SEES

Centre for Geoscience Computing

Yearly Report 2016

22 June 2017

Report assembled by Suzanne Hurter with contributions from A. Codd, L. Gross, J. Fenwick,

S. Hörning, J. Copley, D. Weatherly, H. Huilin

Establishment, Approval, Administration and Review of Institutes and Centres

https://ppl.app.uq.edu.au/content/1.30.06-establishment-approval-administration-and-review-

institutes-and-centres

Templates for proposals of School Centres can be found at:

http://ppl.app.uq.edu.au/sites/default/files/120807_1%2030%2006_Form-

Proforma%20for%20Centre%20and%20Institute%20Proposals.docx

Illustration 1: Inversion of Gravity Anomalies in Western

Table of Contents Table of Contents .................................................................................................................................... 3

1. Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 4

2. Objectives........................................................................................................................................ 4

3. Key Developments .......................................................................................................................... 4

4. Finance and Admin (grants, leverages) ........................................................................................... 5

5. Staff, Visitors and Students involved with the Centre .................................................................... 6

Staff ..................................................................................................................................................... 6

Visitors ................................................................................................................................................ 7

RHD Students ...................................................................................................................................... 7

Collaborations ..................................................................................................................................... 8

6. Compute Infrastructure .................................................................................................................. 9

7. Output: Publications, Conferences, Software ............................................................................... 10

Publications ....................................................................................................................................... 10

Conference Contributions ................................................................................................................. 12

Invited Presentation .......................................................................................................................... 13

Short Courses .................................................................................................................................... 13

Software ............................................................................................................................................ 13

Appendix: Seismology in Queensland by Colin Lyam ........................................................................... 15

1. Overview This report refers to the activities and achievements of the Centre for Geoscience Computing hosted

in the School of Earth Sciences.

Between 2013 and 2016 the Director of the Centre was Prof Stephen Tyson. He resigned and left UQ

in January 2017. There was no handover of his responsibilities or information of previous reports or

current activities to support this document. Therefore, this report only contains a picture of activities

and achievements in 2016.

A report on the current activities of the UQ Seismograph Stations by Honorary Seismologist Colin

Lynam is attached as an appendix.

2. Objectives The Centre currently conducts research into the mechanics and physics of solid earth processes in a

coherent way. Research is centred on four themes:

Multiscale, Multiphysics modelling (coupled computation of several physical processes in a

coherent way)

Seismic and inversion research (investigates geophysics and rock physics to analyse the

subsurface response to seismic or electromagnetic signals)

Virtual near-wellbore (understanding the behaviour of fluids and particles in the region close to

an oil, gas or coal seam gas well)

High performance computing (aimed at determining the appropriate use and configuration of

supercomputers, parallel systems and graphics processing unit (GPU) programming to improve

our capabilities in solving geoscience problems).

3. Key Developments Dr Andrea Codd joined the Centre to work on geophysical inversion.

Dr Qi Shao has joined the Centre to work on particle based simulations with fluid coupling.

Dr Sebastian Hörning joined the Centre to work on Non-Linear Geostatistics.

New PhD Students: Zhengguang Zhao (micro seismic), Troy Smith (geodynamics), Shahram Nasiri

(landslide hazards), Xiaoling Li (enhanced water recovery).

L. Gross visited Prof G. Heinson at the University at Adelaide and S. Thiel at the Geological Survey of

South Australia (GSSA) (1 week, October 2016).

L. Gross attended the Auscope-NCI software and data workshop (by invitation, September 2016)

Taruna Fadillah completed the MSc degree.

Two students, Jahangir Alam and Li Wan passed confirmation.

3 Minute Thesis (3MT) presentations were made by Hamish Wilson, Fei Ren, Qin Li.

Quanchu Li, supervised by H. Xing was awarded a PhD in June 2016.

H. Xing was invited by Mountain Research Inst. of CAS to the field trip of giant landslides in Tibet,

Sept 2016.

4. Finance and Admin (grants, leverages) In 2016, the overall value of the grants (proposals from 2013 on) amounted to over A$2 million.

