Michelle Cooper

PhD Student - sedimentology

Email: michelle.cooper@jcu.edu.au

Phone: 07 4781 4262

Michelle grew up in Melbourne and completed a B.Sc. Hons. degree at the University of Melbourne in 1999. Michelle's honours project involved investigating the water chemistry of naturally carbonated mineral springs at Daylesford, north east of Melbourne, and considering the implications of over-pumping. Michelle then spent 4 years travelling and living abroad before moving back to Australia in November 2003.

Project Summary: Sediment Dynamics Of A Large Tropical River System

Supervisors: Dr Graham Shields, John Faithful, Dr Raphael Wüst

Overview:
Michelle's study area includes Lake Dalrymple (the Burdekin Dam) and its 2 major tributaries, the Burdekin and Suttor Rivers. The sediment being transported by these two rivers into and through the dam is very fine, takes a long time to settle and is easily re-suspended. One of Michelle's aims is to characterise these sediments by analysing both the suspended and bed load sediments in order to determine their shape, size, composition, surface textures and behaviour. To this end Michelle has already been out to the dam to collect water and sediment samples and these samples are currently undergoing a range of analysis techniques including ICP, XRD and grainsizing. Michelle has also undertaken a seismic survey and the mapping of selected sections of the dam and sub-catchments in the hope of providing a quantitative and spatial assessment of depositional rates since the construction of the dam and the next step in this part of the investigation will possibly be to undertake drilling in selected locations in order to provide sediment core samples for analysis.

Further areas of study include a discussion of the fate of the suspended particulate matter and its implications for the downstream environment, and recommendations for areas highlighted as sediment sources in the catchment. Michelle would also like to investigate the origins of the sediment using geochemistry and isotope tracers. Additionally, Michelle may extend her study area to include parts of the sub-catchments that lie further up and downstream.