Geology topics

Research about New South Wales

Source-linked reports with geographic coverage including New South Wales.

6 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2025

Benchmarking shoreline prediction models over multi-decadal timescales

Robust predictions of shoreline change are critical for sustainable coastal management. Despite advancements in shoreline models, objective benchmarking remains limited. Here we present results from ShoreShop2.0, an international collaborative benchmarking workshop, where 34 groups submitted shoreline change predictions in a blind competition. Subsets of shoreline observations at an undisclosed site (BeachX) over short (5-year) and medium (50-year) periods were withheld from modelers and used for model benchmarking. Using satellite-derived shoreline datasets for calibration and evaluation, the best performing models achieved prediction accuracies on the order of 10 m, comparable to the accuracy of the satellite shoreline data, indicating that certain beaches can be modelled nearly as well as they can be remotely observed. The outcomes from this collaborative benchmarking competition critically review the present state-of-the-art in shoreline change prediction as well as reveal model limitations, facilitate improvements, and offer insights for advancing shoreline-prediction capabilities.

New South Wales↗

USGS2017

A new species of freshwater eel-tailed catfish of the genus Tandanus (Teleostei: Plotosidae) from coastal rivers of mid-northern New South Wales, Australia

Tandanus bellingerensis , new species, is described based on specimens from four river drainages (Bellinger, Macleay, Hastings, and Manning rivers) of the mid-northern coast of New South Wales, Australia. Previously, three species were recognized in the genus Tandanus : T. tropicanus of the wet tropics region of northeast Queensland, T. tandanus of the Murray-Darling drainage and coastal streams of central-southern Queensland and New South Wales, and T. bostocki of southwestern Western Australia. The new species is distinguished from all congeners by a combination of the following morphologic characters: a high count of rays in the continuous caudodorsal and anal fins (range 153–169, mode 159), a high count of gill rakers on the first arch (range 35–39, mode 36), and strongly recurved posterior serrae of the pectoral-fin spine. Additionally, results from previously conducted genetic studies corroborate morphologic and taxonomic distinctness of the new species.

New South Wales↗

USGS2015

Quantifying water requirements of riparian river red gum ( Eucalyptus camaldulensis ) in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia: Implications for the management of environmental flows

Water resource development and drought have altered river flow regimes, increasing average flood return intervals across floodplains in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia, causing health declines in riparian river red gum ( Eucalyptus camaldulensis ) forests and woodlands. Environmental flow allocations helped to alleviate water stress during the recent Millennium Drought (1997–2010), however, quantification of the flood frequency required to support healthy E. camaldulensis communities is still needed. We quantified water requirements of E. camaldulensis for two years across a flood gradient (trees inundated at frequencies of 1:2, 1:5 and 1:10 years) at Yanga National Park, New South Wales to help inform management decision-making and design of environmental flows. Sap flow, evaporative losses and soil moisture measurements were used to determine transpiration, evapotranspiration and plant-available soil water before and after flooding. A formula was developed using plant-available soil water post-flooding and average annual rainfall, to estimate maintenance time of soil water reserves in each flood frequency zone. Results indicated that soil water reserves could sustain 1:2 and 1:5 trees for 15 months and six years, respectively. Trees regulated their transpiration rates, allowing them to persist within their flood frequency zone, and showed reduction in active sapwood area and transpiration rates when flood frequencies exceeded 1:2 years. A leaf area index of 0.5 was identified as a potential threshold indicator of severe drought stress. Our results suggest environmental water managers may have greater flexibility to adaptively manage floodplains in order to sustain E. camaldulensis forests and woodlands than has been appreciated hitherto.

New South Wales↗

USGS2010

Paleozoic ophiolitic assemblages within the southern New England orogen of eastern Australia: Implications for growth of the Gondwana margin

