RE: Celebration of the Career Contributions of Ron Vernon: The "Ron Vernon Symposium" at the 15th Australian Geological Convention, Sydney, 3-7 July 2000 Dear Friends and Colleagues, By now you may have heard about the "Ron Vernon Symposium", which has been organised to coincide with the 15th Australian Geological Convention, to be held in Sydney on 3-7 July, 2000 (two months before the Sydney Olympics). Below is a detailed description of the Symposium, which has associated with it pre-conference and post-conference field trips; complete information can be found at the AGC web site at:: http://www.science.uts.edu.au/agc/agchome.html In the Technical Program, go to Theme 3, Symposium 3D for a description of the meeting. For information about the field trips, they are FP3 and FA4. The Symposium was organised to celebrate Ron's wonderful career, and to encompass the full range of his contributions, four sessions on successive days of the Convention are planned. These will be: microstructural processes, metamorphic processes, igneous processes and magma emplacement processes. Two convenors have been appointed to each session, one national and one international, representing those who have worked closely with Ron at some stage. In addition, a one-day workshop will be run in central Australia by Bruce Hobbs, Win Means & Paul Williams, as part of the post-conference field trip. The workshop is titled "Melt Generation and Transport in Middle-to-Lower Crustal Environments". Speakers for the four sessions are by invitation only, and our intention has been to attract mainly those residing outside of Australia to fill these positions (to maximise the likelihood of their participation). In choosing these speakers, we have included many who know or have worked with Ron at some point in his career. As the speaker positions are now mostly full, we would now like to invite you to consider giving a poster presentation in one of the four sessions, listed below. This is going to be a great celebration with a great line-up of speakers and events, and we want to encourage you to attend. We would like to see the poster sessions be as large and diverse as possible, bringing together the largest possible groups of workers in each of the four fields of research. If you would like to contribute a poster to the Ron Vernon Symposium, and participate in celebrating his contributions to a wide range of geological sciences, please contact the convenors of the appropriate session. The coordinator of the whole activity is Bill Collins (University of Newcastle, Australia), and the convenors of the individual sessions in Sydney are: Microstructural Processes Scott Johnson (University of Maine, USA; [log in to unmask]) Mike Williams (University of Massachusetts, USA; [log in to unmask]) Metamorphic Processes Geoff Clarke (Sydney University, Australia; [log in to unmask]) Mike Brown (University of Maryland, USA; [log in to unmask]) Igneous Processes (Magma chamber controls on granite petrogenesis) Dick Flood (Macquarie University, Australia; [log in to unmask]) Bob Wiebe (Franklin & Marshall College, USA; [log in to unmask]) Magma Emplacement Processes Bill Collins (University of Newcastle, Australia; [log in to unmask]) Scott Paterson (University of Southern California, USA; [log in to unmask]) PLEASE NOTE: Abstracts must be submitted through the 15th AGC technical committee by March 31 (this can be done on-line through the above web address). Also, this is the deadline for early-bird registration. We hope to hear from you soon! A celebratory reception and dinner will be held in Ron's honour after the Metamorphic Processes session. The cost will be 40 Australian dollars per person, with drinks subsidised by the Journal of Metamorphic Geology. MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE RON VERNON SYMPOSIUM Everyone who knows Professor Ron Vernon is aware of his cutting-edge research in a variety of geological fields, including his contributions to microstructural analysis, the origin of microgranitoid enclaves, K-feldspar megacrysts and orbicular granitoids, aspects of low P, high T metamorphic terranes, P-T-t paths and magma emplacement mechanisms, and more recently, recognition of magmatic versus solid-state fabrics in igneous rocks. Ron has always combined astute observations with logical, incisive analysis to understand igneous, metamorphic and structural processes. Also, he has been heavily involved in editorial work, particularly with Australian Journal of Earth Sciences and Journal of Metamorphic Geology. As recognition of his career contributions, the "Ron Vernon Symposium" has been organised to coincide with the 15th Australian Geological Convention, to be held in Sydney on 3-7 July, 2000 (two months before the Sydney Olympics). Two 5-day field trips have been organised: a pre-conference excursion through the Lachlan Fold Belt (LFB) of eastern Australia and a post-conference trip to the Early Proterozoic Arunta Block of central Australia. The general theme is to examine granite emplacement processes at different crustal levels (upper/middle crustal in the LFB and middle/lower in the Arunta) and how these interrelate with metamorphic and structural process. To summarize, the "Vernon Symposium" package involves a three-week "boondoggle" through Proterozoic central Australia, Paleozoic eastern Australia, and contemporary Sydney. The pre-conference trip will begin early in the morning of the Tuesday before the Conference (27 June, 2000), so you will need to arrive in Sydney at least the day before. You can stay at various hotels, all of which are detailed at the AGC web site. Most of these accommodations are within walking distance of the Convention Centre, but