Victoria
Yes, I am a Trekkie. Don’t get me wrong, I love everything about the entire sci-fi genre, but the universe Gene Roddenberry created is unmatched in its imagination. Who can forget the ultimate sacrifice Captain James T Kirk made to save the crew of the USS Enterprise, on multiple occasions? Or the time when Data sacrificed his android existence to save the life of his captain, Jean Luc Picard? There have been many heart-wrenching scenes for Star Trek fans the world over. There happens to be a devastating line from one of the franchises’ later movies that continues to haunt me every single time I hear it repeated. It is a line from a piece of work written by American poet and short story writer Delmore Schwartz. In the movie, Star Trek – Generations, Malcolm McDowell’s character, Soran, delivers one of the movie’s most unnerving scenes … They say time is the fire in which we burn. Wow. Deep. Heavy. Right now, as President of the Victorian chapter of the ASEG, I feel my time is up, but a little more later on in the piece.
In Branch news, Victorian Members were treated to a special technical presentation by Scott Robson, Exploration Manager of Battery Minerals Ltd, at The Kelvin Club on the night of 11 October. Scott’s talk titled “Victorian intrusion-related gold, not to be taken for granite”, gave members insight into the exploration progress of several projects associated the White Rabbit diorite intrusion, an event that appears to be coeval with emplacement of the Stawell Granite. Battery Minerals Ltd has an exciting pipeline of projects with drill-ready targets along the prospective suture zone between the Delamerian and Lachlan Fold Belts in the Stavely-Stawell fold belt. We wish Scott and his company every success.
Scott Robson presenting to the Victoria Branch of the ASEG
Our last technical meeting for 2023 was staged on 15 November, and we had the pleasure of hosting Shaye Fraser (PhD candidate in Geospatial Science at RMIT University) at The Kelvin Club. And of course, with the festive season rapidly approaching, our annual year-end joint ASEG-PESA-SPE Christmas luncheon was held on 5 December at Henry and The Fox in the CBD. Dr Andrew Long (Chief geoscientist, PGS) was our guest speaker. Given the title of his talk “The Karma Sutra of seismic”, I was expecting nothing short of polemic controversy and some NSFW seismic sections to boot - and I wasn’t disappointed 
. Please keep your eye out on various ASEG social media platforms for information about upcoming events.
Now, back to ummm … burning time in a fire. I have given this quite a lot of thought recently. It has been an honour and pleasure serving the Victorian Branch of the ASEG since 2017, first as Secretary and then as President since 2020. Right now, though, I am completely burnt to a crisp. While I am still enjoying my tenure as President, I believe that now is the time for change. I will be stepping down as President at years’ end. I feel the Committee needs a fresh injection of younger, more energetic individuals to help steer our great branch through the mid-2020s. It will be an exciting new chapter for the Victorian Branch, I’m sure of it. Let’s see what 2024 will bring.
One final time, thank you to all our Members for your unwavering support this year. I’ve had a fantastic time catching up with most of you at our numerous events throughout the year. Please have a safe and enjoyable festive season and an excellent New Year’s Eve. Catch you guys on the flip side.
Thong Huynh
Western Australia
The Western Australian Branch of the ASEG hosted a technical night talk on 26 October as part of its monthly technical talk series. The guest on this night was Dr Mick Micenko, who is an Honorary Member of the ASEG and is well known for his regular column Seismic Window in Preview magazine. Mick started his working career acquiring gravity, magnetic and IP data across Australia for mining companies, before moving into the oil industry working the Eromanga Basin with Delhi Petroleum. He has a wealth of experience in a variety of basins in Australia, NZ, India, SE Asia, Africa and the USA and became a well-respected seismic interpretation consultant. He has worked for numerous companies and taught the seismic interpretation course at Curtin University for many years.
