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Publications (66)
Field observations of columnar-jointed basalt lava flows at Organ Pipes National Park near Melbourne, Australia, show varying columnar cooling joint orientations. The valley-confined basalt lava flows have columnar joints forming a downward spreading fan as the joints adopt orientations perpendicular to the margins of the flow. The variation in the...
Regional geological mapping commonly records the dip and dip direction of dominant layering such as bedding and foliation but not the orientation of joints. It is common for joints to form an orthogonal pattern relative to the dominant layering. In that case, the three-dimensional possibilities can be extrapolated allowing inferences to be made abo...
The flow of water into a tunnel, through the surrounding rock mass and the tunnel lining, has important implications for tunnel design and tunnel condition assessment. The hydraulic conductivity of the lining is a major controlling factor on the water inflow rate. Previous work had been mainly based on the assumption of constant hydraulic conductiv...
Urban railway tunnels are an important infrastructure for public transportation. A lin-ing of concrete is often cast to support the ground and protect the internal services in the tunnel. The durability of the concrete lining can be affected by the properties of the local groundwater. The water can flow through cracks or joints in the concrete and...
Evaluating the induced subsidence is a critical step in multi-seam longwall mining. Numerical modelling can be a cost-effective approach to this problem. Numerical evaluation of longwall mining-induced subsidence is much more complicated when more than one seam is to be extracted. Only a few research works have dealt with this problem. This paper d...
A tetrahedral wedge of rock can slide on one or both of the bounding discontinuity surfaces. The test to identify these two mechanisms can be performed on a stereograph based on the orientation of the two discontinuities, their line of intersection and the slope face. An alternative stereographic method involves identifying the great circle, known...
Mass movement processes of bedrock slopes are highly dependent on the orientations of structural discontinuities within the rock mass. The associated hazards are typically defined by the orientation of structures and associated mechanisms of slope failure such as planar sliding, wedge sliding and toppling. A typical rock mass with multiple weak sur...
In order for tunnel boring machines to efficiently cut or break rock, it is necessary that the block of rock in contact with the cutter be adequately supported by the surrounding rock mass. This support is provided by the interlocking of blocks and the friction of the surfaces. If blocks are inadequately supported or become free without breakage th...
p>The strength of rock mass and the stress in a slope are each complex fields of investigation. They are also intimately related as increasing confining stress makes a rock mass stronger and the strength of a rock mass can limit the magnitude of stress. Whereas these interactions are comparatively well understood for soils, principally through the...
Graduates in the Life Sciences, including microbiology have experienced similar employment trends to graduates in other fields over the past 30 years. Recent downward trends in graduate employment levels have raised concerns among educators and the community in general. Awareness of the diverse opportunities for graduates of microbiology is needed....
A cotton textile dried with various hygroscopic salts then contaminated with Staphylococcus epidermidis and dried again, showed remarkable reduction in viable bacterial cells. Of the salts investigated, sodium acetate was found to have the greatest antibacterial effect. Calcium chloride, magnesium chloride and magnesium sulfate, also showed some an...
A physical testing protocol for modelling mining-related problems has been presented. • A new method for monitoring fracture propagation pattern has been introduced. • Laser based and optical devices have been used for physical modelling of subsidence. • Multiple-seam subsidence has been measured by photogrammetry, DIC analysis, optoNCDT and 3D TLS...
Conventional assessment of the potential sliding of wedge blocks involves identification of the lines of intersection of the two planes on a stereograph. The stereographic envelope for kinematically feasible wedge intersections exists between the plane of the slope face and a friction circle. An alternative method of stereographic analysis is prese...
Toppling and hillside creep in layered rocks share the characteristics of rotation of layers under gravity. It has been observed that some toppling processes tend toward self-stabilization. The potential for self-stabilization of these processes is greatly influenced by the degree of constraint provided by surrounding material. The degree of constr...
Field examples of subsidence from sequential extraction of overlapping coal longwall panels have shown that complex and unexpected subsidence effects can occur. Physical models, comprising sand and plaster obeying relevant similarity rules, were used to investigate the subsidence mechanisms. Displacements within the models were measured using a com...
