Tectonic Studies Group report: 2008
Our primary meeting is the TSG Annual Meeting, which was held in January 2008 in La
Roche, Belgium, the first AGM to be held outside the UK since that in Dublin in 1993. It was
organised by Manuel Sintubin, Timothy Debacker and Sara Vandycke. The meeting was
attended by ~90 delegates.
The Ramsay Medal was presented to Carl T.E. Stevenson (University of Birmingham) with
William H. Owens and Donald H.W. Hutton for “Flow lobes in granite: The determination of
magma flow direction in the Trawenagh Bay Granite, northwestern Ireland, using anisotropy
of magnetic susceptibility. GSA Bulletin, 119, 1368-1386 (2007)”. The Dave Johnston
Mapping Prize for best undergraduate dissertation was awarded to John McNeill (University
of Edinburgh) and Lorraine Field (University of Durham). The Mike Coward Prize for best
post-graduate talk was presented to Steven Smith (University of Durham) for “Signatures of
the seismic cylcle along ancient faults: CO2-induced fluidization of brittle cataclasites in the
footwall of a sealing low-angle normal fault.” The best postgraduate poster award went to
Heijn van Gent (RWTH Aachen) for “The compaction dependent cohesion and tensile
strength of gypsum powder - the effect on scaled analogue models”. The Shell Prize for
overall best presentation went to Steven Smith (University of Durham) for “Signatures of the
seismic cylcle along ancient faults: CO2-induced fluidization of brittle cataclasites in the
footwall of a sealing low-angle normal fault”.
TSG members organised a number of meetings at home and abroad, including Fold and
Thrust Belt Exploration, Burlington House, May 2008;
Visualization and Modelling of
Sedimentary Basin Dynamics, Birmingham, May 2008; YORSGET, Oviedo, July 2008; Fault
Zones: Structure, Geomechanics and Fluid Flow, Burlington House, Sept 2008; Gravitational
Collapse at Continental Margins: Products and Processes, Burlington House, October 2008
and various sessions at the International Geological Congress, Oslo, August 2008; European
Geosciences Union meeting, April 2008; Geological Society of America meeting, September
2008 and the American Geophysical Union Annual Meeting, December 2008.
Prof. Richard Lisle stood down as Chair after three years’ excellent service on the committee.
Prof. John Wheeler (University of Liverpool) has taken over. Dan Faulkner (Secretary) was
replaced by Nicola de Paola, John Imber (Treasurer) by Steven Rippington. Jennifer Martin
and Rochelle Taylor continue as postgraduate reps, Enrico Tavernelli as European rep and
Steve Jolley as industry rep.
Nicola De Paola