Posted 14 December 2010
Dr Cath Jex lectures students at Turramurra High School
NCGRT post-doctoral research fellow Dr Cath Jex of the Connected Waters Initiative recently gave a guest lecture to students at Turramurra High School in Sydney as part of NCGRT's commitment to provide training in all aspects of ground water research.
In the first year of their HSC studies that include geography and chemistry, the students were provided a rare opportunity to hear first-hand from a scientist working in the fields of ground water and palaeoclimate research.
Cath discussed how stalagmites can be used to reconstruct the history of changes to groundwater systems over long periods of time, including her recent work in Ethiopia.
The students learned about some of the analytical techniques used in this research, including radiometric dating methods and stable isotope analysis of speleothem calcium carbonate.
Stalagmites, some of which are up to 130,000 years old, were made available for the students to handle and examine.
Researchers at the CWI and colleagues at institutions in the UK are currently collaborating in an ongoing project to use stalagmites to reconstruct past changes in hydrological conditions in Ethiopia, specifically during time periods that cover early modern human migration out of East Africa.
There are plans for similar research to be conducted in Australia led by CWI researchers Andy Baker and Cath Jex, involving the use of stalagmites to date and characterise periods of past hydrological variability and groundwater recharge in NSW during the Quaternary.
Links:
Professor Andy Baker features in American Water Resources Association ‘Water Resources Impact’, September 2020 edition.
The Connected Waters Initiative (CWI) is pleased to welcome Taylor Coyne to its network as a postgraduate researcher. If you’re engaged in research at a postgraduate level, and you’re interested in joining the CWI network, get in touch! The CWI network includes multidisciplinary researchers across the Schools of Engineering, Sciences, Humanities and Languages and Law.
The Grand Challenge on Rapid Urbanisation will establish Think Deep Australia, led by Dr Marilu Melo Zurita, to explore how we can use our urban underground spaces for community benefit.
On the 21 August 2020, CWI researchers made a submission to the National Water Reform Inquiry, identifying priority areas and making a number of recommendations as to how to achieve a sustainable groundwater future for Australia.
Results published from a research project between the Land Development Department (LDD) Thailand and UNSW has demonstrated how 2-dimensional mapping can be used to understand soil salinity adjacent to a earthen canal in north east Thailand (Khongnawang et al. 2020).
