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Rod Holcombe

Rod Holcombe PhD (Stanford); FGSAm; M GSAust

Principal & Consultant HCOV Global

Rod trades as: HCOV Global [ABN:29863107460]

13/16 Cascade Ave, Benowa
Qld 4217
Australia
Telephone (cel): +61 (0) 402 859 610

 

Adjunct Professor of Structural Geology

School of Earth and Environmental Sciences

The University of Queensland

I am now almost fully retired except for preparing on-line training material and managing the distribution of my book and various various software applications.

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I am a structural geologist with 55+ years of structural analysis and 3D modelling experience in orogenic systems both as a teaching/research academic and as a consultant to the minerals exploration industry. My expertise and personal enjoyment is in the unravelling of complex geological structures, particularly in metamorphic rocks and shear zones. My consultancy strengths have been an in-depth knowledge of the structural geologist's toolbox, both practical and theoretical, and a strong background in 3D disgital modelling. Although I have now wound back field-based consulting activities to concentrate on training, writing books and manuals, and computer applications, I also continue to maintain active links with the University of Queensland.

 

My field experience has been divided between strongly deformed Precambrian metamorphic terranes (eg., Mount Isa, New Mexico, Southern Appalachians, Canada, Yilgarn, Gawler Craton, Finland, Brazil, Uruguay, Siberia, East and West Africa) and Phanerozoic continental margin orogens (Australian NEFB, Argentine Andes, Alpine Fault, New Zealand, SE Asia, Balkans, Siberia, and the Russian Far East). I have also had passing experience in a variety of other types of terranes in the US, Scandinavia and Australia.

 

I have authored a book, Mapping and Structural Geology in Mineral Exploration  (released in December, 2016), aimed at practicing professional exploration geologists working in deformed terranes. It is based on my experience in troubleshooting structural problems in both greenfield and brownfield exploration projects. where the solution commonly has been that basic, or even elementary, structural concepts and practical procedures have been forgotten. 

I have also developed a suite of structural software applications [GEOrient; GeoCalculator; etc].

In 2017 Rod was awarded the "Hobbs Medal" from the Geol. Soc. Australia, Structural Geology & Tectonics Specialist Group.  This medal is awarded for Outstanding Contributions to Structural Geology, with a focus on members of the Geological Society of Australia. Of note in the citation were Rod's contributions to structural geology training, including in applied structural geology for mineral exploration and the array of practical software tools that he developed, and contributions to fundamental questions in structural geology and his direct contributions to structural geology and mineral discovery in Australia and around the world. 

 

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