GEO
Short essays on the rocks, minerals, and deep time of the Australian continent.
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The Nickel That Sank: The Kambalda Komatiite Flows
In Western Australia's Kambalda Dome, 2.7-billion-year-old lava flows—komatiites—carried nickel from the mantle and deposited it in channels that still define the world's richest nickel province.
11 May 2026 · 3 min
Recent
- 11 May 2026The Diamond That Grew: The Argyle Lamproite PipeIn the remote East Kimberley, the Argyle lamproite pipe produced 90% of the world's pink diamonds through a rare geological accident 1.3 billion years in the making.
- 11 May 2026The Sapphire Gravels: Gemstones of the New England GemfieldsBeneath New South Wales' New England region, 50-million-year-old volcanic gravels hold sapphires and zircons carried from deep within the continent's crust.
- 11 May 2026The Coal That Burned for 6,000 Years: The Burning Mountain of WingenBeneath a hill in New South Wales, a coal seam has been smouldering for at least 6,000 years—the oldest known continuously burning coal fire on Earth.
- 11 May 2026The Copper That Melted: The Olympic Dam Breccia ComplexBeneath the South Australian desert, the Olympic Dam deposit—the world's largest uranium and fourth-largest copper resource—formed 1.6 billion years ago when hydrothermal fluids explosively shattered
- 10 May 2026The Boiling Crater: The Hydrothermal Vents of the Panorama DistrictIn Western Australia's Pilbara Craton, 3.24-billion-year-old hydrothermal vent deposits preserve the earliest known evidence of seafloor hot springs and the microbial life they hosted.
- 10 May 2026The Reef That Wasn't: The Archaean Carbonates of the Steep Rock LakeIn a drained lakebed in Western Australia, 2.7-billion-year-old carbonate platforms preserve the oldest known stromatolite reefs—built by microbes before the continents had stabilised.
- 10 May 2026The Fused Shore: The Granites of the Bunger HillsIn Antarctica's Bunger Hills, 1.2-billion-year-old Australian granite reveals when two continents were one, fused by the same tectonic collision that built the Albany-Fraser Orogen.
- 10 May 2026The Sunken River: The Turbidites of the Nankai TroughOff northwest Australia, sediment cascades from the continent into the deep Nankai Trough, building a 4-kilometre-thick fan of turbidite layers that record 15 million years of tectonic unravelling.