Mercure is directly opposite, so is probably the best option. This is appropriate for pre-conference participants, as we will congregate at the Centre on Monday night (26 June) for Icebreaker, possibly with a briefing session. Also, all of these accommodations will hold baggage for people travelling out on excursions, provided you are returning for at least a night. The post-conference trip will begin on Sunday (9 July), which gives people the opportunity to travel to Alice Springs on Saturday morning 8 July (at ~9 a.m. with either Qantas or Ansett Australia - note in the web site that Qantas offers special deals to ACG participants), and participants will be back in Alice Springs on Friday morning (14 July) to connect with outward bound flights (to Sydney, Perth, Darwin, - leaving 11-12 noon with both Qantas and Ansett Australia). Overseas participants will be given preference for the field trips, particularly the Lachlan excursion, but you have the option of staying one, two or the full three weeks. PROPOSED ITINERARY (Please see web site for additional details regarding transport, costs, etc). Pre-conference Excursion 27 June (Tuesday) - Tuross Head Tonalite 28 June - Kameruka/Candelo suites 29 June - Basal contact /Kameruka pluton 30 June - Wog Wog Complex/Kameruka pluton 1 July - Cooma Complex 2 July (Sunday) - Cooma-Sydney (5-6 hours) 15th Australian Geological Convention 3-7 July Post-conference Excursion 8 July (Saturday morning) - Travel to Alice Springs Chewings Range traverse??? 9 July - Workshop ("Melt generation and transport in the mid- to lower-crust" (Bruce Hobbs, Win Means and Paul Williams) 10 July - Redbank Shear Zone/Mt Hay 11 July - Wuluma Hills/ kyanite-staurolite shear zone? 12 July - Anmatjira Range 13 July - Mt Stafford 14 July (Friday) - Alice Springs - outward bound Details of Excursions Pre-conference: Lachlan Fold Belt Initially, we will view stratigraphic sections and way-up criteria in a high-level pluton (Tuross Head Tonalite, Moruya Batholith), which is a sequence of "Mafic and silicic layered intrusions (MASLI)". Then we examine the internal structure of sheeted/layered plutons of the Kameruka/Candelo suites, Bega Batholith, before examining emplacement/hybridisation processes recorded in migmatites at the base of Kameruka. Special features of these days include (1) sedimentary features in granites, such as giant load casts and "flame-structures", from which "way-up" in plutons and "pluton stratigraphy" can be determined; (2) synplutonic mafic dykes which fountain into zones of crystal-poor magma; (3) mafic enclave settling/accumulation zones in magma chambers; (4) termination of granite feeder dykes at the top of crystal mushes in granitic magma chambers; (5) intricate pipe-structures/magmatic diapirs at sites of felsic/mafic dyke intersections, (6) skyscraper-sized blocks that have slid through mush-magma interfaces to produce "bow-wave" currents, characterised by cross-bedded laminations in the overlying crystal-poor chamber; (7) "elephants' graveyards" of country-rock xenoliths; (8) flow zones and sense-of-shear recorders in migmatites at the base of plutons; (9) hybridisation zones between mafic synplutonic dykes and host granite magma; (10) hybridisation zones between migmatites and host granite magma; and finally (11), beneath the migmatites and the overlying plutons, the ultimate cause of the batholith! The Lachlan field trip will also include a one-day visit and re-evaluation of the classic Cooma complex. We will traverse the complex from low- to high-grade, then focus on outcrops that explain why the Cooma granite (really a diatexite) has such a large aureole. A clue is that we will also examine its relation with the adjacent (S-type) Murrumbidgee Batholith. Post-conference: Arunta and central Australia The central Australian trip will begin with a one-day workshop, organised by Bruce Hobbs, Win Means and Paul Williams as part of the post-conference excursion to Alice Springs. A traverse through the Chewings Range (we think), looking at 1600 Ma old structures overprinted by thrusts associated with the Alice Springs Orogeny (400-300 Ma) follows. Next, we investigate granite magma-transfer through the middle-lower (7-8 kbar) crust at Mt Hay, which occurred (we think) during non-coaxial compressive deformation, then through the middle-upper (4-5 kbar) crust in the Anmatjira Range. MASLI systems have been identified at both crustal levels, and criteria for recognition of way-up structures in these deep-crustal plutonic systems will be evaluated. At Wuluma Hills, we will see melt segregation and emplacement processes in granulite facies rocks. We will show how leucosomes are expelled from the hinge and synformal region of folds, and collect in antiformal hinges during compressional deformation. The K-rich leucosomes of this location are identical in chemistry and age to the Wuluma granite, which is the inferred leucosome sink; so we will look at that as well. Finally, the characteristics and origin of a high-T, very low-P (2.5±1 kbar) granulite facies terrane at Mt Stafford, will be examined. This terrane has not undergone intense deformation, so it is an ideal location to study the prograde metamorphic reactions associated with migmatite formation and migmatite/granite magma hybridisation. **************************************************** Scott E. Johnson Department of Geological Sciences 5790 Bryand Global Sciences Center University of Maine Orono, ME 04469-5790 USA email: [log in to unmask] phone: (207) 581-2142 Fax: (207) 581 2202 www: http://www.geology.um.maine.edu/user/scott_johnson/HM.html **************************************************** %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%