Hello VMSG. As teaching winds down and Christmas approaches, only one thing can surely be on your mind… That’s right, VMSG-MDSG 2025 is just around the corner! We’re really looking forward to seeing many of you there. Alongside some reminders about the meeting, we’ve also got news about out new VMSG chair, the winner of VMSG Awards, the 2024 EDI report and some reports from recent recipients of the Henry Emeleus Fieldwork Grant. As usual there’s a quick round up of upcoming conferences that are like to be of interest as well. Please do get in touch if you have anything else you’d like to include in future newsletters – announcements of meetings, big projects, cool volcano events or outreach activities. – David Neave
We hope you are all looking forward to VMSG-MDSG 2025 at Trinity College Dublin as much as we are.
Here’s your reminder to keep an on vmsg-mdsg-2025.com for announcements about the final programme and any other news. As you’re no doubt aware, the meeting is joint between VMSG and the Mineral Deposits Studies Group (MDSG), so there should be lots of interesting opportunities for learning about new topics and meeting some new faces.
The Local Organising Committee in Dublin have laid on an exciting programme with the following rough structure:
As always, by registering for this meeting you are agreeing to abide by the VMSG Code of Conduct and the MDSG Code of Conduct.
You can find lots more information on the conference website, including on venue accessibility and contact details for the Local Organising Committee. – VMSG Committee
It is our great pleasure to announce that Jenni Barclay will take over as VMSG chair after the Dublin meeting in January 2025.
Jenni is currently AXA Professor of Volcanology at the University of Bristol and will be well known to many of you as a vibrant member of VMSG, not least via her role on the committee from 2019 to 2022, and as a champion of trans-disciplinary and community-led research in volcanology to better understand volcanic behaviour and hazards.
Some inaugural words from Jenni: ‘I’m super delighted to take over as Chair of VMSG! There is such a thing as community, and the VMSG community has been a really important space for us to share thoughts, experiences and our shared enthusiasms for all things magma and volcano-related, ever since I’ve known it! Most recently, Tamsin and the committee have been really hard at work doing great things, and it’s exciting to be joining them in that space!’- Seb Watt (Secretary) and VMSG Committee
We are pleased to welcome three new members to the VMSG committee:
Natasha Keeley (Keele University) has recently joined as student rep, for a two year term taking over from Kerys Meredew. Many thanks to Kerys for all her work in this role over the past two years, representing the VMSG student community. Rahul and Natasha will be the student reps from next year. Please do look out for information about student-led activities in the coming months.
Katy Chamberlain (University of Liverpool) and Mike Stock (Trinity College Dublin) have also recently joined the committee for the next three years. With other new additions in 2024, several members have recently come to the end of their time on the committee, and we’d like to thank all of them for their input to VMSG activities over the past few years: Emma Nicholson has recently stepped down as awards officer; Pete Rowley, after four years supporting VMSG events; Claire Harnett, also after four years as ECR rep; and Ed McGowan, after managing the website over the past few years. Many thanks to Ed, Claire, Pete and Emma for all their work supporting VMSG in recent years. – Seb Watt (Secretary) and VMSG Committee
The annual list of VMSG-related PhD projects can now be found on our website. This year we have also included projects for MSc by Research. We will continue to update this list, so please get in contact with us if you have any new opportunities you would like added (both UK based or international).
Please share this with any of your own students who aren’t yet part of the VMSG community. – Kerys Meredew (Student Rep, outgoing) and Rahul Subbaraman (Student Rep)
Huge congratulations to Prof Michael Heap, whose contributions will be recognised by the VMSG Award this year!
Mike has been an active member of the VMSG community for many years and amongst his substantial and interdisciplinary academic contributions to volcanology he has also been a strong advocate for open science, equitable collaboration and in supporting early career researchers globally – all of which are strongly in the spirit of the award.
Mike will be receiving the VMSG Award at our annual conference in Dublin, where he will be presenting a keynote lecture. Please join us if you can to celebrate his contributions and achievements!
Fumaroles at Poàs (Costa Rica). Credit: Mike Heap
Massive congratulations also to Dr Michal Camejo-Harry, whose contributions will be recognised by the Zeiss Postdoctoral Keynote Award this year!
Michal was nominated for her recent paper examining the surface deformation of La Soufriere, St Vincent, during the most recent eruptions in 2020-2021 and for her contributions to science communication and risk management through her role as a monitoring scientist within the University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre. Michal’s work is an exemplar for the value of integrating multiple monitoring datasets to improve our understanding of eruptive processes. You can read the nomination paper here:
Michal Camejo-Harry, K. Pascal, P. Euillades, R. Grandin, I. Hamling, L. Euillades, R. Contreras-Arratia, G.A. Ryan, J.L. Latchman, L. Lynch, M. Jo (2022) Monitoring volcano deformation at La Soufrière, St Vincent during the 2020–21 eruption with insights into its magma plumbing system architecture. In: Robertson, R., et al. (eds), The 2020-2021 eruption of La Soufriere, St Vincent, Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 539, 41 – 62 doi.org/10.1144/SP539-2022-270
Michal will be giving the Zeiss Postdoctoral Keynote lecture at our annual conference in Dublin. Please join us if you can to celebrate her contributions and achievements!
– Emma Nicholson (Awards & Bursaries, outgoing) and VMSG Committee
Jingwei (David) Zhang (Lancaster University) writes…
Since the hybrid rhyolitic eruptions at Chaitén (Chile, 2008) and Cordón Caulle (Chile, 2011), our understanding of silicic eruption dynamics has had evolve from the assumption of an explosive-effusive dichotomy. An emerging framework is the “cryptic fragmentation model”, where the in-conduit sintering of hot ash and pyroclasts is responsible for lava effusion (e.g. Wadsworth et al., 2020). My PhD project aims to, in part, to test and refine this model with real-life material.
