Miss Bonnie Henderson

Biography/ Background

I commenced my geological journey at Adelaide University in 2008, completing my BSc in 2010 and my honours degree in 2011. During my undergraduate career I completed three periods of work as a student geologist; firstly at PIRSA (2008-2009), Dominion Mining (now Kingsgate, 2009-2010) and Santos (2010-2011). I also worked as a casual geologist at Uranium Equity during the later stages of my undergraduate degree. Following my honours degree in 2011, I decided that academic research was the right pathway for me and commenced my PhD at Adelaide University in February 2012.

Qualifications

2010:

Graduated with B.Sc (Geology, Geophysics & Environmental Geoscience)  from the University of Adelaide

2011:

Graduated with B.Sc (Hons) from the University of Adelaide

2012:

Commenced PhD at the University of Adelaide

Awards & Achievements

2008:

Awarded the Robin Oliver & Pat James Prize for top level 1 (Earth's Interior) student going onto Level 2 Igneous and Metamorphic Geology

Recipient of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy (AusIMM) Award for Academic Excellence for superior academic achievement in Level I Geology.

2009:

Awarded the Second Year Dominion Mining Prize for Excellence in Geoscience

2010:

Recipient of the Conoco Phillips SPIRIT Scholarship for 2010

Recipient of the Bruce Webb Scholarship in Geology

2011:

Recipient of the AusIMM Education Endowment Fund Academic Scholarship for 2011

Awarded the Tate Memorial Medal for best results in Honours (Geology)

2012:

Recipient of Playford Trust Memorial Scholarship (PhD)

Research Interests

My PhD research project will contribute to the large scale geodynamic question, “What caused supercontinent formation to be refocused from the southern hemisphere in the Neoproterozoic (Gondwana) to the northern hemisphere in the Phanerozoic (Pangea)?”.

My work will focus on the western end of the northern peri-Gondwanan margin, in the Appalachian and Caledonian orogenies of NE America and Europe. The project will integrate U-Pb zircon geochronology, Lu-Hf isotopes in zircon and whole-rock Sm-Nd isotopic and geochemical data, to characterise and define the timing of the major geodynamic changes in northern Gondwana during the Proterozoic-Phanerozoic boundary.

My honours  research was focused on unravelling the tectonic evolution of the Ongole Domain in the Eastern Ghats Belt, India. The key aims of the project were to characterise the provenance and timing of sedimentary protolith deposition, the timing of magmatism, and the timing and conditions of metamorphism in the Ongole Domain. The data is of fundamental importance regarding our understanding of the palaeogeography and evolution of the supercontinent Nuna.

My research group is part of the Centre for Tectonics Resources and Exploration (see http://www.adelaide.edu.au/trax/ ) within the unit Continental Evolution Research Group (CERG; see http://www.adelaide.edu.au/cerg/). 

Publications

2011:

Bonnie Henderson, Alan S.Collins, Caroline Forbes, Dilip Saha. “An integrated metamorphic, geochronological and geochemical approach to the Ongole Domain, India”, In Y.J Bhaskar Rao, A.P Singh, E.V.S.S.K Babu (Eds.), 8^th International symposium on Gondwana to Asia “supercontinent dynamics: India and Gondwana”, CSIR-NGRI, Hyderabad, India, August 26-28, 2011 Abstract Vol, pp. 113

Entry last updated: Friday, 5 Oct 2012