of hydrologic change and drought in Australia
*Rhodoliths as environmental proxies in the marine realm,
*A new chronology for sea level highstands during the penultimate interglacial
*Landscape evolution and palaeoenvironment reconstruction of the Lake Mulurulu Lunette, Willandra Lakes World Heritage Area, NSW.
*High resolution Sr concentration and isotope distributions in a Neanderthal tooth from Payre (Ardèche, France) using laser ablation ICP-MS
*Climate change and coral reefs
*Coral and Speleothem Reconstructions of Ocean-Atmosphere Dynamics in Southern Indonesia during the 8.2 ka event
*The Quaternary comes in from the cold
*Silicon isotopic fractionation in marine sponges: A new paradigm and model for understanding silicon isotopic variations in sponges
*Coral calcification and ocean acidification in the central region of the Great Barrier Reef
*Extinction implications of a chenopod browse diet for a giant Pleistocene kangaroo
*Kalkowsky's association of stromatolites and oolites - re-evaluation and geological significance
*Sediment transport in the Murray Canyons offshore South Australia
*Polar forests on the edge of extinction
*Higher silicon concentrations in the Pacific sector the Southern Ocean during glacial times
*360 million-year-old giant predator discovered on the South Coast
*Lead isotopic evidence for an Australian source of aeolian dust to Antarctica at times over the last 170,000 years
*The boron geochemistry of biogenic silica
*Direct dating of fossil human remains
*Biological Germanium Discrimination in Diatoms
*Late Quaternary radiolarians as proxies for past environmental conditions in the eastern and southern sectors of the Indian Ocean
EM: Rock Physics 
*Dynamic permeability and the evolution of fluid pathways in fault networks
*Rheology & Seismic-Wave Attenuation in the Earth’s Upper Mantle
*Seismic Properties of Cracked and Fluid-Saturated Crustal Rocks
*Platinum group element abundances in the upper continental crust revisited
*Particle fluidization in fault zones:  implications for transitory, rupture-controlled fluid flow regimes
*Fluid pathway evolution within intrusion-related hydrothermal systems.
*The seismic properties of cracked and fluid-saturated crustal rocks
*Dynamic permeability and the evolution of fluid pathways in fault networks
*Dislocation damping & upper-mantle seismic wave attenuation
*Environmental Tracers in Waters of the Lower Murrumbidgee Catchment, New South Wales
*Dynamic permeability and the evolution of fluid pathways in fault networks
*Laboratory Studies of Rock Deformation, Dislocation Recovery and Attenuation
*A versatile facility for rock physics research
*Effects of stress states and fluid pressure regimes on fluid pathways and evolution of fluid compositions within intrusion-related hydrothermal systems.
EM: Petrology 
*Selenium speciation in silicate glasses
*Arc Peridotite Xenoliths
*Transition Metal Stable Isotopes at High Temperatures
*Melting of altered oceanic crust and consequences for the deep carbon cycle in subduction zones
*Mapping Fe3+ distribution in mantle garnet using Fe K-edge XANES
* Application of Fe K-Edge XANES Determinations of Fe3+/∑Fe in Garnet to Peridotite Xenoliths from the Udachnaya Kimberlite
*Al diffusion in olivine: an experimental study
*Quartz isn't always just quartz...
