Fluid-Filled Fractures Workshop 2026
Earlier this year, the MAGMA Lab at the University of Liverpool was awarded one of seven Vanderbilt–Liverpool Joint Research Seed Grants, a new programme supporting innovative international collaborations between the two universities. The grant was awarded to Prof. Janine Kavanagh (Liverpool) and Prof. Ravindra Duddu (Vanderbilt) for their project on phase-field fracture modelling of fluid-driven fractures, with applications to ice-sheet climate interactions and volcanic processes.
One of the tangible outcomes of this grant is already underway. This workshop marks an exciting milestone for the project, an opportunity to bring together the international research community working on fluid-filled fractures and lay the foundations for what we hope will be a long and productive wider collaboration.
The workshop
On 17 June 2026, the MAGMA Lab will host the Fluid-Filled Fractures Workshop at The Spine, Liverpool. For the first time, the project team from Liverpool, Vanderbilt, Oxford and Bristol will come together in person, alongside the wider scientific community working across environmental sciences, engineering, and applied mathematics. The day will feature presentations and discussions spanning the full spectrum from mathematical theory through to field observation.
The following day, the MAGMA Lab will host a laboratory visit and live analogue experiment demonstration for attendees, showcasing the experimental facilities at Liverpool that sit at the heart of this collaboration.
Why fluid-filled fractures?
Fluid flow through fractures is a deceptively simple description for a set of processes that underpin some of the most consequential phenomena on Earth, including magma pushing through volcanic rock, meltwater forcing through ice sheets, hydrothermal fluids circulating through the crust. Understanding how these fractures initiate, propagate, and interact with the fluids that drive them has direct implications for volcanic hazard, climate science, geothermal energy, and more.
This project unites Vanderbilt's expertise in advanced computational modelling with Liverpool's world-leading experimental capabilities and field and remote-sensing expertise from collaborators at Oxford and Bristol, combining approaches that are rarely brought together in a single research programme.
We will be sharing a post-workshop update here in the summer, so check back for highlights, outcomes, and what comes next for the project.
