Meeting: Thursday 4 March 2010 at 7.45 pm
Lecture: A New Look at Broken Hill Prof. Ian Plimer Professor of Mining Geology - University of Adelaide
Ian Plimer is the Professor of Mining Geology at The University of Adelaide and Emeritus Professor of Earth Sciences at The University of Melbourne where he was Professor and Head from 1991 – 2005. He has spent most of his working life looking at Broken Hill mineralogical and geological problems, has a Broken Hill mineral named in his honour, has written some 130 scientific papers and 7 books for the general public and has twice won the Eureka Prize. The Broken Hill ore deposit is the largest zinc-lead-silver deposit in the world. The deposit and its weathered equivalent contain a bewildering array of minerals. It is hosted by metasediments that have undergone extreme deformation and metamorphism. What do these metasediments tell us about the original deposition? In previous publications, I argued that the Broken Hill ore deposit formed in a deep rift but, as a result of logging some 74,000 metres of core, I now can show that ore occurs at the tops of three upward coarsening cycles of sediments. This is typical of a deltaic sequence and I now argue that muddy sediment formed an aquifer cap to large volumes of geothermal fluids that altered the sediments and were continually renewed with geothermal energy and gases from basalt intrusions. Questions that have been plaguing me for more than 40 years are: Why is Broken Hill so large and why is its sulphide deposit lacking the most common sulphide in Nature? The meeting will be held in the Mawson Lecture Theatre, Mawson Laboratories, corner of Victoria Drive and Frome Road, University of Adelaide at 7.45 pm. Members and visitors are warmly invited to attend. We are obliged for security reasons to keep the front door of the building locked, so please use the special Field Geology Club doorbell to the left of the door for admittance. Roma Schneider Secretary
Meeting: Thursday 1 April 2010 at 7.45 pm
Lecture: Electricity from Hot Rocks
Prof. Richard Hillis - CEO, Deep Exploration Technologies CRC
Geothermal Exploration and Development in Australia. The installed global electricity generation capacity of geothermal energy is around 9 GW, less than 1 % of demand. Both in the USA and Australia there are bold predictions that geothermal energy could supply 10 % of demand by 2020. Delivery of this prediction would require technically more challenging geothermal resources (deeper and tighter) to be commercialised. This talk will discuss how Australian geothermal companies intend to commercialise such resources. The Australian geothermal boom is in part driven by the CO2 emissions-free nature of geothermal electricity and the talk will also discuss the cost of electricity generation versus CO2 emissions for various types of electricity generation.
Richard Hillis Biographical Paragraph Richard Hillis is the CEO of the Deep Exploration Technologies Cooperative Research Centre. Previously he was State of South Australia Professor of Petroleum Geology and Head of the Australian School of Petroleum ( University of Adelaide). He graduated BSc (Hons) from Imperial College ( London, 1985), and PhD from the University of Edinburgh (1989). His research interests are in sedimentary basin tectonics and geomechanics in the context of petroleum and geothermal exploration and carbon dioxide geosequestration. He has published approximately 100 papers, edited two books and has consulted to and run short courses for many Australian and international oil companies. Richard is a non-executive director of JRS Petroleum Research Pty. Ltd. and Petratherm Ltd. (and more personal) Richard was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland and emigrated to Adelaide in 1989. He married his Adelaide-born and raised wife in 1994 and has come to love all things South Australian including red wine, Adelaide Oval and the Crows. Richard and Belinda have two boys aged 9- and 11-years old whom they transport to soccer, cricket and other important engagements. The meeting will be held in the Mawson Lecture Theatre, Mawson Laboratories, corner of Victoria Drive and Frome Road, University of Adelaide at 7.45 pm. Members and visitors are warmly invited to attend. We are obliged for security reasons to keep the front door of the building locked, so please use the special Field Geology Club doorbell to the left of the door for admittance.
Roma Schneider Secretary
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