TAG 166 - Geological Society of Australia

A conference in 2014 is envisaged as a session of the XII IAEGconference to be held in Turin, Italy, 15–18 September 2014.A session entitled ‘Building stones and ornamental rocks:resource evaluation, technical assessment, heritage designation’has been proposed.A 2015 conference is being planned for North America (USAor Canada) by Joe Hannibal, Brian Pratt and Nelson Shaffer.A 2016 conference will likely be linked with the 35th IGC to beheld in Cape Town, South Africa, 27 August–4 September 2016.Details of HSTG workAs of September 2012, HSTG also has 154 Correspondents from40 countries, including 19 from Australia. Correspondents areadvised of HSTG activities by the Global Stone Circular that isdistributed by email approximately every nine months. It isexpected that Correspondents will assist greatly in thenomination and approval of Global Heritage Stone Resources.Australia is represented on the inaugural HSTG Board ofManagement by its Secretary General, Barry Cooper (Universityof South Australia). More details about HSTG work are providedat http://www.globalheritagestone.org. Any GSA member whois interested in heritage stone research and who wishes to beadded to the list of HSTG Correspondents should email BarryCooper at barry.cooper@unisa.edu.au.I would like to acknowledge and thank Barry for providingthis informative account of the establishment of the HSTG.MARGARET BROCXConvenorStanding Committee for Geological Heritagegeoheritage@iinet.net.auRecognitionCongratulations Simon TurnerSimon Turner, long-standing GSA member and accomplishedEarth Scientist, was recently made a GSA Fellow.Here we present Ron Vernon and John Foden’s citation.Read Simon Turner’s biography online at http://gsa.org.au/recognition/fellows.html.Professor Simon Turner is a high-profile, world-renownedgeochemist at the peak of his career. He is well knowninternationally and has worked with some of the leadinginternational luminaries in his field. His research is concernedwith mantle partial melting, magma formation and magmacrystallisation, mainly involving analysis of chemicalcompositions and isotope ratios of rocks and minerals, includeRb–Sr, 40 Ar/ 39 Ar, U–Th and Re–Os isotopic systems. His mainspecialty is the application of short-lived, U-series isotopes toinvestigate the time scales of formation, transport, storage anddifferentiation of magma in the upper mantle and lower crust,especially beneath arc volcanoes and flood basalts. In addition,he has extended this isotopic approach to the investigation oferosion rates. He had an early interest in the origin of granitoids,gabbros and tectonic relationship of the Delamerian of SouthAustralia and western Victoria, and he has continued publishingon geological problems in this region. He has written onvolcanism in an enormous range of places around the world,including the Sunda, Alaska–Aleutian, Tonga–Kermadec and Bicolarcs, the Lesser Antilles, the Betic–Alboran domain, the Aegean,New Zealand (White Island, Solander Island, Ngauruhoe,Ruapehu), Kamchatka, the Cascades, the Azores, Cotopaxi, theLau basin, Manus basin, Vanuatu, Rabaul, Katmai, the Galapagos,Mount Cameroon, the Asal Rift, the Basin and Range and theTibetan Plateau. He has had a close involvement with theproblems of flood basalts, with special reference to the Deccanand Paraná provinces, and has advanced geochemical evidencefor the production of associated rhyolites by crystallisation–differentiation of flood basaltic magma. He has also made severalmajor contributions to the understanding of upper mantleprocesses, dynamics and magma extraction, including mantleplumes and the recycling of subducted material.Professor Turner has an extremely strong publication record,with 147 articles in refereed academic journals. He edited, withA Dosseto and J Van Orman, a well-received book entitledTimescales of Magmatic Processes: from core to atmosphere(Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), which is evidence of his researchversatility and international standing. One of his most outstandingeducational contributions is supervision of PhD students, withseven completions and seven more under current supervision.In view of his international research reputation, his numerouscontributions to Australian geological research, and hiscontributions to postgraduate training, we have much pleasurein recommending Simon Turner for Fellowship of the GeologicalSociety of Australia.RON VERNON and JOHN FODEN12 |TAG March 2013