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Mapping crustal lead isotopes across southeastern Australia reveals magma source signatures

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  • Continental-scale lead (Pb) isotopic mapping shows how relative uranium and thorium enrichment shaped crustal Pb over billions of years.
  • Combining K‑feldspar (records initial Pb) with whole‑rock (ingrowth‑corrected) data provides time‑resolved constraints on magma sources.
  • Lead isotope “isoscapes” delineate crustal domains, boundaries, and zones of mixing/re‑equilibration, while supporting mineral systems targeting, geochronology, and environmental/forensic applications.

Liebmann, J., Ware, B., Mole, D.R., Kirkland, C.L., Fraser, G., Waltenberg, K., Bodorkos, S., Huston, D.L., Evans, N.J., McDonald, B.J., Rankenburg, K., Datta, P. & Tessalina, S. (2024). A crustal Pb isotope map of southeastern Australia. Scientific Data, 11, 1222. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03996-5.

Geochemistry
Resource Geoscience

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Pb Isotope Geochemistry
Pb Isotope Geochemistry

De-risking underground hydrogen storage: What makes a reservoir ready?

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  • Sandstone reservoirs offer strong potential, with generally high geochemical stability and negligible geochemical hydrogen loss, although reactive mineral cements require site-specific assessment.
  • Carbonate reservoirs present greater integrity risks, as mineral reactions can consume hydrogen, generate methane or hydrogen sulphide, and weaken the reservoir rock.
  • Storage integrity depends on more than geology: caprock, fractures, microbial activity, wellbore degradation and repeated hydrogen cycling can all create containment risks.

Zeng, L., Sarmadivaleh, M., Saeedi, A., Chen, Y., Zhong, Z. & Xie, Q. (2023). Storage integrity during underground hydrogen storage in depleted gas reservoirs. Earth-Science Reviews, 247, 104625. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2023.104625.

Structural Geology and Tectonics
Resource Geoscience
Resources Engineering and Extractive Metallurgy

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High-grade Terrain Geological Mapping
High-grade Terrain Geological Mapping

Smarter grain selection for reliable sediment provenance

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  • Choosing the largest or smallest mineral grains for geochronological analysis can skew age profiles, especially in poorly sorted sediment.
  • Representative grain size sub-sampling or truly random grain selection reduces potential operator bias and strengthens comparisons between sediment provenance studies.
  • About 240 well-selected grains capture facies-level age variability, supporting faster, reproducible mineral fingerprinting without sacrificing geological confidence.

Zametzer, A., Dröllner, M., Barham, M., Kirkland, C. L. & Norris, C. A. (2025). Grain selection for representative detrital zircon age populations. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 671, 119619. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119619.

Geochronology
Regolith and Sedimentology
Resource Geoscience

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Particle Analysis
Particle Analysis
U–Pb Geochronology
U–Pb Geochronology
Mineral Geochronology
Mineral Geochronology

Ocean Listening for Antarctic Minke Whales

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  • A bespoke convolutional neural network detected Antarctic minke whale “bio-duck” calls across nine East Antarctic and Western Australian soundscapes.
  • Performance was strongest in quieter Antarctic winter recordings, where lower ambient noise helped distinguish whale calls more reliably.
  • Industrial and biological sounds, including vessels, seismic airguns, humpback whales and dwarf minke whales, drove false detections in northern sites.

Darias-O’Hara, A. K., Nguyen Hong Duc, P., Madhusudhana, S., McCauley, R., Tollefsen, C., Erbe, C. & Miller, B. S. (2026). Machine learning methods for the detection of Antarctic Minke Whales (Balaenoptera bonaerensis) in East Antarctica and Western Australia. Marine Mammal Science, 42, e70118. https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.70118.

Acoustics

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Marine mammal habitat modelling
Marine mammal habitat modelling
Soundscape measurement
Soundscape measurement
Underwater signature measurement
Underwater signature measurement
Underwater noise modelling
Underwater noise modelling

Tracking Columbia's Slow Dance: Ancient magnetic clues reveal supercontinent stabilisation

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  • High-precision magnetic signatures from 1.70–1.68 billion-year-old mafic dykes in the North China Craton offer rare insights into Earth’s ancient continental positions.
  • Subtle shifts between the North China and North Australian cratons between 1.73 and 1.65 billion years ago mark a key transitional phase in Columbia's formation.
  • Findings suggest Columbia's tectonic configuration became more stable during the Statherian period, refining our models of early supercontinent assembly.

Wang, C., Peng, P., Mitchell, R.N., Deng, C., Salminen, J., Liu, Y. & Kirscher, U. (2025). Toward a more stable supercontinent Columbia in the Statherian. Geophysical Research Letters, 52, e2025GL116097. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025GL116097.

Magnetism and Palaeomagnetism

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Magnetic Remanence Analysis
Magnetic Remanence Analysis
Rock Magnetic Characterisation
Rock Magnetic Characterisation

Earth’s Mineral Pulse: Reading supercontinent cycles through critical metal systems

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  • Mineral deposit ages reveal a repeating tectonic rhythm of about 750 million years, linked to supercontinent assembly and breakup.
  • Pegmatite-hosted critical metals increasingly formed on faster cycles as Earth’s mantle cooled and plate tectonics matured.
  • Crustal source complexity appears about 300 million years before pegmatite mineralisation, offering an early signal of future metal fertility.

Kirkland, C. L. (2026). Pacing supercontinent rhythms from the metallogenic record. Geology, 54 (6), 507–511. https://doi.org/10.1130/G54471.1.

Geochronology
Resource Geoscience
Geoinformatics and Geocomputing

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Machine Learning & AI for Geological Materials
Machine Learning & AI for Geological Materials
Mineral Geochronology
Mineral Geochronology

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