Mick gave an interesting talk, which was entitled “High density 3D seismic acquisition: An illustrated example from onshore India” about the world class Mangala oil field which was discovered in Rajasthan in 2005. Even though the field had 3D seismic coverage the crest of the structure was poorly imaged and an experimental 2D seismic line was recorded across the crest in 2004. This test line confirmed the benefits of using closer spaced source and receiver points and led to a high-density 3D survey being recorded across the field commencing in August 2006. Severe flooding in Rajasthan delayed recording for several months, and the 120 km2 survey was eventually completed in May 2007. Development drilling began in 2008. The HD3D was acquired with short station intervals with source and receiver spacing of 10 m. The vibrator frequency range was increased using a single vibrator and effectively point receivers. This resulted in a 20 Hz gain in bandwidth and improved signal-noise. The resulting seismic data had improved imaging of the shallow section which led to better depth migration and enhanced resolution of the structural complexities within the reservoir allowing more optimal positioning of the development wells. The field began production in 2008 with oil initially being trucked until a heated pipeline was built to transport the oil 600 km to the coast.
Mick Micenko delivering his inspiring talk
Ruth Murdie presenting to the WA audience.
The technical night talk for the month of November was given by Dr Ruth Murdie, who is the Manager of the Earth Imaging and Observation Group at GSWA. Ruth started at GSWA ten years ago as a 3D modeller and has been involved in most of the organisation’s seismology projects. Before joining GSWA, Ruth spent some time at St Ives gold mine in the Eastern Goldfields as the exploration geophysicist. She has also worked at the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation in Vienna and was a lecturer in geophysics at Keele University, UK.
Ruth’s talk was entitled “Shake, rattle and roll on. Seismology at GSWA” and gave the audience an overview of seismological projects that have been carried out as part of the operational research at GSWA for the past ten years. These projects have, to date, been quite low-key, concentrating on imaging specific geological targets such as the Capricorn Orogen, the Albany-Fraser Orogen, the SE margin of the Yilgarn Craton, the Canning Basin and the area between the Western Australian Craton and the North Australia Craton. These studies have been carried out in conjunction with geological mapping, active seismic and MT. GSWA is now conducting longer-term projects in conjunction with GA, such as baseline monitoring in the Canning Basin, seismicity of the Goldfields Region and more detailed monitoring of the SW Seismic Zone. The biggest project, known as WA Array, is the complete coverage of Western Australia with passive seismic stations at 40 km spacing. This project continues the work started in other parts of the country under the EFTF as AusArray. This is a ten-year programme with a specific list of products, a tight timeframe and big ambitions.
Emad Hemyari
WA Branch Communications Officer
Australian Capital Territory
The ACT Branch hosted a breakfast with Dr Phil Schmidt, the ASEG Gold Medal winner in 2023 on 9 November at Blackstone Café. Phil and his wife Janice were in Canberra for the 50th anniversary of the ANU Research School of Earth Sciences.
Members of the ACT ASEG Branch at breakfast with Phil Schmidt. Left to right: Yvette Poudjom Djomani, Marina Costelloe, Phil Wynne, Wenping Jiang, Jackie Hope, Phil Schmidt and Janice Schmidt.
On 23 November, we hosted a talk by Jared Peacock from USGS and Karl Kappler from the DIAS Geophysical and Space Science Institute. The talk was titled “An interactive workflow for MT data using open-source packages and HPC”. Jared and Karl presented a workflow for MT data that demonstrated how to use existing open-source software packages to go from raw data to a 3D resistivity model. This workflow increases the capacity of MT data to be used for open science following FAIR principles.
Wenping Jiang
New South Wales
In September, Dr James Daniell, Senior Geophysicist at Fender Geophysics, presented a talk entitled “Geophysics in the Park”: How can industry support geophysics education?”. Geophysics in the Park, organised by Fender Geophysics, had its inaugural session in Trunks Park, Cremorne. The attendees were primarily students who deployed, acquired, and processed electrical resistivity imaging and seismic refraction. James’ presentation gave the geophysics community some helpful insight into a great idea, and there was some noteworthy discussion on ideas in the future to foster students and the community’s interest in geophysics.
In October, Peigen Luo, a PhD candidate at The University of New South Wales (UNSW), presented a talk entitled “Continental fragment collision in subduction and the dramatic uplift acceleration in the eastern Anatolian Region”. Peigen’s presentation provided a deep dive into the dynamic interactions of continental fragments and subduction processes, enriched by his advanced 3D numerical modelling results, vividly depicting subduction in action. His detailed models illuminated the causes of uplift and deformation in the Central Taurides, offering a new understanding of geological evolution influenced by continental fragment collision.
