The list covers only those ideas that have found their way into publications.
Salt tectonics
- First use of sand and silicone, for analogue experiments on salt tectonics (Vendeville and Cobbold, 1987)
- Importance of faults in emplacement of salt bodies (Vendeville and Cobbold, 1987)
- Experiments on interacting sedimentation and deformation (Vendeville and Cobbold, 1987, 1988; Cobbold et al., 1989)
- Complex 3D patterns due to radial gliding (Cobbold and Szatmari, 1991)
- Extensional or compressional salt domes (Demercian et al., 1993; Cobbold et al., 1995)
- Numerical methods of plan-view restoration (Rouby et al., 1993a, 1993b, 1995)
Continental tectonics
- First use of plasticine, for analogue experiments on continental indentation (Tapponnier et al., 1982)
- First use of sand, silicone and honey, for analogue experiments on lithospheric deformation (Vendeville et al., 1987; Davy and Cobbold, 1988, 1991)
- Analysis and models of India/Asia collision (Cobbold and Davy, 1988)
- Styles of compressional basins (Cobbold et al., 1993)
- Extent of Andean deformation in South America (Cobbold et al., 1996, 2007)
- Segmentation of Brazilian passive margin (Meisling et al., 2001)
- Inversion of Brazilian passive margin (Cobbold et al., 2001, 2009)
- Style and timing of Andean deformation in Neuquén Basin (Cobbold and Rossello, 2003)
- Post-Aptian compressional deformation at the scale of South America (Cobbold et al., 2007)
- Numerical restoration of the Bolivian Orocline (Arriagada et al., 2008)
Structural effects of fluid overpressure and hydrocarbon generation
- First analogue experiments on fluid overpressure in sedimentary basins (Cobbold and Castro, 1999; Cobbold et al., 2001)
- Importance of seepage forces (Mourgues and Cobbold, 2003)
- Seepage forces in thrust wedges (Cobbold et al., 2001; Mourgues and Cobbold, 2006a)
- Seepage forces and gravitational gliding in deltas (Cobbold and Mourgues, 2004; Mourgues and Cobbold, 2006b)
- First analogue experiments on chemical compaction in source rocks (Cobbold and Lemrabott, 2009; Zanella & Cobbold, 2010, 2011)
Stress fields, hydraulic fracturing and dilatant veins
- First analogue experiments on sill emplacement in compressional settings (Galland et al., 2003, 2006, 2007a, 2007b, 2008)
- First analogue experiments on hydraulic fracturing during fluid flow (Cobbold and Rodrigues, 2007)
- Importance of beef as an indicator of overpressure and petroleum generation in source rocks (Rodrigues et al., 2009a)
- First analogue experiments on sand injectites (Rodrigues et al., 2009b)
