Maria Seton explores the sea of time

Long-term sea level fluctuations reconstructed in a Virtual Geological Laboratory

Australians are often forced to think outside the box to solve problems because we don’t have the backing of a large community and large amounts of funding due to our relatively small population.  NeCTAR is an example of an initiative that helps facilitate research by connecting researchers from around the country to key tools, resources and virtual laboratories. Australians are also generally good-natured, are a little laid-back and have a good reputation overseas.  People like working with us! This also helps to form an extended international community working towards common goals and solving global problems.

Name of resesarcher: Maria Seton

Where do you work? I’m an Australian Postdoctoral Fellow in the School of Geosciences, University of Sydney and part of the EarthByte group headed by Prof. Dietmar Müller.

Discipline? Geology and Geophysics

Your research field and how you became interested?  I work broadly in the field of plate tectonics and geodynamics.  I reconstruct the configurations of the continents and ocean basins over hundreds of millions of years using GPlates, a Virtual Geological Observatory prototype.  I became interested in plate tectonics when I realized that the earth was not static but ever changing and we can understand present day and future processes by reconstructing the planet’s history through “deep” geological time.

Inspirations and influences?  My PhD supervisor and mentor, Prof Dietmar Müller has had the greatest influence on my career.  I also get inspired by the young and bright students in our research group!

What has been a research highlight?  A research highlight has been completing a research project building and describing our current knowledge of plate tectonic reconstructions over the past 200 million years.  This work forms the foundation for many subsequent studies such as understanding long-term sea-level change driven by the changing shape and size of the ocean basins through time, the vertical motions of the continents driven by mantle processes and even the formation of the Australian monsoon!

As an Australian researcher, what is a highlight?  Australians are often forced to think outside the box to solve problems because we don’t have the backing of a large community and large amounts of funding due to our relatively small population.  Nectar is an example of an initiative that helps facilitate research by connecting researchers from around the country to key tools, resources and virtual laboratories.

Australians are also generally good-natured, are a little laid-back and have a good reputation overseas.  People like working with us! This also helps to form an extended international community working towards common goals and solving global problems.