The shape of an underground opening is a major factor influencing the stability of the underground excavation. Obtaining an optimized shape is significant in civil and mining engineering applications for increasing stability and reducing costs. This paper presents an updated method for finding the optimal shape of an underground excavation using th...
Complex optical properties of plagioclase, such as twinning, present a particularly difficult challenge to image processing techniques. Conventional image processing methods attempt to recognize mineral grain boundaries by grey level gradients and are likely to classify optical twin zones as different grains. To overcome this problem, automated gre...
Methods of graphical representation of data need to keep pace with increasingly complex data manipulation. Conventional ternary diagrams allow the presentation of three components as a point in a plane. Multivector diagrams allow plotting of up to nine components in one ternary diagram by representing compositions not as points but as vectors shari...
Underground excavation in either soil or rock induces complex stress redistribution around the opening principally depending on excavation geometry, in situ stresses and material properties. Finding the optimal shape for an excavation based on stress distribution has practical significance in increasing stability and lowering support costs. This pa...
The textures of synkinematic veins involve a complex interplay of crystal growth and deformation. Quartz veins in Devonian sandstone and altered felsic volcanic rocks of the South Coast region of New South Wales, Australia, display a range of microstructures recording complex vein growth mechanisms. The synkinematic veins have not suffered signific...
Classifying and assessing geotechnical aspects of rock masses involves combining parameters in various ways, guided by empirical considerations, to derive quantitative geotechnical parameters. Geological structures and the deformation history of rocks underpin the nature of rock masses. The kinematics of a deforming rock mass may occur as sliding a...
The textures of coherent volcanic rocks, including lavas and volcanic intrusives, commonly contain features that are attributed to flowage. Previous applications of structural analysis to volcanic rocks are expanded here to provide a framework for analysis. Textures, defined as the crystallinity, granularity and shapes and arrangements of the compo...
Pores in dacite lavas of three volcanoes in Japan (Unzen, Yakedake and Daisen) have characteristics unlike vesicles. Most of the pores have ragged walls marked by the protrusion of groundmass crystals and phenocrysts. The shapes of these pores range from irregular to planar. Many pores occur in ‘pressure shadows’ adjacent to phenocrysts. Some pores...
Surface water samples from the Drake mining area show elevated metal concentrations, notably cadmium, iron and zinc. A detailed
study of a sphalerite /quartz vein from Strauss Pit and chalcopyrite and pyrite from the Adeline mine and Strauss Pit indicate
that micro-scale analyses of ores are necessary for environmental management of mine sites. Ana...
Investigation of the rheology of magmas at high crystal concentrations by experimental means has proved problematic. An alternative approach is to study textures of igneous rocks that not only preserve evidence of the kinematics of magma flow, such as flow direction, but can also preserve evidence of rheology. Flow textures in multiply intruded tra...
The flow pattern within a slump in Permian marine rocks of the southern Sydney Basin, Australia, is recorded by folds and deformed fossils. Abundant brachiopod and bryzoan fossils in the slumped rocks are relatively undeformed, but fossil crinoid stems have been deformed by relative rotation of individual ossicles. Measurement of the strain indicat...
The kinematics of en échelon arrays of quartz veins hosted by sandstone of the Upper Devonian Worange Point Formation are strongly influenced by bedding and cross-bedding. Bulk deformation recorded by the vein arrays (inter-array kinematics) was influenced by the anisotropy of the host rock, such that, three types of arrays are observed: (1) east-v...
The limestone of the Palaeozoic Jack Formation in north Queensland, Australia, contains bedding-parallel stylolites that locally increase in amplitude adjacent to calcite veins. The veins formed in response to inhomogeneous strain locally superposed on the tightly folded strata. Stylolites were locally hyperactivated during vein formation and provi...
Strain analysis of magmatic rocks has been attempted using the shapes of enclaves of contrasting magmas and analysis of mineral fabrics. In composite plutonic rocks of the Anglem Complex, Stewart Island, New Zealand, interfaces between different magma types are deformed into fold-like patterns which have the potential to provide new data on strain...
The industrial minerals and rocks are commonly taught mineral-by-mineral or application-by-application. In each approach, the minerals or applications are revisited repetitively to cover the multiple uses of each mineral and the range of minerals that can be used for each application. The result is commonly repetitive lists of minerals and applicat...