Title CI Funding Agent

Value (A$) Duration

1 Australian Subsurface Carbon Sequestration Simulator

Matthai Lutz Gross

CCSRDDF 1,200k (UQ 422k)

2016-2019

2 Improved spatial models of short-range permeability

Stephen Tyson*

CCSG 375k 2015-2017

3 Non-linear geostatistics using copulas

Stephen Tyson*

CCSG 175k 2015-2016

4 Uncertainty modelling with polynomial chaos expansion

Diane Donovan**

Stephen Tyson*

CCSG 175k 2015-2016

5 Relative permeability Huilin Xing (Victor Rudolph, CI)

ARC DP (School of ChemEng)

2016-2018

6 Modelling non-seismic geophysics for CSG monitoring

Stephen Tyson Lutz Gross

CCSG 568k 2014-2016

7 Simulation analysis and modelling UQ (SAM UQ)

Lutz Gross NCRIS 770k+230k 2013-2017

8 Improvements in pre-stack seismic data processing for coal seam gas

Stephen Tyson **

CCSG 828k 2013-2016

9 Proposal for establishment of a Foundation CMG Chair in reservoir modelling

Suzanne Hurter

CCSG/Faculty of Science

350k 2015-2016

10 Mudstones as methane sources: gas production from coal seam interburden

Huilin Xing (2nd CI)

ARC Discovery

310K 2015-2017

11 Highwall mining design and development of norms for Indian conditions

Huilin Xing (project leader)

CSIRO Energy/ Mining subcontract

26k 2016

12

Numerical simulation of fluid dynamics of uranium polymetallic mineralization in the north margin of the North China Craton

Huilin Xing (project leader)

Contract Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology under CRA, China

65k 2015-2016

13

Multilevel Modeling and Computational Method for Mechanical Analysis of Fluid-Saturated Porous Media

Huilin Xing (international investigator)

Natural Science Foundation Council, China (NSFC)

RMB 3,000k

(576kAUD) 2013-2017

14

Dynamic mechanism of five-storey vertical morphological zonation in vein-type wolframite deposits

Huilin Xing (international investigator)

Natural Science Foundation Council, China (NSFC)

RMB 860k

(69kAUD) 2014-2016

10 Simple Model of Well Integrity (with Heriot Watt University, UK)

Stephen Tyson*

CCSG/APPEA 28k 2015-2016

11 Big Data Analytics – Well Test

Stephen Tyson*

CCSG 50k 2015-2016

12 Big Data Analytics - QDEX Stephen Tyson*

CCSG 47k 2014-2015 completed 2016

13 J. Alam (PhD student) J. Alam (PhD student)

Moreton Bay & Sibelco Scholarship

5k 2017-2017

* handover to Suzanne Hurter (December 2016) ** project managed from CCSG

5. Staff, Visitors and Students involved with the Centre

Staff Name Title / Expertise Project

Suzanne Hurter Professor / Integrated Reservoir Modelling

See list Section 4

Lutz Gross Associate Professor / Inversion of Geophysical Data

See list Section 4

Huilin Xing Principal Research Fellow (40%)

Multiscale Multiphase Metaphysical (M3) Geocomputing ARC / PANDAS development

Cihan Altinay Computational Scientist Various and systems care, NCRIS (took new role in October 2016 at Silicon Graphics Australia

Joel Fenwick Computational Scientist NCRIS, ITEE

Sebastian Hoerning Post-Doc / Geostatistics Copula, Short Range,

Andrea Codd Post-Doc / Numerical Modelling

CCSRDD and others

Jaco du Plessis Data Analytics Copula, Short Range, Stress dep perm

Jeff Copley Interpretation Geophysicist CCSG projects

Qi Shao Post-doc / Numerical Modelling

Particle-fluid coupling

Louise Olsen-Kettle Rock mechanics modelling DECRA (left at the end of 2016 to accept a position in Mathematics at Swinburne University)

Jeff Copley Geophysics Interpreter CCSG-Faults+Fracs, seismic stratigraphy

L. Gross is member of the program committees for the International Supercomputer Conference,

International Conference on Computational Science, International Conference on Parallel Processing.

He is also member of the steering committee of the NeCTAR Virtual Geophysical Laboratory

Operations Project and the ANSIR Executive board.

Visitors Prof Stephan Matthai, University of Melbourne, 2nd-5th May (L. Gross).

Prof András Bárdossy (University of Stuttgart) was a Visiting Scholar from 15th November 2016 to

13th February 2017 (partially funded by CCSG, S. Hurter).

Dr Guichen Li visited from China University of Mining Science and Technology, Xu Zhou, China (H.

