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Onshore Projects

 

GeoCoastal has been carrying out continuous coring Projects for soils and wetlands assessment, contaminant investigations, Acid Sulfate distribution/mapping and sand resource investigations since its inception in 1998.

 

GeoCoastal personnel are highly experienced scientists and technicians with a thorough understanding of the requirements of coastal coring, working under a Quality Management System. They include a professor, doctor and BSc graduates with over 30 years individual experience, and have a highly respected capability of modelling sub-surface stratigraphy (sedimentary facies) as a background to understanding the distribution of chemical and physical properties of natural coastal sequences. GeoCoastal are also recognised Acid Sulfate Soil experts having conducting large ASS investigations in various areas of Queensland in collaboration with the state government's ASS Investigation Team (QASSIT).

 

Our coring equipment features several proprietary sophisticated design characteristics developed specifically to meet rigorous QA/QC aspects of contaminant sampling and to enable retrieval of material free from cross-contamination. Our ATV's (8-wheel drive or tracked) have low ground pressure and the continuous Vibracoring systems fitted to them are custom built to be light for accessing difficult coastal environments. 

 

Our Hydraulic Vibracorer has the power to penetrate resistant layers (e.g. ‘coffee’, calcrete or interbedded clay layers), and can penetrate 1m+ into stiff basal clays (i.e. essential for acid sulfate soil assessment).

All-terrain continuous coring of alluvial valleys for road bypass investigations - NSW RTA

 

GeoCoastal has been commissioned by NSW RTA to conduct coring and stratigraphic modelling in generally inaccessible wetland and 'soft soil' areas of alluvial valleys on several proposed road bypass routes along the eastern state.

 

This culminated in Prof. Graham giving a Keynote Address on the occurrence of 'soft' soils to the Symposium of the Australian Geomechanical Society, Darling Harbour, October 2006

 

 

Coring in and around the Murray River -
Projects with CSIRO and GeoScience Australia

 

GeoCoastal have undertaken collaborative projects with CSIRO, Geoscience Australia and BRS, providing high quality cores to enable pore water surveys on the Murray River. Continuous vibracoring in liquid sands to 28m depth has been conducted in a number of surveys, producing a high correlation between pore water salinities and geophysical data.

 

Results have been published at international conferences by CSIRO and other research

organizations, eg. Tan, K. P., T. J. Munday, T. L. Graham, K. H. Holmes, K. Cahill, and A. Fitzpatrick, 2008. An investigation of river and floodplain sedimentary systems and salinity along the Murray River using advanced coring technologies. CSIRO. Second International Salinity Forum 2008 : Adelaide, SA.

 

Coastal Acid Sulfate Soils Stratigraphic Mapping - QLD Dept Natural Resources 

 

GeoCoastal undertook 3 major regional Acid Sulfate Soil mapping projects with QLD Department of Natural Resources, Landcare and local government funding in the early 2000's. Our continuous coring and stratigraphic loging methods, together with sediment analyses (including grain size, palynology and radiocarbon-aging tests) and integrated digital presentation of field and laboratory ASS chemistry against strata, resulted in development of digital pre-Holocene terrain models and stratigraphic cross sections to reconstruct the geomorphic evolution of the three areas as well as relationships between ASS and stratigraphy. The three regions were:

  • East Trinity, Cairns - Development of a Coastal Facies Model for Acid Sulfate Soil Remediation and Hydrogeological Investigation – 85 holes continuously cored and sub-sampled, depths to 22.3m;

  • Logan-Coomera Rivers, Gold Coast - Acid Sulfate Wastewater Irrigability/Stratigraphic Mapping in the Logan-Coomera Area - 90 boreholes continuously cored and sub-sampled, depths to 22m;

  • Maroochy/Caloundra Area, Sunshine Coast - Acid Sulfate Sustainable Land Management Project- 151 continuously cored boreholes sub-sampled plus high resolution seismic profiling.

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