16th November – Abstract submission deadline & Earlybird registration deadline (registration will open soon)
7th December – Final Registration deadline
6 – 9th January – TSG2026 Conference, UCD
In addition, we have x2 student bursaries (up to £500) available in the winter round (open until 16th November), further details available at: https://tectonicstudiesgroup.org/funding/
We are delighted to announce that next year’s conference will be held at O’Brien Centre for Science, University College Dublin (UCD)
The conference will include a pre-conference workshop and icebreaker and a post-conference fieldtrip to Loughshinny, led by John Walsh, where attendees can investigate Inversion structures of the Lower Carboniferous Dublin Basin
Dates for the Diary:
Tuesday, 6 Jan – Day 1: Workshop + Ice-breaker Event
Thanks to everyone who attended and participated at TSG 2025, held at the British Geological Survey, Keyworth, you all helped to make it a great experience! We look forward to seeing you in Dublin in 2026!
Congratulations to our 2025 Prize winners:
Dave Johnston Mapping Prize Winner
Phoebe Stansfield
Project: Geomorphological evidence for post-glacial faulting in Sweden and South Greenland
Mike Coward Prize (best student presentation)
Mannon Carpenter
Presentation: Controls on Postseismic and Interseismic Deformation: Modelling Localised Rheological Weakening Beneath a Strike-Slip Fault
Manon is in her final year of PhD at the University of Leeds, where she combines field work, microstructural analyses and geophysical modelling to understand how and why deformation is localised in continental crust. She uses constraints from mid-crustal shear zones to inform numerical models of crustal-scale strike-slip faults and see what we can learn from them.
Sue Treagus Prize Winner
Natalie Forrest
Poster Title: Using Cosmogenic 36Cl To Estimate The Holocene Slip Rate of the Eşen Fault, SW Türkiye
Natalie is a 4th year PhD student at the University of Leeds, based in the Institute of Geophysics & Tectonics. Her PhD investigates the dynamics of normal faulting across multiple timescales, through a multi-disciplinary study involving geological and geodetic methods, such as InSAR and GPS.
At the TSG AGM 2025, Natalie presented her laboratory-based study on cosmogenic chlorine-36 analysis on the Eşen Fault, a normal fault in SW Türkiye. There have been no known historical earthquakes on this fault, yet it is a prominent 20 km long escarpment across the landscape. Cosmogenic chlorine-36 is primary formed through the interaction of calcium-40 in the limestone with cosmic rays, therefore this method produces an estimate of the fault scarp exposure through time. By combining chlorine-36 profiles with Bayesian models, the study suggests that the fault scarp experienced its last large earthquake around 1000 years ago, and prior to that, the fault was slipping at 2-3 mm/yr. This shows that the fault represents a significant, and previously unquantified, hazard in this region.
Ramsay Medal Winner
Giovanni Toffol
Publication: On-fault earthquake energy density partitioning from shocked garnet in an exhumed seismic mid-crustal fault
Giovanni obtained a PhD at the University of Padova (Italy), with a thesis titled “High differential stress in the seismogenic lithosphere: constraints from numerical modelling and microstructural analysis”. He is currently postdoctoral research associate at Cardiff University, where his work focuses on the seismic and aseismic behaviour of faults in subduction zones.
Ramsay Medal – Honourable Mention
Joe Connolly
Publication: Using U–Pb carbonate dating to constrain the timing of extension and fault reactivation within the Bristol Channel Basin, SW England
The TSG Annual Meeting will be held from the 7th-9th January 2025 at the British Geological Survey in Keyworth Nottinghamshire and a post conference workshop will be offered on January 10th, with a limited number of places available. Abstract submission and further details about TSG 2025 are available at https://tectonicstudiesgroup.wixsite.com/2025/.
The TSG Annual Meeting will be held from the 7th-9th January 2025 at the British Geological Survey in Keyworth Nottinghamshire and a post conference workshop will be offered on January 10th, with a limited number of places available. Abstract submission and further details about TSG 2025 are available at https://tectonicstudiesgroup.wixsite.com/2025/. Conference registration will open later this month.
Registration
A registration portal will be made available in early September. Early bird registration will be available until mid-November. Registration includes the ice-breaker reception, two days of conference including coffee breaks, lunches, poster session refreshments and the conference dinner. Separate registration will be available for the workshops.
The TSG Annual Meeting will be held at the British Geological Survey, Nottingham, England. Post conference workshops will be offered, with a limited number of places available, on January 10th. Further updates to come soon..!
Registration:
A registration portal will be made available in early September. Early bird registration will be available until mid-November. Registration includes the ice-breaker reception, two days of conference including coffee breaks, lunches, poster session refreshments and the conference dinner. Separate registration will be available for the workshops.
Abstract Deadline: 17th November 2024
Bursaries
2 bursaries are available in this round of funding. This includes fees for virtual meetings!
Johanna is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher in the High pressure and temperature laboratory, Department of Earth Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands.