Xing)

Ms Hong Li visited from Beijing Branch, China Earthquake Administration (H. Xing)

Ms Ping Liu visited from Guizhou University, China (H. Xing)

RHD Students

PhD student

Supervisors Thesis Title Funding / Scholarship

Year of Completion

1 A T M Jahangir Alam

Lutz Gross, Harald Hofmann

Assessing perched aquifer dynamics and associated recharge variability on sand barrier islands using geophysical methods

IPRS 2019

2 Hamish Wilson

Lutz Gross, Steve Hearn

Analysis and Visualisation of Velocity Models for CSG

Self-funded 2018

3 Mohamed Sedek

Lutz Gross, Andrew Garnett (CCSG)

Pre-stack seismic data processing in anisotropic and lateral heterogeneous media

University of Queensland International Scholarship (UQI)

2018

4 Sanjib Mondal

Lutz Gross, Louise Olsen-Kettle

After confirmation: Simulating Fracture Propagation and Damage Evolution in 3D Isotropic and Anisotropic, Heterogeneous Rock with Pre-existing Cleats, Joints and Faults. According to website: Quantifying the risk of groundwater contamination from hydraulic fracturing in coal seam gas operations in Australia.

University of Queensland International Scholarship (UQI)

2019

5 Troy Smith Lutz Gross, Gideon Rosenbaum

Geodynamic modelling of orocline formation

UQ Research Scholarship

2019

6 Yan Zhou Lutz Gross Magnetotelluric forward modelling and inversion for e-script

CSC-UQ Joint Scholarship

2020

7 Zhengguang Zhao

Lutz Gross Fast migration based passive seismic source location using massive parallel computers

IPRS + APA 2019

8 Zhi Li Lutz Gross Adaptive mesh refinement for geophysical inversion

UQI 2018

9 Jie Yi Huilin Xing

Numerical Simulation of Multiphase Dynamics at Pore Scale for Quantitatively Analysing and Predicting Dynamic Transport Behaviours in Coal Seams

IPRS 2018

10 Qin Li Huilin Xing Integrated Investigation of Pressure Transient Testing in Coal Seam Gas Reservoirs

UQI 2017

11 Zhiting Han Huilin Xing Numerical simulation and evaluation of rock mass response in fault zones of deep mines

CSC-UQ 2017

12 Qian Zhao Huilin Xing Geophysics

13 Chunchi Ma Hulin Xing Geological Engineering/University of Chengdu

14 Yupeng Jiang (MPhil)

Huilin Xing with CSIRO

Geophysics

15 Li Wan (Ada)

Suzanne Hurter, Stephen Tyson, Valeria Bianchi and Tristan Salles (UoS)

The stratigraphic forward modelling and synthetic seismic generation for deep-water sedimentary systems

CSC and University of Queensland Research Training Tuition Fee Offset

2018

16 Zhiting Han Huilin Xing with CSIRO

Mining Engineering

17 Quanshu Li Huilin Xing Civil Enginering

18 Fei Ren Huilin Xing Victor Rudolph (EAIT)

Core analysis and pulsed arc electrohydraulic discharge (PAED) of coal seam interburden

UQI 2018

19 Sharam Nasiri

Lutz Gross Earthquake landslide hazard assessment of Queensland East Coast, from Sunshine Coast to Fraser Coast regions

Self-funded 2021

Collaborations Lutz Gross and Joel Fenwick with Dr Alan Aitken (UWA): on large-scale gravity and magnetic

inversion.

Lutz Gross and Andrea Codd with Prof S. Matthai University of Melbourne on modelling CO2

sequestration and its geophysical footprint.

Lutz Gross and Andrea Codd with Prof A. Revil, Université Savoie Mont-Blanc on electrical

tomography.

Lutz Gross with B. Lamichhane University of Newcastle on mathematical theory of finite element

based inversion.

Lutz Gross with L. Weijs, Queensland Alliance for Environmental Health Sciences on modelling

bioaccumlation process.

Lutz Gross with G. Rosenbaum, SEES on modelling of oroclinal bending mechanisms.

Lutz Gross with S. de Souza, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte on fast wave equation

solvers on unstructured grids.

Lutz Gross with H. Hoffmann, SEES on perched aquifer dynamics on sand barrier islands using

geophysical methods

Lutz Gross with G. Heinson, University of Adelaide, and S. Thiel, Geological Survey of SA, on inversion

of magnetotellurics data.

Suzanne Hurter and E. Mackay, Heriot-Watt University on modelling well integrity.

