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TES Themes

Deep Time Plate Tectonics, Critical Minerals and the Development of our Habitable Planet

2026-Oman-TESGroup (4).JPG

Statement from Alan

Major Funding

ARC Laureate Fellowship, FL240100114
"Plate Tectonics, Critical Metals and our Habitable Earth"  

CI Alan Collins

ARC DECRA, DE230101642

"Earth’s mid-life crisis: recipe for a habitable planet?"

CI Andrew Merdith

​ARC DISCOVERY DPxxxx

"Earth’s mid-life crisis: recipe for a habitable planet?"

CIs Alan Collins, Morgan Blades, Juraj Farkas

Ocean Water Chemistry Evolution Through Deep Time

2025-Madagascar-TESGroup (27).JPG

Statement from Alan

Major Funding

​ARC DISCOVERY DPxxxx

"Earth’s mid-life crisis: recipe for a habitable planet?"

CIs Alan Collins, Morgan Blades, Juraj Farkas

ARC Linkage Project LP200301457

"Reconstructing the Beetaloo/Greater McArthur Basin System"

TES Group CIs: Alan Collins, Juraj Farkas, ssss

Partners: NT Government (NTGS), Santos, BHP, TECK, Beetaloo Energy, University of Copenhagen, CSIRO    [URLs to all]

ARC Linkage Project LP210200822

"Novel isotope techniques to explore the Centralian Superbasin, Australia"

TES Group CIs: Juraj FarkasAlan Collins, Morgan Blades

Partners: xxx 

​​Mineral Exploration Co-operative Research Centre

​Partners:  MinEXCRC

Age, Stratigraphy and Tectonic Evolution of Proterozoic (mainly) Sedimentary Basins

2024-PeakeDenison-TESGroup (8).JPG

Statement from Alan

Major Funding

ARC Linkage Project LP200301457

"Reconstructing the Beetaloo/Greater McArthur Basin System"

TES Group CIs: Alan Collins, Juraj Farkas, ssss

Partners: NT Government (NTGS), Santos, BHP, TECK, Beetaloo Energy, University of Copenhagen, CSIRO    [URLs to all]

ARC Linkage Project LP210200822

"Novel isotope techniques to explore the Centralian Superbasin, Australia"

TES Group CIs: Juraj FarkasAlan Collins, Morgan Blades

Partners: xxx 

​​Mineral Exploration Co-operative Research Centre

​Partners:  MinEXCRC

ARC Laureate Fellowship, FL240100114

Past Plate Tectonic Controls on Critical Metal Systems

2026-Oman-TESGroup (8).JPG

Statement from Alan

Major Funding

Mineral Exploration Co-operative Research Centre

​Partners:  MinEXCRC

ARC Laureate Fellowship, FL240100114

"Plate Tectonics, Critical Metals and our Habitable Earth"  

CI Alan Collins

What we do

The Tectonics and Earth Systems (TES) Group explores how deformation of the solid earth over deep time built a human-habitable, resource-rich planet.

The Tectonics and Earth Systems Group is a part of the Mawson Centre for Geoscience and its research spans the Institute for Sustainability, Energy and Resources (ISER) and the Environment Institute.

TES Group members are geologists and geochemists, and our aim is to develop an evolving model of the world where every aspect is testable and mutable.

Methodology

We use geochronology, thermochronology, structural geology, geochemistry, igneous geology and sedimentology to unravel the tectonic geography of a region through deep time.

Our work is data focussed and built from the rock record. As such we work with geochemical proxies for tectonic processes, redox, salinity, productivity, erosion and hydrothermal activity, many of which are pioneering and developmental.

We are also investigating new, rapid, accurate dating techniques, such as laser-ablation analysis of Rb–Sr and K–Ca isotope systems via plasma mass spectrometry (see also our Metal Isotope Group) and are grappling with data analytical approaches to apply to the sizable and diverse data we generate and interpret.

Research Aims

By combining these studies, we attempt to reconstruct the past continents and oceans of the world in a full plate-tectonic manner; focussing on the last 2 billion years of earth history, when we consider plate tectonics operated in a similar manner as it does today.

From these novel, full-earth, reconstructions we strive to quantify feedbacks between geosphere phenomena (such as mountain belt topographic evolution, ocean basin connectivity, and rift development), chemistry of the atmosphere/hydrosphere and the development of the biosphere.

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