Geosciences research
Finding solutions to tomorrow's challenges
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The School of Geosciences comprises a dynamic group of researchers in the fields of geography, geology, geophysics, marine science, and environmental science.
We conduct world-leading research to tackle society’s grand challenges, including climate change, securing critical mineral resources, and sustainability across a variety of spatial and temporal scales, and emphasise the importance of Indigenous knowledges throughout our research profile.
Our research is supported by state-of-the-art analytical facilities, innovative and pioneering software and technology development, high-performance computing, and comprehensive field-based approaches, with a particular focus on Australia and the Asia-Pacific.
We are dedicated to understanding climate and environmental change across a range of scales. We spearhead multidisciplinary projects that explore the fundamental processes that govern the Earth’s changing climate through geological time, investigate the relationships between climate, landscapes, seascapes, and society, and develop strategies for climate mitigation and adaptation to support a sustainable future.
Key researchers: Samuel Boone, Adriana Dutkiewicz, Ben Mather, Dietmar Müller, Dan Penny, Patrice Rey, Tristan Salles, Maria Seton, Jody Webster, Nicky Wright, Sabin Zahirovic.
Our researchers are fusing field- and laboratory-based investigations with data and modelling to explore the co-evolution of the deep Earth and its surface environments and climate.
Our world-leading reconstructions of paleogeography and landscape evolution underpin key investigations such as the how past perturbations to the planetary carbon cycle have led to swings between ice-house and greenhouse states, and the role of continental and ocean gateway arrangements on major changes to the climate system.
These approaches help explain the rise and demise of environments, vital nutrient and geochemical cycles, the intricate co-evolution of life and physical processes over billions of years of Earth history and offers insights into how human activity affects current and future environments on Earth.
Key researchers: Samuel Boone, Eleanor Bruce, Ana Paula Da Silva, Kevin Davies, Mitch Gibbs, Rebecca Hamilton, Dan Penny, Tristan Salles, Ana Vila-Concejo, Jody Webster, Sabin Zahirovic.
Earth's surface is the dynamic interface between our planet's physical and biological systems. Shaped by the interplay of geological and oceanographic forces, climate change, and human activities, our landscapes and seascapes are in constant flux.
By integrating holistic modelling approaches with long-term environmental records spanning decades to epochs, we delve into our planet's evolutionary history and seek to understand environmental thresholds in the face of the climate, biodiversity, and energy crises of the Anthropocene.
Key researchers: Elaine Baker, Christina Buelow, Josh Cinner, Bob Fisher, Rebecca Hamilton, Billy Haworth, Emily Lester, Phil McManus, Bill Pritchard, Bess Ruff, Anna Sturman, Sophie Webber.
Mitigating and adapting to climate change is a critical challenge for humanity. Our research seeks to find answers to this challenge through understanding these processes as complex and contested human-environment relationships embedded in specific spatial and historic contexts.
We appreciate the varied economic, political, social and cultural dimensions of climate mitigation and adaption, seeking to identify aspects of harm and damage in human and non-human worlds at different scales.
Working from a variety of critical theoretical perspectives and with different communities, primarily across South-East Asia, South Asia and the Pacific, our researchers take up questions of power, agency and transformation in our climate changing world.
We host a world leading research cluster dedicated to understanding the geological processes that drive the formation of a range of Earth resources, with a particular focus on the critical minerals and base metals essential for the green energy transition.
Our exploration methods span spatio-temporal data analysis, tectonic and geodynamic modelling and field-based studies. Beyond resource exploration, we focus on pathways towards a just and sustainable energy transition, including critical mineral policy, community engagement and production networks.
Key researchers: Samuel Boone, Vasileios Chatzaras, Andres Rodriguez Corcho, Adriana Dutkiewicz, Ehsan Farahbakhsh, Ben Mather, Dietmar Müller, Sinan Özaydin, Dan Penny, Patrice Rey, Tristan Salles, Maria Seton, Nicky Wright, Derek Wyman, Sabin Zahirovic.
Water, carbon and rock cycles regulate the flow of energy and matter across the Earth’s various subsystems including the convective mantle, the lithosphere, hydrosphere, atmosphere, cryosphere and biosphere.
Understanding these processes helps us predict environmental changes and develop strategies to mitigate their impacts, and design sustainable practices for resource exploration and management. This holistic understanding of Earth systems and resources is essential for promoting environmental stewardship and achieving long-term sustainability.