6. Compute Infrastructure A variety of hardware is connected and unique to the Centre. Savanna is a supercomputer cluster

purpose built by SGI. In 2013, it was expanded and upgraded by funding (approximately A$400k)

from the Centre for Coal Seam Gas (with endorsement of the industry members) as a result of a

proposal submitted by Prof Steve Tyson, then the CCSG Geoscience Chair (partly funded by CCSG). It

is used extensively by centre staff and students and up to 100 scientists from within the UQ

community and externally. It has the following specifications:

- 32 SCI ICE nodes with dual Intel Xeon E5462 2.80 GHz (8 cores), 32GB RAM, 4xDDR

Infiniband

- 32 SCI nodes with dual Intel Xeon E5-2660v3 2.60 GHz (20 cores), 128GB RAM, 4xDDR

Infiniband

- 4 NVIDIA Tesla K40m GPUs (2880 cores, 12GB RAM)

60TB network attached storage, plus 68TB local disk space on nod

Several machines are designated by name (generally a mammal that lives underground) including

Wombat, Guineapig, Ferret. Names machines can be used as more than a desktop as they can be

connected from outside. In networking terms it is acting as a "server" machine in some capacity (as

opposed to ITS definition which limits "server" to particular hardware configuration). This cluster is

illustrated in a sketch below and supports a number of activities:

RHD research: the students have desktops provided by SEES and administered by ITS. They use these

also as an interface to Savanna on which they develop their numerical models, test them and run

simulations/modelling associated with their thesis research.

Projects: for instance the CCSG projects on copula geostatistics required extensive coding and high

computing power to run. See also the list of projects in Section 4.

Research Simulations: e.g. the new non-linear geostatistics code requires supercomputing power.

Teaching: high-performance computing courses (COSC3500) use the cluster as a hands-on

laboratory.

Testing and Development: a large portion of funding accessed by the Centre is related to developing

software infrastructure. To develop such software, compute systems that offer greater flexibility and

control than computers ‘off the shelf’ are required. Testing refers to automated "integration/unit"

testing.

Illustration 3: Centre for Geoscience Computing compute infrastructure

7. Output: Publications, Conferences, Software

Publications

Badalyan, A., Beasley, T., Nguyen, D., Keshavarz, A., Schacht, U., Carageorgos, T., You, Z.,

Bedrikovestsky, P., Hurter, S., Troth, I., and Schouten, J., 2016. Laboratory and mathematical

modelling of fines production from CSG interburden rocks, doi:10.2118/182295-MS.

Bárdossy, A., and Hörning, S.; Gaussian and non-Gaussian inverse modelling of groundwater flow

using copulas and random mixing; Water Resources Research; Vol. 52, 4504-4526; doi:10.1002

/2014WR016820

Gao J, Xing H, Turner L, Steel K, Sedek M, Golding SD, Rudolph V, 2016. Pore-scale numerical

investigation on chemical stimulation in coal and permeability enhancement for coal seam gas

production. Transport in Porous Media. 1-17, doi:10.1007/s11242-016-0777-9

Gao, J., H Xing, Z Tian, JK Pearce, M Sedek, SD Golding, V Rudolph, 2016. Reactive transport in

porous media for CO2 sequestration: Pore scale modeling using the lattice Boltzmann method.

Computers & Geosciences 98, 9-20

Gross, L. and Shaw, S., 2016. Numerical investigations on mapping permeability heterogeneity in

coal seam gas reservoirs using seismo-electric methods. Journal of Geophysics and Engineering, 13 2:

S50-S58. doi:10.1088/1742-2132/13/2/S50.

Hörning, S. and Bárdossy, A.: Phase Annealing for the conditional simulation of spatial random fields,

Computers and Geosciences (in revision).

Jiang, Y. and Xing, H., 2016. Numerical modelling of acoustic stimulation induced mechanical

vibration enhancing coal permeability. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, 36, Part A,

786–799. DOI:10.1016/j.jngse.2016.11.008

Lamichhane, B. P., Gross, L.: Inversion of Geophysical Potential Field Data using the Finite Element

Method, Inverse Problems (under review).

Li, Q. and Xing, H., 2016. Influences of the Intersection Angle between Interlayer and In situ Stresses

during Hydraulic Fracturing Process, Journal of Natural Gas Science & Engineering 36: 963-985

Li, Q. and Xing, H., 2016. A new method for determining the equivalent permeability of a cleat

dominated coal sample, Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, 34, 280-290.

Li, Q., and Xing, H., 2016. Numerical investigation of fracture effects on pressure transient

behaviours in low permeable coal seams, (submitted to Fuel)

Li, Q. and Xing, H., 2016. Numerical analysis of the material parameter effects on the initiation of

hydraulic fracture in a near wellbore region. Journal of Natural Gas Science and Engineering, DOI:

10.1016/j.jngse.2015.10.023.

Liu, Y. and Xing, H., 2016. An effective 3D meshing approach for fractured rocks, Int. J. Numer. Meth.

