The Midland Valley 2009 Student Structure Prize was judged by Midland Valley Director and founder Dr Alan Gibbs.  Entries came from Europe, the Americas, Africa, Australia and the Middle East with a particularly large numbers of postgraduate entries from across the world.

In the Undergraduate category first place went to Emily Holcroft of James Cook University for her mapping project “The History and Structure of the Snake Creek Area; Roxmere Station, Cloncurry, QLD, Australia”.  Emily’s project stood out as it included her field slips which illustrate how her model had been generated from the data she collected.

Second place went to Gabriel Goyannes of the University of Buenos Aires who presented a well documented piece of work on “Glaciotectonicism in the Upper Valley of Santa Cruz River”.

From the Postgraduate submissions - which made up nearly 75% of all entries - First Place was awarded to Richard Walker from Durham University for his work on reactivation and changing rift directions during continental break-up in his paper “Onshore evidence for progressive changes in rifting directions during continental break-up in the NE Atlantic and the role of NW-SE trending structures in the Faroe-Shetland Basin”.  Alan was particularly impressed by his integration of small scale observations with the regional structural framework.

Finally, Second Place in the Postgraduate Category went to Justin Macdonald from the University of Adelaide for his analysis of deepwater fold belts in his paper “Structural style of the White Pointer and Hammerhead Delta - Deepwater Fold Thrust Belts, Bight Basin, Australia: Implications for Hydrocarbon Migration and Accumulation”.

Well done to the winners who enjoy cash prizes of between $500 and $2000.

We would also like to extend our congratulations to all who entered the Prize.  Each year we receive a high standard of submissions and this was no different.  In fact, every year it seems to get harder to choose a winner so a huge commendation to all the students and their supervisors for making Alan’s choice so difficult.  Undergraduates entries continue to be under represented and we would like to see more having a go next year.

Read the winners abstracts here...