Tectonic Studies Group

We are delighted to announce that abstract submission and conference registration is now open for TSG x BSRG 2026!

Submissions via the conference website: Home – BSRG | TSG 2026

Abstract Submission is open until 30^th October 2026.

We’re delighted to announce that the next TSG AGM will be held as a joint TSG–BSRG meeting, hosted by the University of Manchester. In a change to our usual schedule, the conference will be running from Sunday 13th to Wednesday 16th December 2026.

This marks the first joint conference in several decades between the British Sedimentological Research Group (BSRG) and the Tectonic Studies Group (TSG) — bringing together researchers from both communities for what promises to be a highly engaging and stimulating event.

Conference Outline:
🔹 Integrated field trip – Sunday 13th December
🔹 Workshops & icebreaker – Monday 14th December
🔹 Poster & oral presentations – 15th & 16th December
🔹 Joint conference dinner – Tuesday 15th December

Stay tuned for more details, and TSG Bursary Award deadlines!

Thanks to everyone who attended and participated at TSG 2026, held at University College Dublin, Ireland, you all helped to make it a great experience!

Congratulations to our 2025 Prize winners:

Dave Johnston Mapping Prize Winner

Estelle Pass (Royal Holloway University of London)

Project: Geological Mapping of the Isle of Kerrera, Scotland

Patience Cowie Early Career Award – Winner

Billy Andrews (University of Plymouth)

Keynote Talk: Societal impacts of 4D fault and fracture growth

Ramsay Medal – Winner

Cole McCormick

Publication: Zebra textures in fault-controlled, hydrothermal dolomite bodies: Coupled mechanisms of replacement, deformation, and cementation

Cole McCormick is a carbonate geologist, with research interests that span the broader fields of structural geology, carbonate diagenesis, and sedimentary geochemistry. Cole received his Ph.D. from the University of Manchester (2023), where he was a recipient of the President’s Doctoral Scholar award and evaluated the rock textures that are produced by fault-controlled, hydrothermal dolomitization – research that significantly leveraged the long legacy of experimental rock mechanics in Manchester. Cole is currently a postdoctoral scholar at Penn State.

Mike Coward Prize (best student presentation) – Winner

Elliot Bird (British Geological Survey/ University of Liverpool)

Presentation: Direct observations of a transition in gas migration behaviour across clay/sand mixtures of varying ratios

Elliot is a 1st year PhD student with the British Geological Survey (BGS) and the University of Liverpool where he uses analogue experimental techniques to understand the deformation processes of clay-rich rocks. He works within the Fluid Processes and Fracture Physics Research Laboratories at BGS where he researches gas migration and swelling behaviour in these materials.

Honourable Mentions:

Simon Vokes (UCD), Cenozoic faults and fractures: Controls on the expression and polarity of conjugate structures

Alissa Forsythe (University of Edinburgh), Investigating the Highland Boundary Fault, Scotland, through high-resolution geophysical surveying

Sara Degl’Innocenti (University of Bologna), Rethinking the Late Cretaceous subduction-obduction history of Oman: new evidence of multiphase shortening and high-pressure metamorphism in the Jabal Akhdar Window

Sue Treagus Prize (best student poster) – Winner

Saoirse M. Coveney (Imperial College London)

Poster Title: New constraints on active normal faulting in the South Gulf of Evia, Greece

Saoirse is a 2^nd year PhD student at Imperial College London working on active normal faulting in the Southern Gulf of Evia rift in Central Greece. Her research integrates field mapping, tectonic geomorphology, seismic reflection data and geodetic data to constrain the continuity, spatiotemporal evolution and seismic potential of the major active fault zones bounding the rift margins.

Sue Treagus Prize – Runner-Up

Hager A. Elattar (University of Leeds)

Poster Title:  Fracture architecture of the Eocene Thebes Formation: Integrated field, image-based, and 3D photogrammetric analysis

We are pleased to announce that abstract submissions are now open for TSG 2026!

Submissions via the conference website: www.tsgdublin2026.ie

A few Key dates for the diary:

• 16^th November – Abstract submission deadline & Earlybird registration deadline (registration will open soon)
• 7^th December – Final Registration deadline
• 6 – 9^th January – TSG2026 Conference, UCD

In addition, we have x2 student bursaries (up to £500) available in the winter round (open until 16^th 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
• Wednesday, 7 Jan – Day 2: Conference Day 1
• Thursday, 8 Jan – Day 3: Conference Day 2
• Friday, 9 Jan – Day 4: Fieldtrip (Loughshinny)

Call for Award Nominations & Applications:

• Patience Cowie Early Career Award
• Ramsay Medal
• Dave Johnston Mapping Prize

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 4^th 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

Registration for in-person attendance at the conference closes on Sunday (15th December).

Registration for online attendance will remain open until early January.

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tectonic-studies-group-annual-meeting-2025-tickets-1023866752017

The TSG 2025 abstract submission and registration are now live!!! 

Abstract Submission deadline: 17^th November

Registration: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tectonic-studies-group-annual-meeting-2025-tickets-1023866752017

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 2025 abstract submission is now live!!! 

Abstract Submission deadline: 17^th November

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. 

“Call Open for Award Nomination”

• Ramsey Medal
• Dave Johnston Mapping Prize

Bursaries

2 bursaries are available in this round of funding. This includes fees for virtual meetings! 

For details see the Bursary Page: http://tectonicstudiesgroup.org/funding/ 

Bursary Application Deadline: 17^th November 2024 

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 10^th.  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: 17^th November 2024  

Bursaries

2 bursaries are available in this round of funding. This includes fees for virtual meetings! 

For details see the Bursary Page: http://tectonicstudiesgroup.org/funding/ 

Bursary Application Deadline: 17^th November 2024