Engng, 107:363–376. DOI: 10.1002/nme.5166

Liu, X., Xing, H., Zhang, D., 2016. Influences of fluid properties on the hydrothermal fluid flow and

alteration halos at the Dajishan tungsten deposit, China. Journal of Geochemical Exploration. 163,

53–69

Reiner, J., Veidt, M., Dargusch, M., Gross, L., 2016. A progressive analysis of matrix cracking-induced

delamination in composite laminates using an advanced phantom node method. Journal of

Composite Materials, doi: 10.1177/0021998316684203.

Schaa, R., Gross, L. and Du Plessis, J., 2016. PDE-based geophysical modelling using finite elements:

examples from 3D resistivity and 2D magnetotellurics. Journal of Geophysics and Engineering, 13 2:

S59-S73. doi:10.1088/1742-2132/13/2/S59

Sedek, M., Gross, L. & Tyson S., 2016. Automatic NMO correction and full common depth point NMO

velocity field estimation in anisotropic media, Pure Appl. Geophys. (2017) 174: 305.

doi:10.1007/s00024-016-1356-2).

Sedek, M and Gross, L. (submitted 2016). Normal move-out Correction in Anisotropic and Laterally

Heterogeneous Media using Simultaneous Velocity Variation with Offset, Geophysical Prospecting (in

revision).

Sedek, M. and Gross, L., 2016. EAGE Workshop on Velocities: Reducing Uncertainties in Depth:

Automatic NMO Correction and Full Common Depth Point NMO Velocity Field Estimation in

Anisotropic Media, DOI: 10.3997/2214-4609.201600072, Extended Abstract.

Sedek, M. and Gross, L., 2016. Automatic NMO correction in anisotropic media and non-hyperbolic

NMO velocity field estimation, APPEA Journal 56(2) 592-592 http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/AJ15098.

Sedek, M. and Gross, L., (submitted 2016) Normal Moveout Correction in Anisotropic and Laterally

Heterogeneous Media Using Simultaneous Velocity Variation with Offset, Natural Gas Sciences and

Engineering.

Shan, X., Li, S., Li, S., Yu, X., Wan, L., Jin, L. & Wang, T., 2016. Sedimentology of a topset-dominated,

braided river delta of Huangqihai Lake, North China: implications for formation mechanisms. Journal

of Paleolimnology, 1-17.

Shao, Q., Weatherley, D., Abe, S., Scheuermann, A., 2017. Parallel Implementation of a Coupled

Fluid-DEM Model for Simulation of Fluid-particle Interactions in Saturated Granular Materials.

International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, in review.

Tian, Z., Xing, H., Yunliang, T., Sai, G. and Golding, S.D. 2016. Reactive transport LBM model for CO2

injection in fractured reservoirs. Computers and Geosciences, 86 15-22.

doi:10.1016/j.cageo.2015.10.002

Wilson, H.; Gross L., 2016. AVO-friendly Bootstrapped Differential Semblance, Geophysics, (under

review).

Wan, L., Yu, X.H., Steve, T., Li, S.L., Kuang, Z.G., Sha, Z.B., Liang, J.Q., & He, Y.L., 2016. Submarine

landslides, relationship with BSRs in the Dongsha Area of South China Sea. Petroleum Research, 1,

66-76.

Yi, J. and Xing, H., 2016. Pore-scale simulation of effects of coal wettability on bubble-water flow in

coal cleats using Lattice Boltzmann Method. Chemical Engineering Science, DOI: 10.1016

/j.ces.2016.12.016

Conference Contributions

Gross, L, Aitken, A., Altinay, C., Fenwick, J., Mondal, S.b, Olson-Kettle, L., Shaw, S., 2016. Escript –

Open-Source Tool for Numerical Modeling of Earth's Processes, Australian Earth Sciences

Convention, 26 - 30 June 2016, Adelaide.

Gross, L., Codd, A., 2016. Large-Scale 3D Resistivity Inversion of Subsurface Fluid Injection

Monitoring Data using Adjoint State Methods, Australian Earth Sciences Convention, 26 - 30 June

2016, Adelaide.

Han, Z., Mass Mining Conference, Sydney.

Hörning, S: How to qualify and quantify directional dependencies in spatial random fields: Direction-

dependent asymmetry; EGU 2016, Vienna

Hörning S., Tyson S.; A new method for stochastic simulation for regional variables with non-linear

spatial dependence with a variety of conditioning options; IPTC International Petroleum Technology

Conference 2016; Bangkok (e-Poster).

Jian, Y. AGU Fall Meeting, San Francisco CA USA.

Mosthaf T., Hörning S.,Bárdossy A.; How to determine spatial irreversibility: Directional asymmetry;

Geostatistics 2016, Valencia.

Ren, F. China-Australia Unconventional Gas Forum, Bejing.