Coastal exposure of volcanic rocks south of Evans Head, northeastern New South Wales, comprises alkaline basalt and andesite. The basalt is massive and columnar jointed and coherent andesite includes massive and banded varieties overlain by andesitic hyaloclastite. The hyaloclastite comprises a basal In situ breccia fades with a feeder dyke system...
Analysis of fabrics of faulted and unfaulted conglomerate within the Awatere fault zone of New Zealand shows that movement on individual faults was accompanied by dilatancy of the clast fabric. The fabric of unfaulted conglomerate is clast-supported. comprising 78% clasts by area. Individual fault zones studied range in width from 4 to 21 cm and ha...
Strongly boudinaged sandstone beds in a Palaeozoic accretionary complex are exposed on Great Keppel Island, off the central Queensland coast. Viewed in profile, the boudins are folded around mesoscopic F2 hinge zones and overprinted by S2 foliation indicating formation either during Late Carboniferous subduction accretion (D1) or during a previousl...
The arrangement of crystals, vesicles, and glass in the matrix of a volcanic rock records information about the kinematics accompanying its formation. Simple rock textures involve homogeneous distributions of features such as aligned crystals, whereas more complex rock textures involve inhomogeneous distributions comprising subregions or domains of...
The formation of extension fracture-hosted veins that converge toward the bisector of conjugate arrays is problematical. The orientation of the extension fractures suggests that they formed within zones of re-oriented stress axes, established prior to fracturing. However, the commonly observed acute conjugate angle indicates that brittle dilatancy...
Rheological models of molten rock are mostly based on behaviours in which viscosity is constant with respect to strain rate (e.g. Newtonian, Bingham plastic) or viscosity decreases with increasing strain rate (pseudo-plastic or shear thinning). Rheological models in which viscosity increases with increasing strain rate (shear thickening or dilatant...
The most commonly recognized sources of sand and gravel aggregate are the deposits of coastal, fluvial and glacial sedimentary
processes. It is not commonly recognized that weathered bedrock is also an important source of sand and gravel aggregate.
In the case of weathered sedimentary bedrock the product may be indistinguishable from modern sedime...
The quality of basalt rock, in particular the distribution of deleterious smectitic alteration, at Blakebrook Quarry, northeast New South Wales, Australia, varies considerably and accurate resource assessment requires detailed mineralogical investigation. X-ray diffraction analysis was used to assess the primary and alteration mineralogy and was fo...
Conjugate arrays of quartz veins in the Neranleigh-Fernvale turbidite beds at Norries Head, eastern Australia occur in configurations in which the trends of the veins, in a principal section, converge towards the acute bisector of the conjugate arrays (a convergent configuration). Such a configuration is common in vein arrays, and has been attribut...
The morphology of enéchelon sigmoidal veins generally supports an extension fracture origin for host fractures. Nevertheless, a shear fracture origin has been proposed in some cases, mainly on geometric arguments, often without morphological support. This study describes a system of sigmoidal enéchelon quartz veins in a deformed greywacke which dis...
Structural and textural evidence indicates that the basal breccia of the Tertiary Minyon Falls Rhyolite of Tweed Volcano, eastern Australia, formed mainly by fragmentation within the basal shear zone of the lava flow. Cooling at the flow base led to lava behaviour passing through the ductile-brittle transition while subjected to progressive deforma...
Leucocratic dykes cut the lowermost layer of the Stormi ultramafic complex that hosts the Vammala Ni-Cu-Fe sulphide mine. The dykes and associated wallrock alteration zones formed when granitic melt, derived from migmatites during high-grade amphibolite facies metamorphism, invaded a fracture system within the peridotitic host. The geometry of the...
The wide range of vein-array angles reported for en-échelon vein arrays can be attributed to both true and apparent geometric effects. A survey of published figures supports a continuum of orientations rather than distinct populations related to different fracture mechanisms. The results of the survey indicate a modal veinarray angle of less than 4...
The Tertiary Nimbin Rhyolite in northeast New South Wales comprises tiers of lava extending laterally up to 12 km. The geographic distribution of crystal‐poor (nearly aphyric) and crystal‐rich lava types indicates that these tiers comprise coalesced lava domes and limited flows rather than extensive flows. Bodies of crystal‐poor lava exhibit flow f...
