BSRG Annual General Meeting - Nottingham 2014

The 53rd Annual General Meeting of the British Sedimentological Research Group (BSRG) was held in Nottingham on the 20th – 22nd December 2014 with the British Geological Survey as the host organisation. For the more enthusiastic attendees the conference began on the Saturday with either the fieldtrip looking at the globally significant Ediacaran fossils of the Neoproterozoic basement of Charnwood Forest, or the core workshop on the Carboniferous mudrock of the UK held in the National Geological Repository in Keyworth.

For the majority of the 200+ attendees though, the conference began on the Sunday morning where BGS’s Mike Stephenson introduced and chaired the plenary session which officially opened the conference. Next came a session which featured keynotes from Sarah Davies (Exploring the dark recesses of the Carboniferous sedimentary record), Emrys Phillips (“Natural Fracking”: hydrofracture systems in glacial environments) and Paul Wright (The weird world of the Brazilian Pre-Salt: gels, clay dissolution and a mantle source?).

Following on from the plenary the programme, this year featured sessions suggested by the membership and included a broad spectrum of talks and posters on all manner of sedimentological orientated topics including: Primary and Secondary Volcanic Deposits, Sediments and the Biosphere, and the Sedimentology of Glaciated Margins – to name but a few. Of particular note was a jointly hosted session with the Clay Minerals Group titled “Clay, Mudstone and Shale the Finest Sedimentary Rocks!” and a specially convened session sponsored by the Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain (PESGB) on Conventional and Unconventional Hydrocarbon Reservoirs – a session that showcased current student research into all aspects of hydrocarbon exploration. The full list of sessions and abstracts can be downloaded here.

As well as the technical programme, the conference featured a full social programme that revolved around some of Nottingham’s more unusual venues (the Canalhouse and Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem) and a conference dinner held at the world famous Trent Bridge Cricket Ground. The dinner was followed by the now traditional band, dancing and inevitable limbo competition – with returning champion Marco Fonnesu once again retaining the ‘crown’.

The 53rd BSRG AGM was made possible thanks to generous sponsorship from BG Group, BP, Clay Minerals Group, ExxonMobil, International Association of Sedimentologists, Petroleum Exploration Society of Great Britain, Robertson (CGG), Shell, Total and The Geological Society.