Sambridge, M., Hawkins, R., Salmon, M., Iaffaldano, G., Bodin, T., Gallagher, K., Rawlinson, N., Gross,

L., and Byrne, J., 2016. The AuScope Inversion Lab: data science tools for the community, Australian

Earth Sciences Convention, 26 - 30 June 2016, Adelaide (Poster).

Sedek, M. and Gross, L. 2016. Automatic NMO Correction and Full Common Depth Point NMO

Velocity Field Estimation in Anisotropic Media, EAGE Workshop on Velocities: Reducing Uncertainties

in Depth, 25 - 27 April 2016 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Wan, L. and Tyson, S., 2016. The name is the stratigraphic forward modelling of turbidity

sedimentation in the sinuous canyon and submarine fan. 3rd EAGE Integrated Reservoir Modelling

conference (December).

Wilson, H. and Gross, L., 2016. Hybridised Weighted Boot-Strap Differential Semblance, ASEG

Extended Abstracts 2016(1) 1 – 7. , https://doi.org/10.1071/ASEG2016ab186.

Xing, H. Multiscale Multiphase Multiphysics Geocomputing and its Applications in Unconventional

Gas Engineering, China-Australia Unconventional Gas Forum and Exhibition, Beijing, China,

November 7-9th 2016

Yi, J., Digital Core Conference, UNSW.

Yi, J., AAPG Conference in Canada.

Yi, J., China-Australia Unconventional Gas Forum, Bejing.

Invited Presentation Hörning, S., 2016. Analysis and simulation of non-Gaussian spatial dependence structures using

copulas; Invited talk at Imperial College London.

Copley, J. and Mukherjee, S., Seismic interpretation of subtle faulting, Toowoomba Groundwater

Research Forum, 23May2016.

Xing, H.: High performance geocomputing and its potential applications in geohazards, Qinghai -

Tibetan Plateau Geohazards Workshop, Linzhi, China, Sept 2016.

Short Courses Dr Sebastian Hörning taught a short-course on Non-linear geostatistics for reservoir modelling during

the Third EAGE Integrated Reservoir Modelling Conference; Kuala Lumpur.

Dr Dion Weatherley (SMI) conducted a short-course on ESyS-Particle and Discrete Element

Modelling at the University of the Republic of Uruguay, Montevideo in June 2016. This was attended

by 10 local Masters and HDR students, some of which have adopted ESyS-Particle as part of their

research.

Software In collaboration with Prof Gonzalo Tancredi and colleagues at the University of Uruguay, funded by a

Uruguay National Research Council grant, Dr Weatherley assisted development of ESyS-Gravity; an

extension of ESyS-Particle to include mutual self-gravity interactions for astronomical research

applications. This feature is scheduled for public release in September 2017 upon conclusion of

testing and benchmarking.

The ESyS-Darcy coupled DEM-CFD software developed by Dr Qi Shao, will feature in the upcoming

ESyS-Particle-3.0 Major Release. This will be showcased at the 5th International Workshop on ESyS-

Particle and DEM Modelling to be held at the University of Glasgow, UK in September 2017.

Two releases (4.2 on 14Jan2016 and 5.0 on 19Sep2016) of the finite element solver package escript

on https://launchpad.net/escript-finley with 5500 downloads in 2016.

One release (16Jun2016) of discrete element method package 2.3.4 esys-particle on

https://launchpad.net/esys-particle with 1600 downloads in 2016.

Illustration 2: Fine Grain Migration in Porous Media

Illustration 3: Simulation of Rock Fracturing

Appendix: Seismology in Queensland by Colin Lyam

1

THE UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND SEISMOGRAPH STATIONS (UQSS)

(Operational 1935 – present)

SEISMOGRAPH ACTIVITY & COLLECTION NEWSLETTER

Dear UQSS volunteer technical advisory team and supporting Patrons,

It is time for me to give you an update of how we are progressing on the 3 activity fronts of;

Advancement of the UQSS platform for teaching, learning and research in seismology and earthquake engineering.

Daily seismograph monitoring operation of BRSA (Mt Nebo) and MNT (Monto) stations and operations.

Curation advancement of the UQSS collection of QJd historic earthquake history.

LET ME EXPLAIN WHAT IS HAPPENENING AT UQSS

# Advancement of the UQSS platform for teaching, learning and research.

The most important management shift is our integration into the newly merged School of Earth and Environmental Sciences. There is a meeting with the Head of School next week to discuss the directional possibilities of GeoComp Centre within which nests the UQSS facility.

