Dr Nick Direen

Biography/ Background

Nick is a Senior Geologist / Geophysicist with FrOG Tech Pty Ltd.  He holds an Adjunct Senior Lectureship in the Discipline of Geology & Geophysics, and is also an Honorary Research Fellow /Associate Professor of the School of Earth Sciences of the University of Tasmania.

He has authored / co-authored over 80 peer-reviewed papers, technical & literary articles and book chapters, and ~30 major consulting studies for clients in the resources industries, including in the emerging renewable energy and groundwater sectors.

Companies who have benefited from his expertise include BP, Cairn, Cairn India, Chevron, ENI, Exxon-Mobil, Newmont, Repsol, Saudi Aramco, Shell, and Summit. His work on behalf of the Australian Government has contributed to the addition of more than 2.5 million square kilometres to the UN recognised Australian landmass: an area around 5 times that of continental France. He has recently completed unprecedented studies on the geological evolution of the Arabian and Indian plates, and is currently working on solving tectonic problems in Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan.

Nick was awarded the GSA Stilwell Medal (2004 - with co-author Prof. A J Crawford), GSA Howchin Medal (2005), University of Tasmania Medal (1995), and Caltex Medal (1991), and was the 2008 Loftus-Hills Memorial Lecturer at U Tasmania. He has been twice nominated for the prestigious ENI New Frontiers of Hydrocarbons Prize, by the Fondazione ENI Enrico Mattei, for his work on frontier continental margin basins; and nominated for the the 2008 Stillwell Medal (with co-authors H Stagg, P Symonds & J Colwell) and the Geological Society (London) young authors award (2004). He was named one of "Australia's top geologists" by the Geological Society of Australia in 2006.  He recently delivered the invited address in the "Detachment Dynamics: Heat, Deformation and Fluids in Extensional Systems" symposium at the Geological Society of America Meeting, 2009, in Portland Oregon.

Prior to working at U Adelaide (02-06), Nick worked as a cadet Petroleum Geologist at BHP Petroleum; a post-doctoral Research Scientist at Geoscience Australia; and a Lecturer in Tectonics & Exploration Geophysics at the University of Adelaide. Because he enjoys the quieter side of life, between 2000 & 2002, he also lived & worked part time at Clonakilla-St Clare winery & vineyards in regional NSW. In late 2007 he established FrOG Tech's Hobart office, employing 2 full time and one casual staff.

Qualifications

PhD, U. Tasmania, 1999 (Timing, development and prospectivity of a sector of the Late Neoproterozoic -Palaeozoic Gondwana margin )

B.Sc & B.Sc(Hons) First Class, U. Tasmania, 1995

Graduate Certificate in Applied Finance & Investment, Securities Institute of Australia, 2003

Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education, U. Adelaide, 2005

Research Interests

Nick is interested in applying potential field geophysics, seismic interpretation and structural geology to tectonic and geodynamic problems, especially in areas of limited geological exposure.

Nick supervises graduate students at both U Adelaide and U Tasmania, and has ongoing research collaborations with Geoscience Australia; Lincoln Minerals; Royal Holloway U. London; Schlumberger; U. Barcelona; U. Durham; U. Edinburgh; U. South Australia; and U. Western Carolina. Nick welcomes enquiries from potential collaborators and students by email.

Particular interests include:

Tectonics applied to petroleum exploration in Australia, N Africa, Arabia and South Asia;

Neoproterozoic supercontinental evolution; 

Processes of continental assembly & breakup (especially in the Australia, India & Antarctic plates);

Modelling crustal heat flow for geothermal and petroleum exploration; and

U, Cu-Au, and Au exploration;

To date, Nick has published much-cited, and more importantly, much-utilised research in international journals covering every Australian State, and the Australian Antarctic Territory. He has completed research projects covering Russia, Romania, Ukraine, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Yemen, Libya, Iraq, Vietnam, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, China, Sri Lanka and India.

His experience covers geological provinces ranging in age from the Late Archean to the Recent.

Publications

Upcoming work
DIREEN N G, Resubmitted Aug 2009. A non-rift setting for Olympic Dam Iron Oxide Copper Gold mineralisation? Evidence from chrome spinel compositions. Precambrian Research.

DIREEN N G, Collins A S, Clark C, & Ishihara T. "Grenvillian" age of eastern Bruce Rise crystalline continental basement, East Antarctica, from SHRIMP U-Pb dating. Terra Nova. 

DIREEN N G, Stagg H M J, Colwell J B, Symonds P A. Resubmitted Aug 2009. Through a glass, darkly: a new look at symmetry versus asymmetry in a conjugate, rifted non-volcanic margin pair, southern Australia and East Antarctica. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems (G3).

Selected Publications since 2006

DIREEN N G, Calver C R & McNeill A W (editors), 2009, Tungsten, Fire & Ice in the Realm of the Ancient King; GSA (Tas) Special Publication No. 8, 38pp. ISBN 978 0 9806264 0 7. Geological Society of Australia.

Hand M, Reid A, Szpunar M, DIREEN N, & Barovich K. 2009. Crustal architecture during the early Mesoproterozoic Hiltaba-related mineralisation event: are the Gawler Range Volcanics a foreland basin fill? MESA Journal 51:19-24

DIREEN, N G, & Jago, J B, 2008. The Cottons Breccia (Ediacaran), and its tectonostratigraphic context within the Grassy Group, King Island, Australia: a rift-related gravity slump deposit. Precambrian Research 165, 1-14. doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2008.05.008

DIREEN, N G, Pfeiffer, K, and Schmidt, P W, 2008. Strong remanent magnetisation in pyrrhotite: a structurally-controlled example from the Paleoproterozoic Tanami Orogenic gold province, northern Australia. Precambrian Research 165, 96-106. doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2008.05.007

Halpin J, Crawford A J, DIREEN N G, Coffin M F, Forbes C J, & Borissova I. 2008. Naturaliste Plateau, offshore Western Australia: A submarine window into Gondwana assembly and breakup. Geology 36, 807-810. doi: 10.1130/G25059A.1

Thomas, J L, DIREEN N G, & Hand M, 2008. Blind orogen: integrated appraisal of multiple episodes of Mesoproterozoic deformation and reworking in the Fowler Domain, western Gawler Craton, Australia. Precambrian Research 166, 263-282. doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2007.05.006.

