Microtectonics Course 2011

A four day course in Microtectonics will take place from 14^th to 17^th March 2011 at the University of Mainz, Germany. Teacher will be Prof. Cees Passchier. The course will follow the content of the book "Microtectonics" (Passchier and Trouw 2005) and will consist of lectures and a microscope practical, using the Mainz collection of 200 thin sections with examples of various microstructures. Participation fee is 350 Euros, to be transferred or paid on arrival. Participants should organize their own accommodation in Mainz. For registration, please contact Anja Boehm at: anja.boehm(at)uni-mainz.de.

Those who wish to purchase a copy of the "Microtectonics" book for a discount price of 50€ should indicate so when registering.

(From Anja Boehm, sent to the Geo-Tectonics list)

Microdynamics of Ice (Micro-DICE)

"Microdynamics of Ice (Micro-DICE)" is a Research Network Programme, funded for 5 years by the European Research Foundation. The programme funds conferences, sessions at conferences (like next EGU-meeting in Vienna) and especially workshops and short- and exchange visits.

Please check http://microdice.eu to see calls for applications to fund workshops (about 8000 € per workshop) and travel grants, especially for students and young researchers. Next deadline is end of February, but calls will be repeated every few months.

Send an email to info@microdice.eu if you want to be on the email list to keep informed of the latest activities.

The aim of Micro-DICE is to advance our knowledge of the dynamic behaviour of ice, based on the philosophy that:

-   The predictive value of (geophysical) models of ice behaviour under changing conditions relies on a correct description of ice properties.

-   Grain-scale processes (microstructure) strongly influence the properties of ice, and hence,

-   better understanding of dynamic grain-scale processes in ice is needed.

Upcoming activities:

4 April: Session CR1.30 "Ice and its microstructure: commonalities and differences" at the EGU-Meeting, Vienna, Austria

8-11 May: Workshop on "Microdynamic Modelling of Ice and related materials", Glasgow, UK

7-9 November: Conference on "Ice deformation: from the model material to ice in natural environments", Grenoble, France

(From Paul Bons, sent to the Geo-Tectonics list)

"Dynamic Topography - a key surface record of deep Earth processes" conference

(From the Geo-Tectonics list)

Conference to be held at Burlington House, September 1-2, 2011

(GeolSoc Lecture Theatre; Piccadilly, London W1J 0BG)

Meeting arranged by the Geological Society, British Geophysical Association and Royal Astronomical Society, and  bringing together geologists, geomorphologists and geophysicists seeking to understand how processes operating within the mantle interact with those acting on the surface to shape the Earth’s topography and control sediment and geochemical flux.

Keynote speakers:

Michael Gurnis, Seismological Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, USA

Alessandro Forte, Université du Québec à Montréal,

Canada Invited speakers:

Carolina Lithogow-Bertelloni, University of College London, UK

Jean Braun, Universite Joseph Fourier, France

Hans-Peter Bunge, Ludwig-Maximillians Universitat Munich, Germany

Evgene Burov, Institut des Sciences de la Terre de Paris, France

Reiner Rummel, Technische Universitat Munich, Germany

Tony Watts, University of Oxford, UK

Nicky White, University of Cambridge, UK

Conveners:

Roderick Brown, University of Glasgow, UK

Patience Cowie, University of Bergen, Norway

Stewart Fishwick, University of Leicester, UK

Gregory Houseman, University of Leeds, UK

Michael Kendall, University of Bristol, UK

Nicky White, University of Cambridge, UK

Further information:

Georgina Worrall

The Geological Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, London W1J 0BG

Conference on interrelationships between deformation and metamorphism

(From the Geo-Tectonics list, sent by Domingo Aerden [University of Granada] and Scott Johnson [University of Maine])

The Interrelationships Between Deformation and Metamorphism

to be held at Granada (Spain), from  23-26 May, 2011.

The meeting will mark the occasion of the retirement of professor Tim H. Bell. A special volume is planned to be published by the Journal of Metamorphic Geology.

