Under The Dome Australia
Germain Aguilera
The Australian Academy of Science was founded in 1954 by a group of distinguished Australians, including Australian Fellows of the Royal Society of London.[1] The first president was Sir Mark Oliphant. The academy is modelled after the Royal Society and operates under a Royal charter;[1] as such, it is an independent body, but it has government endorsement. The Academy Secretariat is in Canberra, at the Shine Dome.
The Australian National Research Council (ANRC) was established in 1919 for the purpose of representing Australia on the International Research Council. The Council ceased to exist in 1954, replaced by the Australian Academy of Science.[2]
The Shine Dome (previously known as Becker House) is a well-known Canberra landmark, notable for its unusual structure, and colloquially referred to as "The Martian Embassy", an allusion to its shape and the fact that as the capital of Australia, Canberra is the home of foreign embassies.[3] It was designed by architect Sir Roy Grounds, of Grounds, Romberg and Boyd. When completed in 1959 its 45.75-metre-diameter dome was the largest in Australia.
On 1 December 1956, the academy's building design committee met in Adelaide to look over plans submitted by six architects. The plan accepted involved a 710-tonne reinforced concrete dome, which had to be supported by 16 thin supports. The concrete is approximately 60 cm thick at the base supports, and 10 cm at the top. The dome supports itself, with no internal wall holding it up. It cost 200,000 to build. The foundation stone, laid on 2 May 1958 by Prime Minister of Australia, Robert Menzies, was originally part of the pier of the Great Melbourne Telescope constructed in 1869 under the supervision of the Royal Society and transferred to Mount Stromlo Observatory in the 1940s.
The building was named Becker House, for benefactor and Fellow of the Academy Sir Jack Ellerton Becker, in 1962. In 2000, it was renamed in honour of Fellow John Shine, who donated one million dollars to renovate the dome.
The interior contains three floors: on the ground level, the main auditorium, the Ian Wark Theatre, seats 156 people, the Jaeger Room for functions and meetings, the Becker Council Meeting Room and offices; the upper level includes a gallery to the theatre and the Adolf Basser Library; and the basement houses storage for historical records of science in Australia.
The Fellowship of the Australian Academy of Science is made up of around 500 leading Australian scientists. Scientists judged by their peers to have made an exceptional contribution to knowledge in their field may be elected to Fellowship of the academy. Twenty new Fellows may be elected every year.[6]
No more than two Fellows may be elected every three years on the basis of distinguished contributions to science by means other than personal research. A small number of distinguished foreign scientists with substantial connections to Australian science are elected as Corresponding Members.
There are three other learned Academies in Australia, those of Humanities (Australian Academy of the Humanities), Social Science (Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia) and Technological Sciences and Engineering (Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering). The four Academies cooperate through the Australian Council of Learned Academies, formed in 2010.
Australia has some of the oldest geological features in the world with the oldest known rocks dating from more than 3000 million years ago and rare zircon crystals dating back 4400 million years located in much younger rocks. The zircons evolved very soon after the planet was formed. These ancient features compare with the oldest known rock on Earth in northwestern Canada. Scientists say that rock was formed 4031 million years ago.
Some areas of Victoria and Queensland are geologically much younger as a result of volcanic activity which last erupted a few thousand years ago. Australia's youngest mainland volcano is Mount Gambier in South Australia which last erupted only about 6000 years ago.
In recent years, the advent of improved technology and more extensive geological exploration has resulted in a greater knowledge of the age of rocks in Australia. It has resulted also in an increased ability to better understand the continent's past. This has been achieved by combining exploration methods such as deep seismic surveys with geochronology methods, including use of equipment such as the Sensitive High-Resolution Ion Microprobe, or SHRIMP. This equipment uses uranium and lead isotopes from tiny portions of zircon crystals which have been extracted from rock samples to calculate the age of the crystal based on the natural decay rate of uranium to lead. The SHRIMP is central to Geoscience Australia's geochronology program.
Formerly named Ayers Rock, this massive sandstone rock covers an area of 3.3 square kilometres, and is 9.4 kilometres around its base. It rises 345 metres above the plains, and is the surface expression of a much larger volume of rock. An eroded remnant, Uluru was laid down in an inland sea during the Cambrian Period about 500 million years ago.