Key researchers: Samuel Boone, Vasileios Chatzaras, Andres Rodriguez Corcho, Adriana Dutkiewicz, Ehsan Farahbakhsh, Ben Mather, Dietmar Müller, Sinan Özaydin, Patrice Rey, Tristan Salles, Maria Seton, Nicky Wright, Derek Wyman, Sabin Zahirovic.
Demand for critical minerals is rising significantly as renewable energy generation and the electrification of the transport and manufacturing sectors continues to expand. Ore deposit discovery has been declining for decades, escalating industry need for new exploration methodologies.
We are developing new exploration strategies, including virtual Earth evolution models and artificial intelligence (AI) approaches to connect emerging technologies with growing volumes and a larger diversity of geodata for locating critical mineral deposits.
Key researchers: Neil Coe, Lian Sinclair, Sophie Webber, Amanda Tattersall.
Sustainable energy transitions centre Indigenous, environmental and social justice. This requires societies with inclusive decision-making processes where workers, communities and policymakers have access to scientific evidence and critical analysis.
In Australia and our broader Asia-Pacific region, developments around critical energy transition minerals, renewable energy deployment and related infrastructure are creating significant economic opportunities alongside uneven impacts and contestation in regional areas.
We deploy multidisciplinary approaches to research and teaching that support participation in, engagement with, and examination of necessary energy transitions.
We lead research programs in sustainability and environmental management and governance that supports our strong education program. Our research integrates traditional, Indigenous and local ecological knowledge, along with more-than-human perspectives, to promote inclusive sustainability.
Our projects focus on fostering democratic and sustainable cities and urban places, protecting and governing ‘nature’ and ’wildlife’, and addressing biodiversity extinction challenges; exploring regenerative transitions in rural and regional places, and developing sustainable and just solutions for the future of our seascapes and landscapes.
Key researchers: Jo Gillespie, Kurt Iveson, Rebecca Hamilton, Phil McManus, Dan Penny, Amanda Tattersall, Sophie Webber.
More than half the world’s population live in cities, making them central to environmental, social and economic sustainability and the goal of democratic participation.
Cities are full of contrasts; they are clusters of progressive, convivial and collective politics and essential for economic growth; they are sites of both intense resource consumption and waste and innovative experiments with sustainability.
In our teaching and research, we co-produce knowledge and practice about the potentials and constraints of urban and community sustainability, foregrounding democratic engagement and justice.
Key researchers: Rebecca Cross, Mitch Gibbs, Jo Gillespie, Rebecca Hamilton, Billy Haworth, Kurt Iveson, Phil McManus, Dan Penny, Lian Sinclair, Anna Sturman.
Social and environmental movements are essential in our response to environmental problem solving and informed decision making. Our researchers explore crucial environmental and social issues, ranging from considering hidden biodiversity corridors and the complex role of infrastructure in cities to research about environmental justice and a consideration of the complexities of plant and animal geographies.
In addition, we look at a range of biodiversity conservation issues in a variety of settings – both urban and rural areas. We use a range of social and natural science approaches to link biodiversity conservation with cultural contexts and see biodiversity conservation initiatives as a policy priority.
From creating environmental histories through to studies about urban re-wilding and multispecies justices we think through ways to achieve sustainable biological transitions.
Key researchers: Neil Coe, Rebecca Cross, Jo Gillespie, Rebecca Hamilton, Phil McManus, Jeff Neilsen, Dan Penny, Bill Pritchard.
Our interdisciplinary research integrates social science, geology, ecology, fisheries, and spatial science to increase the sustainability and resilience of our seascapes and support the key researchers who depend on them.
We work on exciting topics such as ocean discovery, sustainable fisheries, equitable governance, Indigenous knowledge/management, and securing coastal livelihoods. Working across conventional disciplinary solos is at the core of what we do.
Key researchers: Elaine Baker, Christina Buelow, Eleanor Bruce, Josh Cinner, Ana Paula Da Silva, Kevin Davies, Mitch Gibbs, Billy Haworth, Emily Lester, Amelia Meier, Bess Ruff, Ana Vila-Concejo, Jody Webster.
Our interdisciplinary research integrates social science, geology, ecology, fisheries, and spatial science to increase the sustainability and resilience of our seascapes and support the key researchers who depend on them.
We work on exciting topics such as ocean discovery, sustainable fisheries, equitable governance, Indigenous knowledge/management, and securing coastal livelihoods. Working across conventional disciplinary solos is at the core of what we do.
