glass earth

Image courtesy CSIRO Virtual Mine

Image North Bowen Basin geology
underlain by magnetics

Glass Earth was first proposed within the CSIRO Mineral Exploration and Mining Sector Investment Portfolio Triennium 2000 - 2003. The vision of Glass Earth was a long term, national initiative "to make the top kilometre of the Australian continent, and the geological processes operating within it, transparent" to "enable the discovery of the next generation of giant ore deposits in Australia".

This would be achieved by building upon and applying the successful outcomes of CRC AMET, AGCRC and CRC LEME to:

Develop geological concepts that deliver validated area selection criteria to industry;
Provide innovative technologies to recognise ore-bearing systems and locate ore deposits; and
Provide specialised concepts and technologies for exploration within and through the Australian regolith.

Projects being conducted under the Glass Earth initiative range from:

next generation detection technologies;
enhanced understanding of geological processes, both within the regolith and underlying bedrock;
geo-informatics that enable and enhance the management, integration and interpretation of spatial data ; and
conceptual and predictive terrane models for the discovey of ore deposits.

The delivery vehicles for Glass Earth are, and will continue to be varied. Leverage provided by Glass Earth iniative funding in its first stage has allowed partnering to develop high-risk projects such as next generation airborne gravity gradiometry and Getmag-the tensor magnetic gradiometer, and associated software platforms for data integration and interpretation. Many of the Glass Earth initiatives are currently being undertaken through two 7th round Cooperative Research Centres - the CRC for Predictive Mineral Discovery and the CRC for Landscape Environments and Minerals Exploration. Collaborative links have also been established with the Australian Computational Centre for Earth Systems Simulation.