To that end, with the support of the Henry Emeleus fieldwork grant, I was able to conduct a ~3-week campaign to Torfajökull, Iceland in July-August 2024, with my supervisors Dr. Hugh Tuffen, Dr. Dave McGarvie, and Dr. Alastair Hodgetts (University of Edinburgh), and field assistants Daniel McMahon and Natasha Spangrud. Our work focuses on the ~877CE Hrafntinnuhraun eruption, a poorly-understood, VEI~4, rhyolitic eruption. From prior reconnaissance trips, we have already identified a spectrum of explosive, hybrid, and effusive products there, hence making Hrafntinnuhraun a prime location where we could search for key evidence of cryptic fragmentation.
Aerial view of our field site – campsite visible at bottom centre. Credit: David Zhang
In the field, I was continuously awed by the diversity of rock textures we encountered and the beauty of the Icelandic highlands. We successfully constructed multiple logs of Hrafntinnuhraun’s proximal tephra deposits, meticulously sampling the most complete section, to better understand the explosive activities of Hrafntinnuhraun. The ubiquity of clastogenic products, across the lavas and pyroclasts, was particularly exciting. Additionally, we identified ash-veneered lava fractures, recognized as records of hybrid activity (Farquharson et al., 2022), across all Holocene silicic lavas in the Torfajökull complex. We were also given the opportunity to assist the local Rangers – whose support made our campaign possible – with maintaining the walking trails near our field site.
This field campaign forms a fundamental part of my ongoing PhD project and continues to yield valuable observations. I am honoured and grateful to have received the support of VMSG in the form of the Henry Emeleus fieldwork grant — þökk fyrir!
David (left) and Hugh Tuffen (right) pondering a spectacularly clastic lava. Photo credit: Dave McGarvie. Credit David Zhang)
Jenn Marsh (Imperial College London) writes…
Funding from the VMSG Henry Emeleus Fieldwork Award was used to help me travel to Ireland and Northern Ireland in September of 2024 to collect samples for my PhD project. For myself and two field assistants to travel from London to Northern Ireland with field gear, I rented a vehicle and drove to Holyhead, took the ferry across from Holyhead to Dublin, and drove the remainder of the distance to Antrim, Northern Ireland.
Jenn drilling a basalt outcrop in Ireland. Credit: Jenn Marsh
There are two types of samples I collected during this fieldwork trip. I first collected 218 core samples of basalt and rhyolite rock, which are drilled at 2.5 cm in diameter and ~10 cm in length; these are used to perform palaeointensity (ancient geomagnetic field strength), palaeodirectional (ancient geomagnetic field direction) and rock magnetic studies. I next collected hand samples from 5 localities of gabbro and granophyre rocks in the Carlingford Igneous Complex, ~2 kg each, which will be broken down to separate zircon crystals and use them for U/Pb dating. These samples are crucial to the hypothesis I am testing in my PhD, which aims to determine if there is a correlation between mantle plume formation at the core-mantle boundary and lows in Earth’s palaeointensity. The age of samples collected in Antrim are ~59-63 Ma and will be used to determine how strong Earth’s geomagnetic field was at this time. The age of samples collected in Carlingford as not well-constrained, which is why I will be doing U/Pb dating. These will contribute to a palaeointensity study I have already completed on drill core samples previously collected from the Carlingford Igneous Complex.
Some of the cores collected from from this project. Credit: Jenn Marsh
Following on from the VMSG Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Report 2020, and in the wake of the COVID pandemic, which saw large changes in working practices and conference organisation, VMSG re-surveyed its members in October – November 2023. The aim of the 2023 EDI survey was to find out more about who our members are, to gain members opinions and suggestions related to VMSG events and policies, and to gather information about any experiences of discrimination and harassment at VMSG events and during everyday work or study.
The results of this survey are now published in the VMSG Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Report 2024. This new report reviews progress on the recommendations which were outlined 2020, presents the results from the recent 2023 survey, and makes some updated recommendations in light of survey responses. VMSG would like to thank all participants of the 2023 EDI survey for taking the time to respond and for sharing their personal experiences, opinions and suggestions. If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions, please get in touch. – Katie Preece (EDI officer; k.j.preece@swansea.ac.uk)
Our series of seminars around the UK and Ireland has been continuing over recent months, with further talks in Birmingham, Manchester, London (UCL) and Edinburgh. Many thanks to all of the organisers and speakers at these seminars. This series, which ran through the year to celebrate 60 years of VMSG, aimed to showcase the breadth of research across our community. If you missed any of the seminars, several of them are on the VMSG YouTube channel. – Seb Watt (Secretary) and VMSG Committee
VMSG-MDSG 2025 (with MDSG 2025), Dublin, 6–8 January 2025, website
EGU 2025, Vienna, 27 April–2 May 2025 , abstract submission deadline of 15 January 2025, website
EMPG 2025, Orleans, 16–18 June 2025, abstract submission deadline of 4 February 2025, website
IAVCEI 2025, Geneva, 29 June–4 July 2025, website
Goldschmidt 2025, Prague, 6–11 July 2025, website
Do you have any job opportunities, PhD viva celebrations, or funding announcements that you would like to advertise? If so, please get in touch with David Neave (Newsletter Editor)
Don’t forget to keep in touch with us and other volcanologists around the world. There are several ways you can do this: through the VMSG PhD and ECR directory (here), the Arizona State University mailing list (here), and the VMSG mailing list (here).