Tikku A A & DIREEN N G, 2008. Suspect evidence for a major Australian-Antarctic plate reorganization at Hawaiian-Emperor bend time. Science 321, 490c.

DIREEN N G, Stagg H M J, Colwell J B, & Symonds P A, 2008. Architecture of a classic volcanic rifted margin: a new model for the Exmouth - Gascoyne margin, Western Australia. Aust.J. Earth Sci. 55,325-347.

DIREEN, N G, & Lyons P, 2007. Crustal setting of iron oxide Cu-Au mineral systems of the Olympic Dam region, South Australia: insights from potential-field data. Economic Geology 102, 1397-1414.

DIREEN, N G, Borissova I., Stagg H.M.J., Colwell J.B. & Symonds P. A. 2007. Nature of the continent-ocean transition zone along the southern Australian continental margin: a comparison of the Naturaliste Plateau, south-western Australia, and the central Great Australian Bight sectors. Imaging, Mapping and Modelling Continental Lithosphere Extension and Breakup. G Karner, G Manatschal & L Pinheiro (eds). Geological Society Spec.Pub. 282:235-261

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

Crawford A J, DIREEN N G , Coffin M, Cohen B, Paul B & Mitrovic L, 2006, Extensive basaltic magmatism on the Naturaliste Plateau, offshore SW Australia. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 18: A118.

Colwell J.B., Stagg H.M.J., DIREEN, N G, Bernardel, G., & Borissova, I., 2006. Chapter 6.6 The Structure of the Continental Margin off Wilkes Land and Terre Adelie Coast, East Antarctica. In: Futterer DK, Damaske D, Kleinschmidt G, Miller H, & Tessensohn F (eds) Antarctica: Contributions to global earth sciences. pp 325-338.

Recent Conference Presentations

Direen N G, Stagg H M J, Symonds P A & Colwell J B, 2009, Through a glass, darkly: symmetry and asymmetry in the magma‑poor rifted margins of southern Australia and east Antarctica. Detachment Dynamics: Heat, Deformation, and Fluids in Extensional Systems: Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Portland Oregon, Oct, 2009.

 

Direen N G, Calver C R, & McNeill A W, 2009, “Tungsten, Fire And Ice In The Realm Of The Ancient King”, Extended Abstracts and Field Guide, Geological Society of Australia (Tasmania Division) Field Symposium, King Island, Tasmania, 13-16 March 2009.

 

Direen N G, Jago J B & Meffre S, New perspectives on the tectonostratigraphic setting of the, Grassy Group, King Island, Australia: “Snowball Earth” or rift related deposit?, Geological Society of Australia (Tasmania Division), King Island Field Symposium, March 2009.

 

Crawford A J, Direen N G , Coffin M, Falloon TJ, Forbes C, Paul B, Cohen B, Mitrovic L, Pettigrew G, and Hamilton C. 2006. Origin of the Naturaliste Plateau and implications for Gondwana breakup. Australian Earth Sciences Convention 2006, Melbourne, July 2006.

 

Direen N G & Jago J B, 2007, Cottons Breccia, and its tectonostratigraphic context within the Grassy Group, King Island, Australia: “Snowball Earth” tillite or “Zipper-rift” breccia?, Geological Society of Australia Specialist Group in Tectonics and Structural Geology Abstracts, Alice Springs, July 2007.

 

Hand M, Direen N, Wade B, Szpunar M, Payne J, Reid A, Barovich K, Lyons P, 2007, Tectonics of the Olympic Dam time slice in the southern Australian Proterozoic. Unlocking South Australia’s Mineral Wealth / South Australian Resources & Energy Investment Conference Abstracts, Adelaide May 2007.

 

Direen N G, 2006, Continental break-up: lessons for the Proterozoic from Phanerozoic basins and orogens, Australian Earth Sciences Convention 2006, Melbourne, July 2006.

Direen N G, Stagg H M J, Symonds P A & Soloninka L. 2006. The Mesozoic Southern Rift System: insights into the mode of Gondwana breakup from integrating multidisciplinary datasets. American Association of Petroleum Geologists International Conference, Perth, November, 2006.

Crawford A J, Direen N G, Coffin M, Falloon TJ, Forbes C, Paul B, Cohen B, Mitrovic L, Pettigrew G, and Hamilton C. 2006. Origin of the Naturaliste Plateau and implications for Gondwana breakup. Australian Earth Sciences Convention 2006, Melbourne, July 2006.

Professional Associations

Chair, Geological Society of Australia, TAS Division 2008-10

Associate Editor, Australian Journal of Earth Sciences 2002-2010

Past Chair (2007) and Vice-Chair (2005-6), Geological Society of Australia, SA Division

President (2000-2002) and Secretary (1999-2000), ACT Branch, Australian Society of Exploration Geophysicists

Secretary, GSA Special Group in Tectonics & Structural Geology (SGTSG) 2005-2007

Fellow, Geological Society (London)

Member ASEG, AAPG, GSA, SGTSG, The Royal Society of Tasmania

Community Engagement

Senior Structural Geologist / Geophysicist, FrOG Tech Pty Ltd. For more information, see http://www.frogtech.com.au/

Entry last updated: Tuesday, 3 Nov 2009