*First continental roots down-under: an outback window into Hadaean craton foundations
*The relationship between rock fabric and acoustic anisotropy in reservoir sandstones
*Experimental study of the diffusion of platinum group elements in rock forming minerals
*Experimental study of alumina diffusion in forsterite at different oxygen fugacities and different silica activities
*Mineralogical reservoirs for high-field strength elements in subducted crust in the mantle transition zone
*Mineral compositional controls on REE patterns in cratonic garnet lherzolite xenoliths and implications for mantle metasomatism
*Determining the origin of high sulfidation gold deposits: 
*Rejuvenating Rb-Sr dating: a retarded Rb decay constant and the magic of multiple collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry
*Synthesis and crystal structure of the new compound CuZrTiO5
*Zr-in-rutile thermometry of high-pressure and ultrahigh-pressure eclogites from western China
*Major Element Zonation in Garnet from the Wesselton Kimberlite pipe, South Africa
*Continent Formation in the Archean and Chemical Evolution of the Subcratonic Lithospheric Mantle
*Rubidium isotopes constrain the Earth’s volatile budget and its Pb isotope evolution
* A new synchrotron-technique for measuring Fe3+ in mantle garnets – implications for diamond stability in cratonic lithosphere
*Melt transport in the mantle
*Squeezing out the upper mantle: melt evolution of voluminous mafic layered intrusions
*Peridotites from a submarine volcanic front arc volcano: a global first
*Accretion of seamounts and oceanic islands in subduction zones
*The oxidation state of terrestrial basalts revisited
*The CO2 paradox in subduction zones
*Multi-element Comparisons of Natural and Anthropogenic Inputs into Pristine Estuarine Sediments, Merimbula, N.S.W., Australia
*Experimental constraints on chlorine behavior in subducted sediments
*Ni Partitioning Between Olivine and Silicate Melt
*An experimental study of the upper mantle melting behaviour of recycled carbonate eclogite at 3.5-5.5 GPa
*Archaean asteroid impacts, banded iron formations and sulphur MIF-S anomalies.
*A Monte Carlo study of short- and long-range order of tetrahedral cations in sapphirine and khmaralite
*Asteroid impact connections of crustal evolution
*A probable end-Eocene impact structure under the Timor Sea
*The Nb-Ta chicken-egg problem
EM: Tectonics 
*Where does India end and Eurasia begin?
*Does India's slow-down mark its collision with Eurasia?
*Experimental determination of diffusion rates between garnet & ilmenite using pulsed laser deposition of thin films
*The structure of subucting lithospheric slabs
*White mica 40Ar/39Ar data - the key to the thermal evolution of faults
*Geodynamics of the New Britain Trench
*A deformable tectonic reconstruction of Australia's Southern Margin
*Pervasive remagnetisation of Australian crust: Variscan tectonic extrusion
*Observations of element concentration profiles surrounding ilmenite inclusions in garnet from the Barrovian Metamorphic series, Scotland
*Geodynamics of the 2010 Chilean Great Earthquake
*Diffusional rims and moats around ilmenite inclusions in garnet and their significance for garnet geospeedometry 
*Gravity drives Great Earthquakes
*Evolution of the subducting Solomon Sea Plate
*Evidence of (subduction-related?) magmatism after "the collision" of India and Eurasia
*Tectonic reconstruction using deformable plates
*Dating a major shear zone in the Central European Alps - The Forcola Fault
*Variscan deformation of Australia ─ A heretic view of the Alice Springs Orogeny,  Australia-Asia collision and tectonic extrusion
Earth Chemistry 
*Extra-terrestrial life probably like life on Earth
*What makes our Earth habitable? Are there other habitable Earths in the Universe?
*Chilly seas along the Late Triassic north African coast: evidence from oxygen isotopic compositions of Sicilian conodonts.
*The U-Pb systematics and cooling rate of plutonic angrite NWA 4590
*Far travelled zircons in the mountains of northern Norway
*Solar-wind exposure effects on lunar grains: 
*Unravelling the Shimla klippe: Microstructures and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology 
*Geochronology of accessory allanite and monazite in the Barrovian metamorphic sequence of the Central Alps, Switzerland.
*Noble gas and carbon isotope ratios in Argyle diamonds, Western Australia
*The oldest carotane pigments in the geological record
*Zr-in-rutile thermometry provides a robust record of peak metamorphic conditions in the lower crust (Ivrea–Verbano Zone, Italy)
*Rapid crustal recycling from magma to mud to magma
*Geochemistry of UHP melting
*How variable is the oxygen isotopic composition of the upper mantle? 