The period for REGISTRATION AND ABSTRACT SUBMISSION is now open. Please visit the conference web site for more information about research topics, preliminary conference program, online registration and abstract submission.

http://www.ugr.es/~aerden/conf/index.htm

Deadline for early registration and abstract submission: 15 April, 2011

Cost of registration: 150€

Students: 100€

We hope to see you all at Granada! Best regards

OpenStereo: an opensource stereographic software

A couple of years ago I wrote an article about stereonet programs. Geologists use this type of programs for stereographic projection and structural geology analysis. It is one of the most powerful tools we have, A few weeks ago, through the comments of this article, I got to know another piece of software which, being at least as good as the well known suites (as far as I have tested it), has the pecualiarity of being open source. I am talking about OpenStereo.
OpenStereo has been released under a GNU General Public License v.3. Which means that I can use it in the office for commercial purposes! (and you too). OpenStereo has been developed at the Instituto de Geociências of the Universidade de São Paulo by Carlos H. Grohmann and Ginaldo A. Campanha. It is developed in Python and it is a cross-platform program. For further technical aspects of this work, please read this abstract presented by the developers in the AGU2010 conference:

http://www.igc.usp.br/pessoais/guano/downloads/Grohmann_Campanha_2010_AGU10_OpenStereo.pdf

This piece of software is truly promising, even though being in a beta phase of development (Version 0.1 Beta). Having that in mind, it is recommended to double check results, of course. A beta is a beta, after all. It is very portable, as it can be copied in an external drive and it will work. Good for having it in you work or study memory stick.
I have been testing it, and so far I haven't found any important weak point. Actually, I can only speak wonders of it, especially of its flexibility with its graphic interface. It supports different datasets at the same time, something very useful when comparing structural features in different zones or provinces for the same project. An imporant difference with other programs is that OpenStereo is very easy to use, and absolutely intuitive
It is possible to export the results under several graphic formats (emf, eps, ps, pdf, png, svg) and the quality of those is highly profesional. Take a look to this two examples I have done quickly. Don't you feel like starting to work with it?
Go on, download it and play with it. Probably this nice piece of software will become your favourite one:

http://www.igc.usp.br/index.php?id=openstereo

(Thanks to Carlos H. Grohmann for his comment, which lead me to this great piece of work)

Midland Valley's Student Structural Prize Winners 2010

Midland Valley has unveiled the name of the winners of their "Student structural prize" for 2010. Congratulations from StructuralGeology.org!

Post-graduate award:

- 1st prize: Justin Macdonald, from University of Waterloo (Canada).

- 2nd prize: Koen Van Noten, from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium).

- Runner-up: Chao Lei, from the University of Geosciences in Wuhan (China).

Undergraduate award:

- 1st prize: Harry McClelland, from University of Cambridge (England, UK).

- 2nd prize: Rowena Gunn, from the University of Glasgow (Scotland, UK).

Best use of Move:

- José Mescua, from Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina).

http://www.mve.com/index.php/news/detail/student-structural-prize-winners-2010/

Remember that the Student structural prize is now open for entries for the current year, 2011!

Penrose conference on "Deformation localization in rocks: new advances"

(From the Geo-Tectonics list, sent by Ian Alsop)

Dear all,

This is an e-mail announcing a Penrose conference on "Deformation localization in rocks: new advances."

The conference will be held this summer from the 27th June to the 2 July 2011 and will be situated in Cadaques within the Cap de Creus peninsula of Catalonia, Spain.

The GSA website on the conference displays registration and application details at http://www.geosociety.org/penrose/

The application deadline is 25th February 2011. Applications should be sent directly to Elena Druguet (e-mail: Elena.druguet@uab.cat)

Further details (including a pdf flyer) may also be found at http://www.wix.com/mietgroup/penroseconf_capdecreus

Some of the main anticipated topics include:

Shear zones - new perspectives on geometry, kinematics and mechanics;

Field, numerical and analogue modelling of mesoscopic elements of shear zones;

The role and interaction of fluids, melts and metamorphism in strain localization;

Physical and numerical experiments on strain localization;

Approaches to the study of strain localization in orogens.

Keynote speakers include John Cosgrove, Laurel Goodwin, Scott Johnson, Neil Mancktelow and Cees Passchier.

Best wishes

Ian