Just add salt: Frontiers investigates salinity and landscape

Oct 17, 2005

The increasing salinity of the landscape is becoming a serious problem in many continents, including Australia.

The next Frontiers in Science lecture at the University of Wollongong (Wednesday 19 October) will be presented by Professor Allan Chivas who will provide information concerning the origin of salt in the landscape and of its residence in Australian soils, lakes and groundwaters.

Professor Chivas will take his audience to the arid areas of several continents spanning a time frame of tens of thousands of years and will piece together the movement and past record of salinity in Australia’s environment.

“We will be considering salts that dissolved in rainwater and the use of chemical and isotopic techniques to trace the movement of chloride and sulfate over thousands of kilometres,” he said.

He will also highlight the way particular analytical techniques and well-dated fossils are providing UOW researchers with a clearer picture of this contemporary problem.

‘Frontiers in Science' is a series of free public lectures given by UOW academics in the Faculty of Science who are world leaders in their respective research areas.

When: Wednesday 19 October at 6pm

Where: Building 35 Room G20

For further information contact Scott East on 4221 3512

For more information, contact:

media@uow.edu.au
University of Wollongong
Ph: (02) 4221 5942; fax (02) 4221 3128