April news items

6th April - Sydney Acid Sulfate Soil Short Course

This week Southern Cross GeoScience ran its professional acid sulfate soil short course in Sydney, NSW. The course, specifically designed for professionals involved with managing developments that impact on acid sulfate soils, was well attended. Representatives from federal, state and local government as well as consultants, , engineers and contractors attended the two day course.

A highlight of the course was a field trip to local acid sulfate soil sites. Participants visited a local wetland to look at a sulfidic soil profile, and then observed the construction work being conducted as part of the Port Botany expansion. A presentation by Quentin Pitts from Baulderstone on how acid sulfate soils were managed during construction was enjoyed by all. Thanks to Mark Stuckey and his team from Environmental Earth Sciences for their support in organising the field trip.

21st April - Salirian submits her PhD thesis

Today Southern Cross GeoScience staff and students joined together to congratulate Salirian Claff on submitting her PhD thesis. Salirian's thesis "Geochemical partitioning of iron and trace elements in acid sulfate soils", focuses on understanding trace metal movement in ASS landscapes.

As part of her PhD, Salirian developed and optimised a sequential extraction procedure for iron, which is a major geochemical controller on trace metal movement in the landscape. This was then applied to a range of ASS materials, to determine re-partitioning of trace elements under a range of conditions, including oxidising and acidifying, as well as reducing and near neutral.

Salirian is Southern Cross GeoScience's second PhD student to submit their thesis, a significant milestone for the Centre. To celebrate her completed thesis, Salirian brought in cupcakes for everyone......decorated with the periodic table.

Updated: 20 September 2012