Associate Professor Graham Heinson

Teaching Interests

Current Undergraduate Teaching

Earth's Environment I (6 weeks, 1st year teaching, course coordinator) Landscape Processes and Environments II (4 weeks) Geophysics III (12 weeks, course coordinator) Environmental Geoscience Applications (4 weeks) Numerical Modelling IV (6 day short-course, course coordinator) Honours Geology and Geophysics year coordinator

Awards

University of Adelaide Nominee for the Australian Teaching Award (2005) University Nominee for the SA Premier's Excellence in Science Awards (2005, SA Educator of the Year) Finalist for the Australian Museum Eureka Prize (Land and Water Category) Executive Dean of Science Prize and Awards for Excellence in Teaching in 2004 Highly Commended applicant for the Stephen Cole the Elder Prize in 2004 and 2005 Nominee for Supervisor of the Year (Postgraduate Students Association) (2001; runner up in 2004)

Teaching Grant

Development and Implementation of Web-Based Resources for Fieldwork, Laboratory Specimens and Student Research Projects in the Geosciences. Heinson, G.S., Schmidt Mumm, A. and James, P., Faculty of Science, 2001.

Teaching Publications

Graham Heinson, Nick Direen, Mark Thomas, Andrew Baker, Rob Fitzpatrick, Patrick James, Brendan Coleman, Matthew Hutchens, Hashim Carey and the 3rd year Mineral and Environmental Geophysics Class, Pedo-Geophysics Teaching and Research in the Adelaide Hills, CRC LEME News, 23, 6-8, 2003. Patrick James, Graham Heinson and Andreas Schmidt Mumm, Linking teaching and research in the undergraduate fieldwork training programme at the University of Adelaide, Planet, 5, 16-18, 2003.

Qualifications

Education

Edinburgh University, B.Sc. (Hons) Geophysics (1987) Australian National University Ph.D. Geophysics (1991)

Recent Employment

University of Adelaide, Adelaide. Lecturer (2000-2003), Senior Lecturer (2003-2005), A/Professor (2006-). Associate Dean of the Faculty of Sciences (IT: Nov. 2003- Feb. 2004) (Education: Oct. 2004- Jul. 2006), Acting Head of Geology and Geophysics (May 2007 - )

Research Interests

My primary research over the last five years has been in the geophysical imaging method of magnetotellurics (MT). The technique yields images of Earth's electrical resistivity to depths of up to 200 km, which provides constraints on the geochemistry, temperature and the presence of melt and fluids. Since 2003, when my group made the first new observations across Broken Hill, we have now made over four hundred measurements in various locations in South Australia, the Northern Territory and Western Australia, and overseas in Oman and Tanzania. Project work is now supported by an ARC Discovery grant, three Linkage grants a LIEF grant and is a major component of the AuScope NCRIS Capability 5.13 "Structure and Evolution of the Australian Continent". The NCRIS investment plan noted that "The collection of a continent scale magneto-telluric survey will provide an Australian conductivity image unheralded of in the world. AuScope will allow the commencement of this program with the provision of a world class set of deep-probing low-frequency magneto-telluric recording systems and their immediate deployment".

I have also developed a group that uses electromagnetic methods for groundwater work. The group is focused on developing new technologies for determining porosity and permeability of sediments in the Murray Basin. One of the developments by a Masters student led to a technology that has been used to map ~ 2000 km of the River Murray riverbed sediments, to assess the impact of salt migration into the river. The method has become an industry standard, and was a finalist for the Australian Museum Eureka Prize (2005) in the Land and Water category for "For development of a fast, cost effective and efficient geophysical survey system that detects salinity in riverbed sediments, leading to the more efficient use of salt interception schemes." The group comprises six PhD students (two completed) and several Honours students.

Publications

Heinson, G.S. Industrial Uses of EM, in Gubbins, D., Encyclopedia of Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism, Springer-Verlag, published August 2007.

Selway, K., Heinson, G.S., Busuttil, S. and Lilley, F.E.M., Two dimensional magnetotelluric modelling of three dimensional structures, Exploration Geophysics, 37, 231-238, 2006.

Selway, K., Heinson, G.S. and Hand, M., Electrical evidence of continental accretion: steeply-dipping crustal-scale conductivity contrast, Geophysical Research Letters, 33, L06305, doi:10.1029/2005GL025328, 2006.

Heinson, G.S., Direen, N. and Gill, R. Magnetotelluric evidence for a deep-crustal mineralising system beneath the giant Olympic Dam Iron-Oxide Copper Gold deposit, southern Australia, Geology, 34, 573-576, 2006.

Heinson, G.S., White, A. and Lilley, F.E.M., Rifting of a passive margin and development of a lower-crustal detachment zone: new evidence from marine magnetotellurics, Geophysics Research Letters, 32, L12305, doi:10.1029/2005GL022934.2005.

Thiel, S., Heinson, G.S., White, A, Tectonic evolution of the Southern Gawler Craton, South Australia, from electromagnetic sounding, Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 887-896, 2005.

Heinson, G.S., White, A., Robinson, D and Fathianpour, N., Marine self potential exploration of the continental shelf, Geophysics, 70, 109-118, 2005.

Fathianpour, N., Heinson, G.S. and White, A., The total field magnetometric (TFMMR) method I: Theory and 2.5D forward modelling, Exploration Geophysics, 36, 181-188, 2005.

Fathianpour, N., Heinson, G.S. and White, A., The total field magnetometric (TFMMR) Method II: 2D Inversion of the Flying Doctor Deposit, Broken Hill, Exploration Geophysics, 36, 189-197, 2005.

Barrett, B., Heinson, G.S., Hatch, M. and Telfer, A., A water-borne transient electromagnetic system for river sediment salt-load detection, J App. Geophys., 58, 29-44, 2005.

Heinson, G.S. and White, A., Electrical resistivity of the northern Australian lithosphere: crustal anisotropy or mantle heterogeneity? Earth Planet. Sci. Lett., 232, 157-170, 2005.

Skinner, D. and Heinson, G.S., A comparison of electrical and EM methods for the detection of hydraulic pathways in a fractured rock aquifer, Clare Valley, Hydrogeology Journal, 12, 576-590, 2004.

Constable, S.C. and Heinson, G.S., Magnetotelluric sounding of the Hawaiian hotspot swell, Tectonophysics, 389, 111–124, 2004.

Lilley, F.E.M., White, A., Heinson, G.S. and Proko, K., Seeking a seafloor magnetic signal from the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, Geophysical Journal International, 157, 175-186, 2004.

Dhu, T., Heinson, G.S., Environmental monitoring using electrical resistivity tomography, Exploration Geophysics, 35, 33-40, 2004.

Entry last updated: Thursday, 25 Oct 2007