Science at the Shine Dome 2010
New Fellows Seminar
Wednesday 5 May
Professor Allan Chivas FAA
School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong
Allan Chivas received his PhD degree from the University of Sydney in 1977. After postdoctoral work at the US Geological Survey, California, and in France, he moved to the Australian National University and helped to establish the Environmental Geochemistry Group, which he later led, within the Research School of Earth Sciences. In 1995 he moved to the University of Wollongong, with a brief to form a School of Geosciences by combining the then separate departments of geology and geography.
Allan is a geologist and geochemist who has worked to develop new methodologies, both conceptually and instrumentally, to study Earth-surface processes. His work, particularly in isotope geochemistry, provides a link between past environmental changes and future projections. He has led a number of global research projects, each involving hundreds of scientists. He is past president of the Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering and is currently President of the International Union for Quaternary Research.
Evolution of ancient landscapes
The study of old landscapes requires a variety of geochemical and dating methods. Past climates and environments can be addressed using chemical and isotopic systematics applied to biogenic and weathering minerals. The chemistry of carbonate microfossils recovered from lake and marine sediment cores provides information variously about past salinity and chemical evolution of water bodies and therefore of precipitation/evaporation changes through time. The origins and age of salts in the Australian landscape is of fundamental importance. Using both sulfur and chlorine isotopes, it can be shown that salts are largely delivered from marine aerosols and that they display a residence time of about 750,000 years in the western part of Australia. Accordingly, overcoming current salinity problems in agriculture will not be easy.