Recumbent folds near the top of the Minyon Falls banded rhyolite flow, in northeastern New South Wales, Australia, indicate lateral radial extension of lava as it flowed from the vent under the influence of gravity. These structures occur near the vent of the flow and differ from the upright folds commonly observed near the tops of lava flows. Fart...
Fine-grained rocks from an andesite dyke, a dacite dome and a basalt flow contain microshear zones overprinting an aligned microlitic groundmass. In each case, the shear zones comprise conjugate sets bisected by the plane of crystal alignment. This texture indicates coaxial (or pure shear) flow in contrast to simple shear which is generally conside...
The southwestern Japan Sea and the margin of southwestern Japan feature parallel elongate extensional sub-basins and grabens. These structures are oblique to the trend of southwestern Japan and are interpreted as the remnant of an en-echelon array. Such a right-stepping remnant en-echelon pattern indicates sinistral rifting of the southwestern Japa...
Microscopic shear zones have been found in the groundmass of glassy rocks of a Miocene submarine dacite dome in southwest Japan. Similar textures have been reported previously but only in dykes. These textures give a valuable insight into the deformation of the dome during its emplacement by recording the orientations of the principal strains. Deta...
Natural and experimental wrench fault systems commonly develop two distinct synthetic minor fault orientations termed primary and secondary synthetic faults. Experiments show that secondary synthetic faults are restricted to cases where overall simple-shear kinematics are attained or closely approximated. The secondary synthetic faults serve to lin...
Theoretical kinematic analysis of idealised folded multilayers shows that, throughout the fold, axial planar stretch of repeated points within the fold must be homogeneous. Layers are effectively pinned at fold limbs such that the rotation of competent layer limbs produces an axial planar stretch. To be strain compatible, this stretch (measured bet...
Smith, J.V., 1993. Infinitesimal kinematics of rotational rifting with reference to en echelon marginal faults in the Red Sea region. Tectonophysics, 222: 227–235.Many rifts open obliquely to the trend of the rift, commonly forming en echelon patterns of extensional structures on the rift margins. Previously, the kinematics of such rifts have been...
The groundmass of andesitic dykes at Sezaki, southwest Japan, has trachytic texture and contains microscopic shear zones. The shear zones comprise a conjugate pair formed by flattening of the solidifying dyke rock, probably caused by the magma pressure of the still molten part of the dyke. This pressure shortened the solidifying rock perpendicular...
A series of experiments is reported in which brittle minor structures are initiated in narrow deformation zones in clay under conditions of kinematically controlled oblique divergent displacement. Nineteen settings of boundary displacement angle were used from pure wrench to pure divergence under conditions favouring either faults (dry experiments)...
The inverted Cobar Basin, within the Lachlan Fold Belt of New South Wales, Australia, comprises a mid-Palaeozoic cover sequence, originally deposited in a NNW-trending basin. The pattern of F1 folding in the layered cover rocks changes from east to west; from tight well-cleaved folds parallel to the NNW-trending basin margin on the east, to open po...
En echelon arrays of structures are common in zones of oblique deformation such as transtension and transpression. In such zones the incremental and finite strain axes are not orthogonal to the boundary displacement-direction. Clay modelling indicates that en echelon extensional faults in the Cobar Basin of the Lachlan Fold Belt formed due to sinis...
Concept maps for six current structural geology texts show a diversity of approaches in ordering the content of the subject. Further complications result from the interrelationships of topics, for example, en echelon vein arrays were found to be covered under folds, shear zones, regional geology, field techniques, igneous geology and strain theory....
In the current skill shortage it is necessary to reconsider the way engineering qualifications relate to specific engineering skills. This is especially the case in the mining industry where candidates with specialist qualifications are becoming harder to find. Qualification titles are commonly assumed to encompass a known and exclusive set of skil...
The process of thinking like an engineer was explored in a problem-based learning course in environmental engineering. Guest engineers were invited to participate in workshop based around dialogue between students and the guest engineer. Questions and comments by the guest engineers in each of three weeks were collated and classified. Scope of the...