Paper Title: Rapid hydration and weakening of anhydrite under stress: Implications for natural hydration in the Earth’s crust and mantle. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5194/se-14-985-2023
Mike Coward Prize (best student presentation)
Joe Connolly
“Hi, I’m Joe and I’m currently in the final year of my PhD at the University of Plymouth.
I’m interested in how fluids flow through faults, and what this can tell us about the evolution of different structures. I use a range of geochemical techniques such as radiometric dating on veins to establish the history of fluid-flow along structures. I then use these data to come up with structural models for a fracture network.”
Sue Treagus Prize (best student poster)
Emily Madoff
Emily is pursuing a PhD at the University of St Andrews, working with the M3Ore lab group. Her research is focussed on how the regional and local structure of Ilimaussaq, a famous layered igneous intrusion in South Greenland, influences the formation of the intrusion’s world-class REE deposits. Emily’s research combines classic field mapping methods with state-of-the-art rock magnetics analyses to collect structural data invisible to the naked eye.
Green Rebel Prize: Best Talk
Akos Kiss
My name is Akos Kiss, a PhD candidate at Durham University. I graduated from Eotvos Lorand University in Hungary with a bachelor in earth sciences. The main areas of my interest are structural geology and tectonics.
I always find that applying my expertise to issues around energy security and environmental protection to be the most rewarding part of my research experience. As part of my Msc project I worked on identifying faults that serve as gas leakage pathways in the Barents Sea. I currently focus my PhD research on the petrophysical characterisation of potential geothermal reservoirs and the experimental investigation of fluid injection induced seismicity.
I believe the role of subsurface in the energy transition will continue increasing. Hence I feel especially honoured to have my talk chosen by Green Rebel for the TSG Awards 2024 – Energy Transition Prize.
Green Rebel Prize: Best Poster
Selina Bonini
I am a 2nd year PhD student in Structural Geology at the University of Bologna, currently working on the Seismic Hazard Assessment of areas affected by Active and Capable Faults.
The aim of my PhD project, which is co-financed by the Italian railways’ authorities (Italferr S.p.A of Ferrovie dello Stato Italiane Group), is to develop a new protocol/set of guidelines for the characterization of site-effects in active fault zones, specifically for railways design purposes. This work includes both detailed fieldwork and modeling. The next step is to use the structural data collected during the geological survey to perform scenarios of Fault Displacement Hazard Analysis suitable for railway planning and construction.
The TSG Annual Meeting will be held 9th-11th January 2024 at St. Andrews, Scotland. A post conference TSG field trip will be offered to all attendees on January 12th.
Registration: A registration portal will be made available in early September. We expect early bird registration costs to be ~£110 for students, retired and unemployed and a full rate early bird cost will be ~£240. This discounted rate is expected to be available until mid-november. Registration includes the ice-breaker reception, two days of conference including coffee breaks, lunches, poster session refreshments and the conference dinner.
Abstract Deadline November 15th 2023
*Bursaries Deadline 30th November Additionally we have a number of travel bursaries to award, and have extended our deadline until the 30th of November. The TSG supports students and Early Career Researcher attendance at conferences by providing up to £500 bursary for e.g. conference registration fees, travel, accommodation and subsistence. Up to 4 bursaries are awarded each year. This includes fees for virtual meetings! http://tectonicstudiesgroup.org/funding/
*Prizes Nominations for the Ramsay Medal and the Dave Johnston Undergraduate Mapping Prize are open. These prizes are awarded annually by the Tectonic Studies Group and will be announced at the annual meeting.
*The Ramsay Medal* The prestigious Ramsay Medal is awarded to the Early Career Researcher who has been judged to have produced the best publication arising directly from their postgraduate research project. The paper must be in the field of tectonics and structural geology and been published in the 12-month period before the closing date. It must also have been written primarily by the nominee, based on their own research. The paper would preferably have also been presented at a previous TSG-sponsored conference or event. This year the closing date for nominations will be November 17th 2023. You can find out more about the nomination process for the Ramsay Medal on the TSG website: http://tectonicstudiesgroup.org/ramsay-medal/
*The Dave Johnston Mapping Prize* The Dave Johnston Undergraduate Mapping Prize is awarded for the best undergraduate mapping project arising from fieldwork dissertations completed in the past two years. Nominations are open all year round. Due to an increasing number of submissions in recent years, applications are now limited to one nomination per institution. Full information about the Dave Johnston Undergraduate Mapping Prize and how to nominate is available on the TSG website: http://tectonicstudiesgroup.org/dave-johnston-mapping-prize/ A nomination form is available from the TSG website and must be submitted to the TSG Secretary before December 1st 2023.
We look forward to receiving your abstracts, applications and nominations.
