Lydia DiCaprio, BSc(Hons)
PhD Student

Email: lydia@geosci.usyd.edu.au
Web: Professional pages

Supervisor

Assoc. Prof. Dietmar Müller

Research Interests

Lydia DiCaprio is a second year PhD student in Geophysics (School of Geosceinces) at the University of Sydney. The broad category of this research is geodynamics and is based on the integration of plate tectonics with mantle convection. In addition she is interested in other earth science specialities such as paleogeography & eustasty, sedimentary geology and subduction initiation and processes. The research project is based on the dynamics of the Australian continent and region since the Mesozoic. The aim is to incorporate realistic plate tectonic models with 3D mantle convection models inorder to quantify the influence of mantle dynamics on the "ups and downs" observed in the geological and geophysical record. Please use my web pages for more information.

Title: The dynamic history of the Australian Region since the Mesozoic

Unlike some of our celestial neighbours, our planet displays plate tectonic motion in response to deep earth processes. Plate tectonic motion is not random but driven by a combination of gravity and frictional forces related to the convective processes in the mantle. It seems a natural progression to propose that if deep earth processes move the plateslaterally they might also influence the surface topography vertically. In fact, a benchmark study was able to demonstrate the relationship between mantle convection and vertical plate motion by relating disparate geological, geophysical and geochemical observations from Australia with models of mantle convection (Gurnis et al., 1998). If topography can be generated by deep earth processes what can our geological, geophysical and geochemical observations tell us about these deep earth processes? The Australian region is an attractive case study for observing dynamically driven topography since it is a stable craton which exhibits past and present topographic signatures that are inexplicable by traditional notionsof plate kinematics (Russell and Gurnis, 1994);(Gurnis et al., 1998);(Lithgow-Bertelloni and Gurnis, 1997);(Müller et al., 2000). This research will provide a quantitative geodynamic examination of enigmatic topographic signatures of the Australian region in order to provide a link between disparate geological, geochemical and geophysical observations with a plate tectonic consistent model of thermal convection.

Presentations and Publications

2. American Geophysical Union poster (December 2004) "A Southwest Pacific example of volcanic rift margin facies in a backarc setting from the Norfolk Basin seismic reflection profiles"

3. Honours Thesis (2004) " Surface expressions of mantle driven topography north and east of Australia: A synthesis of observations from wells and seismic data with tomography and geodynamic models"

Scholarships and Awards