Year: 2001
Venue: Perth, Western Australia
Travel report by Christian Schardt
The 4th International Archean Symposium takes place at The University of Western Australia every ten years to bring together and discuss advances and new developments in the field of Archean research. With the kind support of a JH Lord Travel Grant I was able to attend the conference and a pre-conference field trip to my field area, the Panorama district in the eastern Pilbara region.
The superb week-long field trip covered the metallogenesis of the Pilbara granite-greenstones of Western Australia and visits to a variety of mineral deposit and prospects, ranging from the Radio Hill Ni-Cu deposit to the Sulphur Springs massive sulfides of the Panorama district. Since I was previously unable to visit my field area, this field trip provided me with the precious opportunity to study the geology of my study area first hand, take important samples and gain crucial insight into the field relationships and individual rock formations of the Panorama massive sulfide district; the oldest preserved massive sulfide district in the world. My work involves the numerical modelling of heat and fluid flow in the Panorama district and I was fortunate to check some of the results and implications of my modelling work in the field and this in turn helped me to better interpret and understand my modelling efforts. The professional organisation and superb field guidance made this field trip all the more enjoyable and will constitute a vital aspect for my work and the preparation of my thesis.
The conference itself – where I presented a poster – gave me the opportunity to make new connections, discuss my modelling work with other colleagues and discuss the implications of my work for future ore deposit exploration in the Panorama area. The animated discussion about whether or not diapirism did occur in the Pilbara region and formed most of the granites showed how much there still is to be researched in Archean terrains and how diverse opinions of this issue are.
This conference and field trip gave me the perfect opportunity to check important details of my modelling work in the field and will constitute an essential part in my understanding of the formation and development of Archean massive sulfide deposits and the development of Archean greenstone terrains.