GG: Mineralogical Society: Special Interest Groups

The 2009 Annual Meeting of the Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland has the title ‘Micro-Analysis, Processes, Time (MAPT)’. The conference will be held in Edinburgh from 31^st August to the 2^nd September, with workshops and field trips immediately before and after these dates. The meeting is being organised in conjunction with: the Deutsche Mineralogishe Gesellschaft, the Société Francaise de Mineralogie et de Cristallographie, and the International Association of Geoanalysts. The lead convenor is Professor Simon Harley of Edinburgh University and chair of the Metamorphic Studies Group of the Mineralogical and Geological Societies.

Micro-analytical and micro-textural information is now central to many new observations in the Earth sciences, and it is critical to the testing and development of hypotheses related to Earth processes and behaviour on all time and length scales. MAPT will provide a forum for the presentation and discussion of the many recent advances in Micro-Analytical techniques (including both chemical and textural analysis). MAPT will focus also on how these advances impact on our understanding of mineralogical-geochemical Processes, their timescales of development, and the consequences for the measurement of Time in the Earth Sciences.

In the last ten years new developments in instrumentation have led to considerable improvement in very high spatial resolution chemical analysis and textural mapping in the mineralogical-geological sciences. These developments include: determination of stable and radiogenic isotopes by ion microprobe (SIMS) and LA ICP-MS; use of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) by SEM; controlled ion thinning techniques with TEM; synchrotron x-ray techniques and widespread application of Raman Spectroscopy. The new methods, in concert with longer-established techniques (e.g. electron microprobe analysis, petrographic analysis using optical microscopy, cathodoluminescence imaging and back-scattered imaging) enable more detailed and higher resolution chemical, textural and crystal structure observations to be made in-situ. These in turn provide more powerful and stringent tests of models of Earth behaviour. Thus the understanding of large scale processes (for example: the evolution of the Archaean crust, or the mineralogy of the deep mantle, or climate change records) are often underpinned by a wide variety of microscopic investigations of minerals, rocks and fossils.

MAPT will address both the actual development of new micro-analytical instrumentation and techniques, and the new information and ideas that are arising from application of these techniques and older techniques of microscopic observation and analysis. A list of suggested sessions is given on the following page. Proposals for other sessions are welcome. Presentations will be given both orally and by poster.

TIMETABLE

Sunday 30^th August – Workshop (Quality Assurance in Microanalysis) (9.00 am–5.00 pm)

Sunday 30^th August – Registration (3.00 pm–8.00 pm), Ice-breaker Reception (7.00 pm–9.00 pm)

Monday 31^st August – Registration, Parallel sessions, (9.00 am–1.00 pm); Plenary and Poster sessions (2.00-6.00 pm)

Tuesday 1^st September – Parallel sessions (9.00 am–5.00 pm). Conference Dinner (7.30 pm)

Wednesday 2^nd September – Parallel sessions (9.00 am–1.00 pm); Plenary and Poster sessions (2.00-6.00 pm).

Thursday 3^rd (9.00 am-5.00 pm) and Friday 4^th (9.00 am-1.00 pm) September – Workshop (Ion microprobe techniques and applications).

Registration
Online registration will be possible from late 2008 onwards via the website: www.minersoc.org/. The closing date for early registration will be 1st May 2009.

Accommodation
Accommodation has been reserved at the Pollock Halls of Residence of Edinburgh University. August/September is a very busy tourist time in Edinburgh, so early booking is advisable, and no later than 1s May 2009.

A list of top-class invited speakers, for each of the proposed sessions, is being prepared. This will be publicized on the website as soon as their participation is confirmed. The Mineralogical Society’s most prestigious invited lecture, the Hallimond Lecture, will be delivered during a plenary session of this meeting.

An abstract volume, comprising one-page abstracts from all presentations will be distributed to all delegates, either in paper or CD form. A thematic set of papers, comprising some or all of the invited talks, will also be made available to all delegates, and to all subscribers to Mineralogical Magazine. (Guest editors will be Craig Storey and Horst Marschall.) Further possible thematic sets of papers will be discussed with convenors of individual sessions. There is also a possibility of a special issue of the journal Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research arising from the meeting

Further information
For information relating to the programme, please contact Simon Harley (simon.harley@ed.ac.uk) or one of the named convenors. For all other matters relating to conference organization, please contact Kevin Murphy (kevin@minersoc.org) of the Mineralogical Society.

Travel and entertainment
The Conference will overlap with the last week of the Edinburgh Festival, which is not only a major International Festival (with many performers from overseas), but also has additional festivals like The ‘Fringe', Book Festival, etc. If you (or your partner) might be interested in going to some of these events whilst in Edinburgh, please see websites listed below for further information. However, those who might wish to see the renowned Edinburgh Tattoo, should bear in mind that this finishes a week before the end of the main festival; the last performance will therefore be on Saturday, 29th August (the day before the ice-breaker).