Each year at the TSG Annual General Meeting the outstanding work of early career researchers and students is recognised with numerous prizes. These prestigious awards support and celebrate the next excellent crop of researchers within the tectonics and structural geology community. This year’s TSG saw as usual a large number of high-quality posters and presentations, which often made it difficult for the judges to pick a winner. Well done to all the prize winners at this year’s annual meeting, hosted virtually by the Geological Society of London and the Tectonic Studies Group, and thank you to all the judges!
Ramsay Medal
The Ramsay Medal (named in honour of the late John Graham Ramsay) is awarded to an early career researcher who has published an exceptional independent publication resulting from their PhD thesis. After long consideration, the judges awarded this prestigious medal to Sophie Cox from Cardiff University. Her excellent publication “Shear zone development in serpentinized mantle: Implications for the strength of oceanic transform faults.” In the Journal of Geophysical Research combined field and microstructural observations with geochemical analysis to present an evidence-based conceptual model of how deformation and the mode of slip vary along an ocean transform fault.
Sophie is currently a postdoctoral researcher at Cardiff continuing to build on her excellent PhD work in ocean transform fault rheology using a combination of experimental and field-based study.
Dave Johnston Mapping Prize
The Dave Johnston Mapping prize is awarded to the best undergraduate student mapping dissertation in order to recognise outstanding field-based undergraduate work. This year’s prize was awarded to Alice Cunningham from the University of Southampton. Her work on geologically mapping the onshore-offshore geology of Durlston Bay, Dorset integrated high-resolution aerial photography, LiDAR, bathymetry, and fieldwork observations.
The last published geological map of Durlston Bay was completed 30 years prior, so the aim was to interpret and categorise onshore structure and modernise the interpretation by extending observations into the nearshore and offshore zones. Alice is now looking forward to applying her structural interpretation skills to future projects, and she is looking to expand her ability to visualise terrains in 3D during her 4th-year project.
BP Price
The BP Prize is awarded for the overall best student contribution at the TSG annual meeting. This year’s award goes to Cole McCormick for his fascinating talk “An experimental study of the transition from tensile failure to shear failure in Solnhofen Limestone across a range of stress conditions: Does “hybrid failure” exist?”. This work investigated the role of stepped, transgranular, cracks and their interaction to form low-angle shear faults (<10˚). Cole’s presentation challenged the notion that individual cracks were ever subject to combined shear stress and tensile normal stress, while also suggesting that a “hybrid failure” mode may not be appropriate. The judges were particularly impressed by its accessibility and quantity of experiments.
Cole McCormick completed B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees at the University of Alberta (Canada). For his PhD at The University of Manchester, Cole now finds himself studying diagnostic rock textures in fault-controlled dolomite bodies (e.g., cement-supported breccias, fractures, zebra textures) working with Cathy Hollis and Ernie Rutter. This research integrates conventional carbonate diagenesis techniques (e.g., fieldwork, petrography, geochemistry) with triaxial rock deformation experiments. They are particularly interested in the P/T conditions that gave rise to these rock textures as well as the role of fluid-flow pathways, recrystallization, and self-organization.
BritRock Prize
The BritRock prize is awarded for the best PhD presentation (poster or talk) that incorporates a significant element of laboratory rock deformation during the research. The BritRock prize is awarded and sponsored by BritRock, the UK’s Rock Deformation Network.
This year’s BritRock winner is Claudia Elijas Parra, for “Quantifying crack network evolution during failure of a porous rock”. Among the many things the judging panel liked was the clear explanation of methods and statistical analysis and nice context with current methods” and “how Claudia made a complex set of results look very simple, with a very clear presentation style.”
Mike Coward Prize for Best Student Talk
The winner of the Mike Coward Prize for Best Student Talk was Khadija Alaoui for her talk titled “Element mobility in low-grade shear zones and strain accommodation: insights from geochemistry and microstructures of granitoids of central Pyrenees (Axial zone)”
Khadija is a 2nd year PhD student in metamorphic petrology at Institut des Sciences de la Terre d’Orléans (ISTO) at the University of Orléans, currently working on phyllosilicates deformation and its effect on shear zones formation and fluid circulation (experimental study).
The aim of her PhD project is to investigate the role of micas in strain accommodation and development of shear zones within the upper to middle crust, from the scale of crystal defects to the polycrystalline aggregate. She is combining detailed microstructural and petrological study of the mica-quartz samples experimentally deformed under different temperature and strain rate conditions with the observation of naturally deformed samples. Her PhD is following up on her master’s Project work she presented at TSG and will provide further geological context.
Sue Treagus Prize for Best Student Poster
This year’s winner of the Sue Treagus Prize for Best Student Poster was Bex Robertson for her poster “Investigating co-seismic reactions in fault cores”. The poster was applauded for clarity of layout, quality of the figures and its overall accessibility.
Bex is currently undertaking her PhD at Durham University, working on co and post-seismic reactions within fault cores and their mechanical consequences. This work involves mechanical experiments simulating earthquake conditions in the lab and geochemical breakdown of samples pre and post “event”. The Alpine Fault in New Zealand, a transpressional plate boundary, is used in this work as a field analogue.
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