*Timing of the closure of the ancient Tethys Ocean that separated Eurasia and Gondwana
*The redox evolution of ancient Australian Oceans
* Yo-Yo subduction recorded by accessory minerals in the Sesia Zone, Western Alps
* The link between ocean-continent transition zones and (ultra-)high pressure metamorphism: a geochronology study
*Zircon and monazite can really stand the heat
*A new protocol for in situ measurement of the hafnium isotope composition of rutile
*Early crustal evolution deduced from a combined U-Pb and Sm-Nd isotopic study of Mt. Narryer and Jack Hills monazites
*Enrichment of Rh, Ru, Ir and Os in Cr spinels from oxidized magmas: evidence from the Ambae lava, Vanuatu arc
*Biogeochemical Evolution in Neoproterozoic Oceans
*He, Ne and Ar in peridotitic and eclogitic paragenesis diamonds from the Jwaneng kimberlite, Botswana
*Assessing microbial diversity during the deposition of a Neoproterozoic (c.800 Ma) saline giant: evaporites as an archive for Precambrian halophiles
*New constraints on the global halogen cycle
*Dating Himalayan microstructures using 40Ar/39Ar geochronology
*Exhumation of rocks from great depth: squeezed out in a channel,  or a roller-coaster ride as they are torn out by deep crustal faults? 
*Solar-wind exposure effects on lunar soil:
*Trace element mapping of olivine from pallasite meteorites using LA-ICP-MS
*Age Determination and Growth Rates in Deep-Water Bamboo Corals (Isididae)
*Calibration of GA1550 biotite standard for K/Ar and 40Ar/39Ar dating
*Biomarkers show that complex life is 1 billion years younger than previously thought
*Deglacial CO2 rise and ventilation of the deep Southern Ocean
*The Potato Radius
*How efficiently does the crust melt?
*Age of volcanism and its migration in the Samoa Islands
*Tectonic sequence diagrams used to characterise the evolution of the ductile movement zones in NW Himalaya
*Solar-wind exposure effects on lunar grains:
*He, Ne and Ar in peridotitic and eclogitic paragenesis diamonds from the Jwaneng kimberlite, Botswana – constraints on diamond formation
*Molecular characterization of a Neoproterozoic hypersaline ecosystem
*The Succession of Oxygen Producers in Early Oceans
*Sugar, spice and everything nice... The search for elemental ingredients of life
*We are made of star dust
*Successes and limitations of extinct nuclide initial abundances in meteorites by in-situ analysis
*SHRIMP 'keyhole' geochronology: evidence for an extension of the Svecofennian orogenic province into north-eastern Poland
*Experimental study of monazite/melt trace element partitioning
*Testing the significance of hafnium isotopes in rutile across a crust-mantle transition
*Genesis of granites: U-Pb geochronology and O-Hf isotopic analyses
*Rate of growth of the preserved North American continental crust
*Early crustal evolution deduced from monazite geochronology and geochemistry
*Noble gases and halogens in metamorphic, magmatic and hydrothermal systems
*Importance of uranium isotope variations for chronology of the Solar System’s first solids
*Argon geochronology and microstructural analysis: a unique and reliable duo
EP: Seis & Math Geophysics 
*Extending the Global Database of Geomagnetic Excursions
*Varying mechanical coupling along the Andean margin: Implications for trench curvature, shortening and topography
*Crustal Structure of Australia from Ambient Seismic Noise Tomography
*Self Adaptive Surface Reconstruction from Multiple Datasets
*AuSREM – Australian Seismological Reference Earth Model
*Building a Dual Purpose Network: The Australian Seismometers in Schools Program (AuSIS)
*Seismic structure of the southeast Australian lithosphere from surface and body wave tomography
*3-D Structure of Flinders Ranges from Local Earthquake Tomography
*AusMoho: the variation of Moho depth across Australia
*Signals from Noise: High-Resolution Maps of the Southeast Australian Crust
*The Shuffling Rotation of the Earth's Inner Core 
*Structural controls on the Mw 9.0 2011 Offshore-Tohoku earthquake
*Benford's law of first digits: a universal phenomenon
*Earthquake location and source determination using coda waves
*Crustal Stress in the Flinders Ranges, South Australia
*The Threat from Tsunamis Generated on the Tonga Trench
*Imaging Turkey’s Crust
*The Ambient Noise Tomography of Turkey
*Crustal Structure of Australia from Ambient Seismic Noise Tomography
*Is the Earth's Inner Core a Conglomerate of Anisotropic Domains?