An invitation to attend NSW Branch meetings is extended to all interstate and international visitors who happen to be in town at the time. Meetings are generally held on the third Wednesday of each month from 17:30 at Club York. News, meeting notices, addresses and relevant contact details can be found at the NSW Branch website.
James explaining the “Geophysics in the Park” to the NSW Branch.
Peigen discussing topography feedbacks with the NSW Branch.
Harikrishnan Nalinakumar
Queensland
The itinerant Queensland Branch continued its wandering with the October technical meeting taking place at the “Cross River Rail Experience Centre” in central Brisbane. The centre is an exhibition space whose subject is the new, 10.2 km rail line (with 5.9 km in tunnels) that runs under central Brisbane. The centre is certainly not afraid of over-selling itself (see signage below) …
The centre consists of a number of interesting exhibitions, including a virtual reality tour of the new underground stations (comment from one user “I kept on seeing the same people over-and-over again”), which were enjoyed by the assembled local ASEG Members (only soft-drinks in hand this time though).
We then adjourned to a side-room at the centre for an update on the construction from one of the project engineers and an ASEG promotion presentation from local President and international Tiktok star Nick Josephs (albeit somewhat preaching to the converted in this case).
The main event of the evening was a presentation from Dr Kelsey Lowe, Principal Program Officer at the (deep breath) Queensland Department of Treaty, Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Partnerships, Communities and the Arts on “Geophysics meets Archaeology”. Fears of another Great Schism of the order of that in 1054 turned out to be unfounded and an extremely interesting presentation showed that there are many underutilised (and underfunded …) areas where geophysics can be applied.
Wayne Stasinowsky enjoying the VR railway station experience.
Queensland ASEG Members enjoying the Cross River Rail Experience Centre and yes, that is Shaun Strong in his customary subdued attire.
Local geophysics doyen Nick Josephs exhorts those present to join the ASEG …
Queensland Branch President, and co-founder of defunct social networking site MySpace, Nick Josephs, thanks Dr Kelsey Lowe for her presentation (photo taken prior to the admission that her speaker gift had been left in his car …).
Coming up, the search for a home continues, with the local branch off to ‘Club Yeronga’ (formerly the Yeronga RSL) for a talk by Dr Gerrit Olivier from Fleet Space on ambient seismic noise tomography. Planning is also ‘well underway’ for the local branch Christmas party.
Will the Queensland Branch hold an event at the same venue twice? Will this columnist ever include news on events he didn’t personally attend? Will Shaun Strong attend two events in a row? Will we ever manage to wipe that smile off Nick Josephs face? Find out in the next exciting instalment of Queensland Branch news.
Tim Dean
South Australia and Northern Territory
The SA-NT Branch of the ASEG held our annual Melbourne Cup Luncheon on Tuesday 7 November. The event was attended by 36 of our Members, friends and colleagues resulting in a great day catching up with old friends in the beautiful surrounds of Adelaide Oval.
ASEG SA-NT Branch Melbourne Cup event
As usual, Neil Gibbins from Vintage Energy brought his wealth of knowledge and enthusiasm to MC the event. He ensured that everything ran smoothly, and that the Calcutta Sweep was completed before the race began. I would also like to say a big thank you to Adelaide Oval for providing the venue and such excellent food and service throughout the event.
Have a safe and relaxing Christmas break from the SA-NT committee, we look forward to seeing you at some of our future ASEG events in 2024.
And lastly, we couldn’t host any of our fantastic events without the valued support of our sponsors. The SA-NT Branch is currently sponsored by Beach Energy, Borehole Wireline, BHP, Vintage Energy, the Department for Energy and Mining, Zonge, Santos and Heathgate.
Paul Soeffky
Tasmania
Meeting notices, details about venues and relevant contact details can be found on the Tasmanian Branch page on the ASEG website. As always, we encourage Members to keep an eye on the seminar/webinar programme at the University of Tasmania / CODES, which routinely includes presentations of a geophysical and computational nature as well as on a broad range of earth sciences topics.
Tjaart de Wit
ASEG national calendar
