The Metamorphic Studies Group (MSG) Research in Progress (RiP) conference 2022 was organised by Dick White (University of St Andrews) and was held as a hybrid conference on 11th – 14th April 2022, in person at the University of St Andrews and online through Teams.
The conference was opened by Dick White followed by the presentation of the Barrow Award to Prof. Katy Evans (Curtin University) by outgoing MSG Chair Catherine Mottram. There were 18 high quality presentations across four sessions including keynote talks from Chris Yakmychuk (Queens University), ‘Accessory to mischief: reflections on a decade of modelling accessory minerals in metamorphic system’ and Dave Pattison (University of Calgary) ‘Polymetamorphism in the Buchan type-area, NE Scotland’. The conference spanned a huge breadth of topics, from classic Scottish Barrovian and Buchan metamorphic zones to exploring the thermal evolution of mountain belts, petrochronology, fluid behaviour and geodynamics. Many of the talks highlighted state of the art approaches and analytical techniques used to investigate metamorphic processes today! Recordings of oral presentations will be added to the MSG Youtube channel, so please keep an eye on our social media for confirmation of when they are posted.
Beatriz Benetti (PhD student, University of Turin) won the best student talk prize for her presentation ‘Heat-sources and exhumation of deep crust: evidence from the Pouso Alto Nappe HP-UHT granulite, Southern Brasilia Orogen, SE Brazil’. Joe Benson (Masters student, University of Cambridge) won the prize for the best student poster presentation for his poster ‘How hot was Scotland? Decoding the ultrahigh temperature metamorphism of the South Harris Granulite Belt’. Student prizes and attendance was kindly sponsored by Zeiss.
We also announced the winners of our first ever video competition: ‘metamorphic ROCKS!’. The metamorphic community was invited to make up to 90 second videos explaining why metamorphic rocks are the best! First prize went to Gautier Nicoli and Capucine Albert (https://youtu.be/gzj_RmffuU0), and second prize went to Prachi Patel, Grace Watterson and Ariana Wang (https://youtu.be/bJ1xjvgAp2M). An introductory video was also commissioned from Stacy Philips: https://youtu.be/3QIQf5EA-bw. We hope that these videos can be a useful resource for outreach in the future.
Overall, the meeting was a great success and a fantastic way to celebrate being able to see each other again after two years of pandemic. We hope to see you at our 2023 RiP in Oxford, whether in person or online!
The meeting was followed by a two-day field trip to the NE coast of Scotland near Banff, visiting localities such as Portsoy, Fraserburgh, and Inzie Head. The trip was led and organised by Dick White with geological expertise from Dave Patterson, and was attended by an international group of almost 30 academics and students.
We met early Tuesday morning for two days of looking at the classic Buchan zone sequence in the Dalradian. The outcrops visited ranged from biotite-grade metapelites to orthopyroxene-bearing migmatites, all around ~470 Ma in age. We started the trip at Tarlair analysing some biotite-grade metasedimentary rocks, which retain some lovely sedimentary structures, even if the overcast sky made picking up the biotite porphyroblasts quite challenging! Much to the excitement of many a metamorphic geologist we soon entered the cordierite zone. This transition was evidenced by the appearance of “rain drops” of cordierites within the rocks. Further NW along the coast we started to see much larger cordierites, prior to seeing some staurolite, which is thought to have formed during an earlier phase of metamorphism before being overprinted by the Buchan sequence. Day 1 ended with looking at some excellent sillimanite-grade migmatites at Links Bay, Portsoy. We were excited to see plenty of in-situ melting with some outstanding folding persevered in the migmatites. The day finished with looking at some small diffuse granitic pegmatites, followed by fantastic BBQ (in the Scottish drizzle!) by Dick White and plenty of beer and wine.
Day 2 started nice and early, unfortunately in the rain although that did not dampen our spirits! We visited a staurolite-kyanite schist at Portsoy, which contained some really fantastic kyanite pseudomorphs – described by some as the best outcrop so far, despite the rain! This locality is close to the tidal pool just west of the Portsoy serpentinite. We then travelled to Fraserburgh, to look at incipient melting in some highly deformed corundum-bearing calc silicate rocks. The rain this made traversing the coastal exposures very challenging but that did not take away from the happy faces of geologists seeing such fantastic rocks. Much discussion was had by Dick White, Dave Pattison and others as to whether the leucosomes were actually leucosomes or fracture veins.
The second half of day 2 focused on some higher temperature metamorphism. Close to St Coombs we looked at some beach exposures with some garnet-cordierite migmatites, where many of the garnets had cordierite rims. There was also a small granitic pegmatite that sharply cross-cuts the migmatites. Moving west to Inzie Head, despite the overcast and chilly day there was much excitement as we entered the orthopyroxene zone, heralding the onset of the granulite facies. Care had to be taken as there were dolerite intrusions at the start of the exposures, but there were some small granitic pegmatite intrusions which sparked a lot of interest from many of the geologists. After a short walk along the beautiful beach we finished with looking at some migmatites; orthopyroxene was hard to find as it has mostly been replaced, but once pointed out we were all very happy to see them.
Overall, the two days were an excellent tribute to classic Scottish geology – a huge thank you goes to Dick White and Dave Pattison for running such a great field trip!
Conference report and photos by Catherine Mottram, field trip report by Tim Webster, edited by Isabel Carter and Owen Weller.
Metamorphic Studies Group 