I have been communicating the benefits of the data and monitoring knowledge held within UQSS, within the school in a number of ways, as well as the weekly Station Pseudo Bulletins.

1. Volunteers engaged in digital revitalisation of materials in The UQSS & Collections. This project was advertised within SEES. Received some response from students, but had to cancel the project because “volunteers’ need HoS approval. In prep!

2. Participated in the ITEE School Capstone course, to attract systems and graphics students construct ways of digitising our old analog collections. 52 Clients presented jobs to 300 students…very competitive 2 minute presentations were needed. No takers

3. Published a “snippet article” in the SEES newsletter and drew some interest from 1 SEES lecturer in Hazard Studies, previously unaware of our existence.

Significant Queensland earthquakes from Jan2016-Apr2017

79 earthquakes reported by GA .

A Significant swarm of 70 events “offshore from Bowen”.

27 felt earthquakes

2

Article for SEES Newsletter30-04-2017

Could there really be an undiscovered

fault plane beneath the heart of the

City of Brisbane? - Colin Lynam,

Honorary Seismologist

For the benefit of SEES members, allow me to explain why the

small (M0.8 ) earthquake recorded on the UQSS Observatory at

Mt Nebo (BRSA) on the 14-4-2017 at 04:18 (Aest) Is of

importance to Brisbane residents, hazard managers and urban

planners.

This earthquake was also detected on a number of State and

Federal government seismographs and their signals were

analysed with an epicentre being located near Petrie, Brisbane.

This is the third of known located earthquakes in this

vicinity. ( Petrie, MacDowell and Rocklea)

Is the Brisbane CBD on top of an earthquake hazard

zone? What research needs to be further proposed?

The operation of the UQSS seismograph stations at

Mt Nebo and Monto is run by Volunteer seismologist

Mr Col Lynam from SEES. Any enquiries are welcome.

Figure 1 Plot of Mt Nebo 3 component seismometer

traces for Petrie Earthquake (14-4-2017 at 04:18 (Aest)

Figure 2 Epicentre location (red circle) from surrounding

seismograph locations. (Plot by RJ Cuthbertson)

Figure 3 The graphical image was postulated back in Dec 2002 when a M3.6

earthquake shook the same area of Brisbane.

3 # Daily monitoring operation of BRSA (Mt Nebo) and MNT (Monto) seismograph recording The importance of continuous seismic monitoring (3 velocity, 3 accelerograph channels) is to observe and report seismic events that are not registered by State or Federal seismic networks (if they exist). BRSA captures “local events” around Brisbane, Wivenhoe dam and S.E Queensland region and MNT feeds Central Queensland earthquake events into the array network of the volunteer group CQSRG at University of Central Queensland. Large tele-seismic events are also triggered at the excellent Mt Nebo Observatory site.

BRSA and MNT are operating in “triggered events” mode. But BRSA is also recording, for future use, a continuous (Z) channel of data. This is enabled by data carrying capability of ADSL comms line from Mt Nebo to UQ. If MNT could be similarly linked, continuous data could also be obtained.

We have been a long term contributor to global seismology. Earthquake phase data from (at the least) significant global earthquakes could be reported back to the International Seismological Centre databank. That requires more time than I have spare but it is a training program for another volunteer or student.

Administration and maintenance. The Volunteer Seismologist is responsible for seeing the telephone

bills are paid and the Mt Nebo Lease fees are attended to. Maintenance events have resulted from;

Cyclone Debbie – ADSL comms line down –raise work orders

Vandalism (Mt Nebo) – outer gate lock cut off (Oct 2016), Inner door pierced Mar 2017 raise work orders and chase completion.

Grounds maintenance – Mt Nebo - maintain low grass/ weed free surrounds in National Parks lease - raise order for grounds contractor and chase up.

Computer maintenance and software upgrades – equipment replacement - ongoing headaches.

Ageing seismograph equipment needs replacement Volunteer (Citizen Science) assistance is the pivot for ongoing operations. Volunteer assistance

offered by Cihan Altinay, Russ Cuthbertson, Mike Turnbull and Dion Weatherley are the key players for

keeping the UQSS operations running. Many thanks go to Peter Brady (ex-Manager, Earth Sciences) for

completing the renewed lease for the Mt Nebo National Parks lease for the seismograph vault. Special

thanks go to our Citizen Science volunteers at Monto who have supported the operation of that station

for close to 20 years. Thanks to Vic and Jeannie Woods.

Figure 43 labelled trigger events ready for user download

4

Seismogram analysis and reporting. Every week, as a rule, the Volunteer Seismologist collects the

data from MNT (dialup modem data download) and BRSA (download from UQSS server) and load these

signals onto the Mac (OS 10.8) for signal analysis using EqWave (ES&S software).

