Planting trees to control salinity

Dense tree plantings covering at least 30 per cent of cleared land can lower groundwater levels by two metres or more in 10 years from the time of planting. This sizeable drop can be expected at sites receiving 700 to 800 mm of rain a year. Research by the Water Authority of Western Australia shows the most promising strategy when using trees is to put dense plantings on the discharge zone and on lower to midslopes. This strategy is successful where groundwaters contain less than 30,000 milligrams per litre total soluble salts (TSS). This article discusses research in the 450 to 800 mm rainfall zone by the Water Authority, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Conservation and Land Management (CALM) and CSIRO

Linking sill morphology to emplacement mechanisms

Mafic sill complexes are increasingly being shown to play a major role in the movement of magma around the upper crust in volcanic terranes and to have a role in mass extinction events in Earth history. Most of the current models of sill emplacement assume that brittle fracture operates at all points of sill emplacement. Within this thesis, a series of observations are presented from sheet intrusions in South Africa, USA and the UK showing that in certain situations, dependent on host rock lithology, the propagation of magma through normal brittle fracture can cease. In this circumstance a prevalent fluid/fluid or fluid/ductile relationship between host rock and intruding magma is often developed. Once this occurs, the evolution of a given sheet intrusion becomes distinctly different from that produced by normal brittle fracture alone. The break down in brittle fracture often leads to the development of magma fingers, which accelerate ahead of the main sheet of magma. It is important to note that it is ultimately the host rock lithology and its coupled response to intrusion of magma that dictates the ongoing evolution of the morphology of sheet intrusions in high-level magmatic systems

Is unemployment benefit stigma related to poverty, payment receipt, or lack of employment? A vignette experiment about Australian views

The present study sought to better understand the extent to which negative perceptions of people who receive unemployment benefits is due to their poverty status, their unemployment, and/or their receipt of income support payments. We sought to differentiate these three factors in a vignette-based experiment drawing on a large Australian general population sample (N = 778). Participants rated the personality and capability of two fictional characters. The key experimental manipulation of employment status and benefit receipt was embedded in description of other characteristics. Participants rated vignette characters who received unemployment benefits less favorably on personality (conscientiousness, emotional stability, agreeableness), competence, and warmth than characters described as having a job, as being poor, or as not having a job but without mention of receiving benefits. There was a gradient in the strength of negative assessments across these conditions, but only warmth, conscientiousness and employability distinguished between individuals receiving unemployment benefits and individuals without a job but no reference to benefit receipt. This study provides new insights showing that receiving benefits due to unemployment contributes to negative perceptions over and above the effects of poverty or being unemployed

Failure to predict igneous rocks encountered during exploration of sedimentary basins : a case study of the Bass Basin, Southeastern Australia

This work was carried out during a research visit to the Australian School of Petroleum at the University of Adelaide, and forms part of the lead author's PhD research, which is funded by a University of Aberdeen College of Physical Sciences Scholarship. Seismic interpretation was conducted using IHS Kingdom, and well log interpretation using Schlumberger Techlog software. Synthetic seismic response modelling was performed using Ikon RokDoc software. This paper greatly benefited from the reviews of Sverre Planke, Kamal'deen Omosanya and an anonymous reviewer.Peer reviewedPostprin

Stratigraphic Overview of Palaeogene Tuffs in the Faroe-Shetland Basin, NE Atlantic Margin

Acknowledgements We are very grateful to PGS for generously donating seismic datasets. Seismic interpretation was carried out using IHS Kingdom software, and wells were downloaded from the UK Oil & Gas Common Data Access Welllog interpretation was conducted using Schlumberger Techlog software. D.W. would also like to thank C. Telford for insights regarding the identification of tuffs in ditch cuttings and Total (UK) for material concerning the Vaila Formation. Attendees of VMRC workshops from academia and industry provided important insights into the stratigraphy of the FSB. Finally,D.W.would like to acknowledge the late Robert Knox, without whom our knowledge of North Atlantic explosive volcanism would be considerably poorer. The reviews of P. Reynolds and J. Ólavsdóttir greatly improved the paper. Funding This work is part of D.W.’s PhD research, which is funded by a University of Aberdeen College of Physical Sciences Scholarship.Peer reviewedPostprin