Several ophiolitic assemblages occur in the southern New England orogen. The development of these rocks and their relations to the rest of the orogen have major implications for the tectonic evolution of eastern Gondwana. A major, narrow but elongate belt of Early Cambrian suprasubduction zone ophiolite crops out along and near the PeelManning Fault System and is juxtaposed against younger arc and subduction complex terranes. No pre-Permian links with the rest of the New England orogen have been established for this terrane. It may represent portions of Lachlan Fold Belt basement which underlies younger, westward overthrust New England terranes, and has been diapirically emplaced at higher crustal levels as serpentinite-matrix melange. Middle to Late Devonian ophiolitic rocks in the Yarras Complex comprise basement to the Birpai subterrane and represent a crustal cross section through a rifted island arc. Correlatives of this terrane also occur within the more extensive Gamilaroi terrane to the west of which deeper crustal levels are not exposed. The various components of serpentinite-matrix melange in the Ngamba terrane at Port Macquarie superficially appear to represent a dismembered ophiolite association. However, the various components of the melange exhibit a wide range of ages, metamorphism, and tectonic affinities, rendering a genetically related origin unlikely. This terrane includes fragments of ocean floor accreted into a Late Devonian subduction complex, which was later affected by Early Carboniferous forearc serpentinite diapirism and high Mg series magmatism. Zircon inheritance in Triassic dikes, which intrude the melange attest to the development or later emplacement of this forearc region over an older Lachlan Fold Belt basement. Ultramafic rocks of the Bundjalung terrane in the east of the New England region probably formed at deep levels in an intraoceanic island arc and are intruded by boninitic dikes. The tectonic development of the NEO was significantly more complicated than has been suggested in earlier published models. Periodic accretion of island arc systems, some of which are now represented by suprasubduction zone ophiolites, to the eastern margin of Gondwana suggests multiple phases of subduction with the possibility of polarity reversals throughout the history of accretion. Lateral accretion was not the only means by which Gondwana continental crust grew, and there was considerable postaccretion continentward overthrusting of younger terranes.

New South Wales↗

USGS2000

Post-early cretaceous landform evolution along the western margin of the Bancannia trough, western NSW

Previously undated post-Devonian sediments outcropping north of Fowlers Gap station near the western margin of the Bancannia Trough are shown by plant macro- and microfossil determinations to be of Early Cretaceous (most likely Neocomian and/or Aptian) age, and thus part of the Eromanga Basin. They are assigned to the previously defined Teleplione Creek Formation. Study of the structural configuration of this unit and the unconformably underlying Devonian rocks suggests that the gross landscape architecture of the area results from post-Early Cretaceous monoclinal folding along blind faults at the western margin of the trough, combined with the effects of differential erosion. This study shows that. while landscape evolution in the area has been dynamic, the major changes that have occurred are on a geological rather than human timescale.

New South Wales↗

USGS1994

Clastic metasediments of the Early Proterozoic Broken Hill Group, New South Wales, Australia: Geochemistry, provenance, and metallogenic significance

Whole-rock analyses of samples of pelite, psammite, and psammopelite from the Early Proterozoic Broken Hill Group (Willyama Supergroup) in the Broken Hill Block, New South Wales, Australia, reveal distinctive geochemical signatures. Major-element data show high Al 2 O 3 and K 2 O, low MgO and Na 2 O, and relatively high Fe 2 O 3 T MgO "> Fe2O3TMgO ratios, compared to average Early Proterozoic clastic metasediments. High field strength elements (HFSE) are especially abundant, including Nb (most 15–27 ppm), Ta (most 1.0–2.2 ppm), Th (17–36 ppm), Hf (4–15 ppm), and Zr (most 170–400 ppm); Y (33–74 ppm) is also high. Concentrations of ferromagnesian elements are generally low ( Sc = < 20 ppm, Ni = ≤ 62 ppm, Co = <26 ppm; Cr = most < 100 ppm). Data for rare earth elements (REEs) show high abundances of light REEs ( La CN = 116–250 × chondrite; La CN = 437 in one sample), high La CN Yb CN "> LaCNYbCN ratios (5.6–13.9), and large negative Eu anomalies ( Eu Eu ∗ = 0.32–0.57 "> EuEu∗= 0.32–0.57 ). The geochemical data indicate derivation of the metasedimentary rocks of the Broken Hill Group by the erosion mainly of felsic igneous (or meta-igneous) rocks. High concentrations of HFSE, Y, and REEs in the metasediments suggest a provenance dominanted by anorogenic granites and(or) rhyolites, including those with A-type chemistry. Likely sources of the metasediments were the rhyolitic to rhyodacitic protoliths of local quartz + feldspar ± biotite ± garnet gneisses (e.g., Potosi-type gneiss) that occur within the lower part of the Willyama Supergroup, or chemically similar basement rocks in the region; alternative sources may have included Early Proterozoic anorogenic granites and(or) rhyolites in the Mount Isa and(or) Pine Creek Blocks of northern Australia, or in the Gawler craton of South Australia. Metallogenic considerations suggest that the metasediments of the Broken Hill Block formed enriched source rocks during the generation of pegmatite-hosted deposits and concentrations of La, Ce, Nb, Ta, Th, and Sn in the region. Li, Be, B, W, and U in pegmatite minerals of the district may have been acquired during granulite-facies metamorphism of the local metasediments.

New South Wales↗