The signal files are identified as seismic, noise or calibration and files are individually labelled for easy

sorting. This analysis data is then fed back to the UQSS server and matched with the signal file. You can

see the seismic triggers on http://quakes.uq.edu.au/triggerview.html

Each week I email the results for each seismograph station in what is called a “Pseudo Bulletin” for

MNT and BRSA. Its purpose is to let other seismologists know what was triggered so that they can

download the data file from our website (shown above).

# Curation of the UQSS seismogram collection and historic earthquake and operational history.

Apart from the primary scientific data held in the UQSS Collection there is also a wealth of secondary

material that documents the history of Queensland seismology and earth sciences initiated by The

University of Queensland on behalf of the community. The enthusiastic vision of establishing a

scientific facility and instruments for the measurement of encroaching cyclones is obvious. The hours

spent and the technical fabrication is innovative. No transistors involved here All electro-mechanical..

This research is topical today.

As I progress in working through the Collection, I am determined to produce a small booklet that

documents the men who were passionate about an ongoing seismograph monitoring at The University

of Queensland.

I have documented my progress in the different tasks that I have set to best illustrate the depth and

importance of such a unique longitudinal scientific index of the earthquake phenomena and cyclonic

microseism effect on our Queensland coastline.

Research grant applications; I have made moves to have the UQSS Collection assessed for the

Australian National Library system of grants. I have a museums consultant ready to go, but, as an

Honorary Research Fellow, such applications need to have a tenured, Teaching and Research

supervisor allocated by Head of School. IN Prep!

5 # Curation of the UQSS seismogram collection and historic earthquake and operational history.

Seismogram collection; The main curating activity that is near

completion is the sorting of the seismogram containers into decade

stacks and then making a manifest of completeness. This is stored in

excel format. The next step is to sequentially number each box for

shipment to Queensland State Archives. This assumes that SEES can

find no storage area.

A separate project is to digitise the Queensland earthquake

seismographs in the fashion completed by European Seismologists.

Isoseismal Felt Reports; Yet to be surveyed and manifested are the

20 boxes of isoseismal maps and earthquake questionnaires. We

have a digital program prepared for citizen scientists to bulk entry

selected scanned documents, for online community access.

Register of Phase Bulletins; I am citing all the weekly seismogram

readings (typed Bulletins) for, completeness, noting instrument

changes, counting BRS monthly events

The typed Bulletins are the “roadmap” to observed events recorded on the daily seismograms. It

represents Primary earthquake data.

These paper bulletins are now ready for scanning (PDF) as digital image publications to go into UQ E-

space and the ISC GEM event catalogue.

Register of administration files; The late Dr JP Webb left an immaculately classified set of records that

document the history of The University of Queensland Seismograph Stations from about 1954 onward..

I have discovered a remarkable document detailing the construction supervision of the first Charters

Towers seismograph station (1957) in an old adit nearby the current site. Mr FS Leahy (UQ) was the

engineer. Some photos are appended to this report.

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

Sep

-37

Sep

-40

Sep

-43

Sep

-46

Sep

-49

Sep

-52

Sep

-55

Sep

-58

Sep

-61

Sep

-64

quakes registered/ Year

quakesregistered/ Year

Figure 5 decade stacks- seismograms

Figure 6 Felt Report Survey data

Figure 7 BRS Tripartite Microseism tracking record of

Cyclone

6

GEMS FROM THE UQSS COLLECTION ARCHIVES

Figure 7 Trpartite 1952cyclone microseism records

Figure 8 (CTAO 1980) Dr JP Webb & Vice-Chancellor Brian Wilson opening Asro Installation

Figure 10 ( CTAO 1983) Jack Millican at ASRO vault doors

Figure 9 (CTA 1957) Mayor Paul Wherry and Dr Upton at IGY installation

7

Colin Lynam

Honorary Seismologist | Earth and Environmental Sciences

The University of Queensland

Email: lynam@uq.edu.au | Ph: 07 33432917 | Fax: 07 3365 6899 Ph (mob) 61438339221

Post: Level 2, Building 35 University of Queensland Brisbane Australia 4072

http://www.sees.uq.edu.au/

______________________________________________________________

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Queensland_Seismology_Station

CRICOS Provider Number:

00025B

Figure 11 Brisbane, Oct 2, 1950 – Presentation of gift from Brisbane’s Archbishop Duhig to the

University of Queesnland (L-R) WF Sprengnether Jnr, Arcbishop Duhig, Vice Chancellor JD Story, Prof WH

Bryan