Stratigraphy of volcanic rock successions of the North Atlantic Rifted Margin : the offshore record of the Faroe Shetland and Rockall Basins

Open Access via the CUP Read and Publish Agreement Acknowledgements The authors would like to thank Simon Kelley for comments on an earlier draft of the manuscript and for discussions on radiometric age dating. Dougal Jerram and John Faithfull are thanked for their constructive and helpful comments on the manuscript. PGS are thanked for permission to publish FSB MegaSurvey Plus data shown in Figures 6 and 8. PGS and TGS are thanked for permission to publish seismic data from the FSB2012 GeoStreamer survey also shown in Figure 6. Data used in Figure 19 are courtesy of GeoPartners and TGS, processing by DUG. IHS Kingdom Suite and Schlumberger Petrel Software are thanked for their donation of academic licenses to the University of Aberdeen.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Overpressure transmission through interconnected igneous intrusions

JX Nippon UK Ltd are thanked for PSDM seismic data used in this study. Well data is from the Common Access Database (CDA). IHS Kingdom Software and Schlumberger Petrel Software was used for seismic interpretation. Schlumberger Techlog was used for display of wireline and FMI data. We would like to thank Joe Cartwright, Richard Swarbrick, Clayton Grove and Stephen O’Connor for the constructive and helpful reviews and discussions of this manuscript. PGS are thanked for continued support of the research group at Aberdeen. Barry Katz is thanked for editorial guidance and input.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Linking surface and subsurface volcanic stratigraphy in the Turkana Depression of the East African Rift System

Acknowledgments The Kenyan JV (Tullow Oil, Africa Oil and Total) are thanked for allowing publication of this paper. Views expressed within this paper by authors are not necessarily the views of the Kenyan JV. Seismic and Well Interpretation was undertaken using Schlumberger Petrel and Techlog Software. ALS Petrophysics is acknowledged for thin section petrography of Epir-1 in Figure 7. Stuart Archer is thanked for discussions with regard to rift stratigraphy. We would like to thank Simon Holford and Craig Feibel for reviews which considerably helped improve this paper. Tyrone O. Rooney is thanked for editorial guidance. Dennis Wairimu and Francis Karanja are thanked for accompanying in the field. The Kapese Camp and Drivers are thanked for accommodating the fieldwork in a very professional manner. Mark Goodchild is thanked for facilitating fieldwork and research funding. Funding: The Kenyan JV are thanked for providing research funding for the project.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Controls on the Distribution of Volcanism and Intra-Basaltic Sediments in the Cambo-Rosebank Region, West of Shetland

This paper forms part of a NERC Oil & Gas CDT PhD. PGS and TGS are thanked for donation of the FSB2011/12 MultiClient GeoStreamer® Survey without which this research would have been impossible. Stephen Morse is thanked for his constant input and support throughout the project. Chevron North Sea Limited are thanked for their interest and discussions on the Rosebank Field. All views, interpretations and opinion expressed in this article are entirely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views, interpretations or opinions of Chevron North Sea Limited. Jonathan Dietz is thanked for fieldwork in Iceland.Peer reviewedPostprin

Seismic interpretation of sill complexes in sedimentary basins : implications for the sub-sill imaging problem

Acknowledgements: We thank reviewers Craig Magee and Murray Hoggett for considerate and insightful reviews that considerably improved this manuscript. The LIDAR data were acquired by Julien Vallet and Samuel Pitiot of Helimap Systems. We acknowledge NORSAR for an academic licence of the seismic modelling software SeisRoX, which was used to generate synthetic seismograms in this study, and NORSAR-2D, which was used for analysis of seismic propagation through the overburden models. The virtual outcrop was visualized and interpreted using LIME (http://virtualoutcrop.com/lime). We also acknowledge Tore Aadland for writing invaluable scripts used for import of the outcrop models to seismic modelling software, and Gijs A. Henstra and Björn Nyberg for assistance in the field. Funding: Funding for data acquisition was provided from the Research Council of Norway through the PETROMAKS project 193059 and the FORCE Safari project. Funding for data analysis and modelling was provided from PETROMAKS through the Trias North project (234152).Peer reviewedPostprin