Welcome to the Southeast Asia Research Group

The SE Asia Research Group carries out field and laboratory based studies aimed at understanding the tectonic development and geological history of this exciting, active, and beautiful region.

Our research activities range from MSc, MRes, and PhD studies to major thematic programmes, all of which involve collaborations between UK and SE Asian universities, government institutions, and professional organisations.

Our current research projects include understanding the timing and style of basin formation in Central Myanmar and its implications for India–Asia collision, using basement and sedimentary provenance studies to understand basin evolution in the South China Sea, and reconstructing the tectonic evolution of Eastern Indonesia and New Guinea.

You can read more about our research activities and future vision in our SEARG Prospectus

The SE Asia Research Group is funded by industrial companies in three-year consortia.

If you are interested in joining the SE Asia Research Group consortium contact Max.Webb@rhul.ac.uk

Visiting Borneo soon? Download our guide to the geology of Mount Kinabalu!

Robert Hall has published an open access paper on ‘the subduction initiation stage of the Wilson cycle’ in the Geological Society Special Publication ‘Fifty Years of the Wilson Cycle Concept in Plate Tectonics’

The paper can be downloaded from the Geological Society HERE

Recent Papers –

Max Webb et al., 2020. Isotopic mapping reveals the location of crustal fragments along a long-lived convergent plate boundary. Lithos.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2020.105687

Max Webb et al., 2020. The history of Cenozoic magmatism and collision in NW New Guinea – New insights into the tectonic evolution of the northernmost margin of the Australian Plate. Gondwana Research.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gr.2019.12.010

Amy Gough et al., 2020. Mid-Cenozoic fluvio-deltaic to marine environments of the Salin Sub-basin, Central Myanmar. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jseaes.2019.104143

Recent News –

Amy Gough and Max Webb attended the Restech 2.0 Virtual Reservoir Conference. Amy Gough presented new SEARG research on the pitfalls of light mineral studies for sedimentary provenance in tropical climates.

Amy Gough was awarded an honorary research fellowship of the British Geological Survey and continues to foster collaborative relationships between SEARG and the BGS.