AUSTRALIAN SCIENTIST
Daniela Rubatto Earth Scientist
An enquiring mind amongst the mountains
Daniela Rubatto describes herself as an
to move between Australia and other parts of the
earth scientist who is passionate to find out about
world. Australian science, she says, is extremely
the mountains.
international. Much of her research has been done
“Those great big things on the horizon, how did they
in the western alps of Italy, in the Sikkim Himalaya,
get there? Where do they come from? How long have
and in the interior of Australia. She appreciates what
they been there?” she wonders.
she thinks of as the Australian attitude to scientific
Her main research interest, she says, is in geochronology of metamorphic processes, crustal
research: enjoy it, do not take it too seriously, but be very good at it!
growth and mountain building. In 2002, she
“Although I spend time in the mountains, and
discovered a key geochemical signature in the mineral
I love walking the mountain trails, for my research
zircon in metamorphic rocks that experienced extreme
I do not join extreme field trips, and I do most of my
conditions. This geochemical fingerprint allows the age
‘extreme’ work in the laboratory,” she says. “Life is too
extracted from the mineral to be linked with the pressure
precious, and family keeps me from doing rash things
and temperature that the rocks have experienced, and
or being away too long!”
thus to time the path the rocks have travelled at depth. Dr Rubatto has a particular interest in the mineral zircon, indeed she speaks of it with a surprising fondness. “Zircon never lets you down,” she says. “It’s such a solid material to work with, with so much information contained in it. You can follow millions of years of the Earth’s evolution in zircon, if you just know how to read it. It’s a never-ending puzzle which is a joy to work on!” As a scientist, Dr Rubatto enjoys being able
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