*Monsoon speeds up Indian plate motion
*Transdimensional Inversion of Receiver Functions with the Hierarchical Bayes Algorithm
*Seismic multi-pathing in complex media
*Passive seismic imaging of the southern Tasmanides
*Varying mechanical coupling along the Andean margin: implications for trench curvature.
*TerraWulf II: Many hands make light work of data analysis
*High Resolution Imaging of the Core Mantle Boundary with PcP-P Differential Travel Time Residuals
*Tears or thinning?
*Ambient noise tomography of southeast Australia using WOMBAT seismic data
*A Synthesis of Local, Teleseismic, and Ambient Noise Data for High-Resolution Models of Seismic Structure in Western and Southeast Australia.
*South Australian Seismic Arrays
*High Frequency Po/So and the nature of the oceanic lithosphere
*A portrait of the Bárdarbunga volcano, Iceland, earthquake and insights into the kinematics of the caldera drop
*Model dimension and data uncertainty in non linear inversion : An expanded Bayesian formulation.
EP: GFD 
*A New Conceptual Model for the Antarctic Circumpolar Current
*The Effects of Turbulent Mixing on the Global Ocean Overturning
*Isothermal dynamics of channelled viscoplastic lava flows
*How quickly does the ocean adjust to changes in surface forcing?
*Balancing the Southern Ocean
*What drives the Antarctic Circumpolar Current?
*Response of Southern Ocean overturning to future climate change
*The energetics of ocean circulation: the link between surface buoyancy forcing and the global rate of mechanical mixing
*The effects of marginal seas on ocean density
*Rayleigh-Taylor instability of an inclined buoyant viscous cylinder
*Thermal erosion of felsic ground by the laminar flow of a basaltic lava
*Wind forcing of the Southern Ocean
*Mixing in flows between ocean basins
*Eddy response of the Southern Ocean to climate mode forcing
*The global ocean overturning: what pushes must pull
*Internal gravity waves and convection
EP: Geodynamics 
*Leaky LMS Algorithm and Fractional  Brownian Motion Model for GNSS Receiver Position Estimation
*The anatomy of interglacial sea levels 
*Reconstruction of the Laurentide Ice Sheet
*Developing temporal gravity fields from GRACE observations
*The effects of isolated catchments on calculations of GIA
*A technique for estimating GIA effects from observations of the Earth's gravity field
*AuScope Geospatial Gravity Programme
*New High Resolution Seismic Imaging of the Core-Mantle Boundary with the WOMBAT Array
*New High-Resolution Seismic Attenuation Imaging of Australian Lithosphere with the WOMBAT Array
*Hydrological deformation of the Earth
*Improving GPS analysis strategies
*Monitoring groundwater variations in the Murray-Darling basin using space gravity measurements
*Slow slip subduction events in Mexico detected by GPS
PRISE 
*Rapid Emplacement Of The One Of The World’s Greatest Continental Magmatic Provinces
*Lu-Hf isotope evidence for the provenance of Permian detritus in accretionary complexes of Patagonia and the Antarctic Peninsula region
*Cosmic Time Machine
*Tracking Formation and Transport of Apollo 16 Lunar Impact Glasses through Chemistry and Dating
*Experimental phase and melting relations of metapelite in the upper mantle – implications for the petrogenesis of intraplate magmas
*Imbrium Provenance for the Apollo 16 Descartes Terrain: Argon Ages and Geochemistry of Lunar Breccias
Other Highlights 
*New bradoriids (Arthropoda) from the early Middle Cambrian of the Georgina Basin, central Australia
*Late Devonian benthic ostracod fauna from the Bonaparte Basin, NW Australia: their biostratigraphy, palaeoecology and palaeozoogeographic links
*Geological exploration of Australia in the early 19th century
*Planetary Crusts: Their Composition, Origin and and Evolution