Formally known as the Olgas, Kata Tjuta is made up of 28 rounded domes with the tallest, Mt. Olga at 545.4 m above the surrounding plain, making it almost 200 metres higher than nearby Uluru. The domes are made of the sedimentary rock conglomerate with iron oxide impurities.
The conglomerate resulted from erosion of mountains pushed up during Cambrian earth movements, and consists of sandstone, granite and ironstone bound together by muddy and sandy sediments. Both features are within the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.
Karlwe Karlwe, or the Devil's Marbles, near Wauchope in the Northern Territory are a collection of large rounded granite boulders, many of which are precariously balanced on top of another. The granite here formed from molten rock which solidified beneath a layer of sandstone and developed vertical and horizontal fractures. Over time, the sandstone eroded away exposing the granite, which then weathered into soft sand and clay surrounding hard bits of granite called corestones. Gradual removal of the soft sand and clay has exposed the rounded boulders, allowing them to be perched on top of one other. According to Aboriginal dreaming, the rocks are sacred and are the fossilised eggs of the Rainbow Serpent.
The visible portion of the sandstone and conglomerate structure which makes up Mount Augustus, is twice the size of Uluru. Sitting on a bedrock of granite, the mountain is eight kilometres long and stands 858 metres above the surrounding plain and 1105 metres above sea level. Sometimes described as the world's largest monocline, it is estimated that the rock of the mountain is around 1000 million years old and was formed from an uplift which raised an ancient seabed of sedimentary proterozoic sandstone and conglomerate. The granite rock which lies beneath Mount Augustus is said to be 1650 million years old. The Indigenous name for Mount Augustus is Burringurah.
Formed more than 2700 million years ago, Wave Rock is 14 metres high, and 110 metres long. The granite cliff resembling a wave about to break is on the northern face of a large erosional remnant called Hyden Rock. This curved cliff face has been rounded by weathering and water erosion, undercutting its base and leaving a rounded overhang. It was formed by water dissolving and re-depositing chemicals in the granite as it runs down the cliff face.
The mountain is an isolated volcanic core rising 797 metres above sea level near the historical villages of Tilba Tilba and Central Tilba. Viewed from the sea the mountain resembles a dromedary camel. It was formed during volcanic activity which took place about 100 million years ago.
An inselberg, or isolated rock hill, Bald Rock is said to be Australia's largest exposed granite surface. It towers about 200 metres above the surrounding bushland, is 750 metres long, 500 metres wide and rises to 1277 metres above sea level. The granite which forms Bald Rock was emplaced into the surrounding metamorphic and sedimentary rock about 247 million years ago. Subsequent uplift and erosion has removed the majority of the surrounding sediments and metamorphic rocks, with Bald Rock remaining as a result of its resistance to weathering.
Geoscience Australia acknowledges the traditional owners and custodians of Country throughout Australia and acknowledges their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to the people, the cultures and the elders past and present.
The world's largest indoor desert, the Desert Dome, located under the world's largest glazed geodesic dome, has become a landmark for the city of Omaha. The Desert Dome features plant and animal life from three deserts around the world: the Namib Desert of southern Africa, the Red Center of Australia and the Sonoran Desert of the southwest United States. The Desert Dome contains 84,000 square feet on two levels (42,000 square feet on each level). Located beneath the Desert Dome exhibit is the Kingdoms of the Night, the world's largest nocturnal exhibit.
The three deserts of the Desert Dome are divided by central mountain, a 55-foot-tall mountain in the middle of the Desert Dome. Surrounding Central Mountain are a variety of unique desert plants including succulents, palms, mesquite trees, grasses, herbs, shrubs and the endangered Welwitshcia, found only in the Namibian deserts. The Namib Desert of southern Africa is the world's oldest and most biologically diverse desert.
The Namib Desert portion of the Desert Dome features a 30-foot tall sand dune containing 300 tons of red sand that came from a mine site near Phoenix, Arizona. Within the Desert Caves live 21 reptile species from Africa and Australia, including venomous snakes such as death adders, a cape cobra and the inland taipan (the world's most venomous land snake).
The Red Center of Australia is one of the world's most unique isolated deserts. Some of the areas most prominent formations are featured, such as Ayers Rock or Uluru, and Wave Rock. Ayers Rock is an Australian landmark and the world's largest monolithic rock. Wave Rock, a showpiece of the desert, is an overhang of colorful granite caused by water carrying dissolved minerals like iron.
c80f0f1006