ANSTO User Meeting 2021

Session

Earth, Environment & Cultural Heritage

EEC

24 Nov 2021, 15:30

Online

54. From deep time to the present: An exploration of Aboriginal connections to South Australia’s Riverland region

Prof. Amy Roberts (Flinders University)

24/11/2021, 15:30

Earth, Environment & Cultural Heritage

Oral

This keynote address will explore a range of cultural heritage projects relating to collaborations between ANSTO, Flinders University and the River Murray and Mallee Aboriginal Corporation. From rare artefacts to earthen cooking mounds and ancient shell middens this presentation considers the contribution of radiocarbon dating within a broader research program that has investigated Aboriginal...

46. The structure and spectroscopy of solid propanal: A potential mineral for planetary astrobiology

Courtney Ennis (University of Otago)

24/11/2021, 15:50

Earth, Environment & Cultural Heritage

Oral

Aldehydes are considered an important species toward astrobiology, acting as a primary reagent for the Strecker synthesis of amino acids in aqueous media. However, within the cold, icy surfaces of planetary bodies and interstellar dust particles, chemical reactions that lead to these biological-building blocks can still unfold. Here, "non-thermal equilibrium" chemistry is driven by harsh...

16. Pioneer plant driven primary mineral weathering and secondary mineral formation in Fe ore tailings

Dr Songlin Wu (The University of Queensland)

24/11/2021, 16:05

Earth, Environment & Cultural Heritage

Oral

Eco-engineering tailings into soil-like substrates is an emerging technology to rehabilitate the tailings landscapes. Pioneer plants play an important role in mineral weathering and secondary mineral formation, which are pre-requisites for aggregate formation and pedogenesis in the tailings. The present study aimed to characterise the direct role of pioneer plant roots in tailing mineral...

111. Cuatros Amigos- the four stromatolites in a row. The first 3D image of the oldest evidence of life in the geologic record

Ms Michaela J Dobson (The University of Auckland, ANSTO)

24/11/2021, 16:20

Earth, Environment & Cultural Heritage

Oral

The 3.48 Ga Dresser Formation, Pilbara Craton, Western Australia provides the Earth’s most convincing evidence of early life through a diverse array of biosignatures. However, identifying biosignatures in Archean rocks is difficult due to billions of years of erosion, deformation, and metamorphic alteration. Characterisation of community-accepted biosignatures also remains challenging,...

199. High-resolution high throughput thermal neutron tomographic imaging of fossiliferous cave breccias from Sumatra

Ms Holly Ellen Smith (Griffith University)

24/11/2021, 16:35

Earth, Environment & Cultural Heritage

Oral

We employ high-throughput thermal-neutron tomographic imaging to visualise internal diagnostic features of dense fossiliferous breccia from three Pleistocene cave localities in Sumatra, Indonesia. We demonstrate that these seemingly homogeneous breccias are an excellent source of data to aid in determining taphonomic and depositional histories of complex depositional sites such as tropical...

70. Pressure-dependent changes in Zr coordination in silicate liquid: in vs. ex situ measurements

Nicholas Farmer (Macquarie University)

24/11/2021, 16:50

Earth, Environment & Cultural Heritage

Oral

Changes in the coordination of elements in silicate melts as a function of pressure impact their geochemical behaviour and are key to understanding processes such as planetary differentiation. Questions persist as to the extent to which the coordination environment of elements in silicate melts at high pressure and temperature can be preserved in glasses recovered to ambient conditions.

The...

28. Use of high-resolution technologies to understand the broken past

Dr Ingrid Ward (University of Western Australia)

25/11/2021, 13:30

Earth, Environment & Cultural Heritage

Oral

Our understanding of material culture and past environmental contexts have been utterly transformed over the last two decades by new and greatly improved scientific methods. Innovative investigations revolve around refinement of methods for chronological dating, characterization and provenancing, bioarchaeology, geoarchaeology and the emerging sub-discipline of cyber-archaeology. As ever, when...

125. Leaving a mark on forensic science: Using synchrotron microscopy and spectroscopy to explore fingermark chemistry

Rhiannon Boseley (Curtin University)

25/11/2021, 13:50

Earth, Environment & Cultural Heritage

Oral

Fingermarks are an important tool in forensic investigations however, a large number are not successfully recovered and are never used as evidence.(1) A significant challenge in their detection is the chemical variability of fingermark deposits. This research aims to answer important questions in fingermark chemistry using synchrotron sourced analysis including x-ray fluorescence microscopy...

51. Understanding the generation and evolution of reaction-induced porosity in the replacement of calcite by gypsum: A combined microscopy, X-ray micro-tomography, and USANS/SANS study

Muhammet Kartal (Murdoch University)

25/11/2021, 14:05

Earth, Environment & Cultural Heritage

Oral

Fluid-mediated mineral replacement reactions are common in natural systems and are essential for geological and engineering processes. In these reactions, a primary mineral is replaced by a product mineral via a mechanism called coupled dissolution-reprecipitation. This mechanism leads to the preservation of the shape of the primary mineral into the product mineral. The product mineral...