Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 15/09/2026We think we may have found a vent structure. What do you think? 191
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 14/09/2026The last outcrop of the day was pretty epic—great rocks inside this sea cave (Which formed because of a recessive pyroclastic unit) 072
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Hard to tell, but this house actually has a glass front to let in the light … pretty awesome And flood basalts in the cliff above, of course 001
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 13/09/2026This finely crafted basalt staircase was built, as far as I can tell, for sheep—it lets them cross this lava flow to the grass above 060
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 13/09/2026You want sheep and Scandi modern houses? I got you too 030
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 13/09/2026For the people who just want to see some pictures of lovely Faroe Island houses by the harbor, I’ve got you 091
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 13/09/2026Field work in the Faroe Islands—why aren’t more movies shot here? Definitely feels like another planet 081
Reposted by Ben BlackJacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 08/06/2026This is a really good point for those of you writing comments to OMB on the harm of the proposed funding rules changes. Make it specific, make it count! Avoid form letters, which can be batched. 019878
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 03/06/2026This seems like a great thread and links to a useful primer on how to comment on the proposed changes to grant funding. 111
Reposted by Ben BlackPeter Brannen @peterbrannen.bsky.social · 19/03/2026Not to be crassly opportunistic, but if you’re genuinely curious about how there came to be an ocean of fossil fuels in the crust, why humans now emit 100x more CO2 than all volcanoes on earth, and want to begin that story 4 billion years ago, might I recommend www.harpercollins.com/products/the...harpercollins.comThe Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything"Ambitious, absorbing… Brannen is an effusive, maximalist writer, a mind vividly alive on the page… and his arguments, like his writing, are hugely com... 4388
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 26/02/2026At lab group today we took the lab sled out for a spin. We pioneered a new never-before-attempted sled run beyond the air handlers … 070
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 25/02/2026Um, there was some really big hail during this most recent blizzard… This one hatched 061
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 23/02/2026Columnar basalts deserve their own footnote in art history… they crop out often (or maybe I am just attuned to them). Eg 1) Isamu Noguchi’s Unidentified Object @metmuseum.org 2) part of Joseph Beuys’ 7000 Oaks on 22nd street, with some recent snow 131
Reposted by Ben BlackBob Kopp @bobkopp.net · 30/01/2026@agu.org has a tool to help you submit a comment to NSF on the importance of NCAR: agu.quorum.us/campaign/154... #SaveNCARagu.quorum.usShare your comments on NCAR with NSFTell NSF the future that you want for NCAR by 13 March 17470
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 18/12/2025NCAR is an amazing place that demonstrates what can be accomplished—from the climate of the past to forecasting—with depth of expertise and long term, coordinated effort. I called my representatives. You should too—AGU makes it easy! agu.quorum.us/campaign/151...agu.quorum.usSave NCAR from being dismantled today!The Trump Administration has vowed to dissolve the center that provides critical extreme weather and climate data for our nation. 031
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 11/10/2025Cowboy and sidekick herding cattle off the road and into the frenchglen corral. Mooo 021
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 10/10/2025Pre-Steens rhyolites with the Alvord Desert in the background Just for your eyes to feel better 0210
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 09/10/2025What is better than pet photos? You know the answer is a praying mantis on a rock hammer Columbia River Basalts in the background 3476
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 16/09/2025Highly recommend this essay, which underscores the risks posed by under-the-radar volcanoes 160
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 28/07/2025The world has so much to learn from Norwegians about the critical importance of saunas. (did you guess that I would end the sentence with that word?) Here is a nice sauna overlooking the harbor in Storekorsnes. Spotted while waiting for a ferry transfer back to Alta. 050
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 23/07/2025These are cloudberries (with a gabbro intrusion cutting metasedimentary rocks in the background). Cloudberries have a short Arctic growing season and have twice as much vitamin C as an orange by weight. 040
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 22/07/2025I will just put these photos here without much comment beyond wow this is a nice place 050
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 22/07/2025One way to judge how fresh a rock is: the sound it makes when the 4.5 kilo sledge lands on it (Wielding the hammer: Ben Klein) 0112
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 22/07/2025There were a lot of mosquitoes and biting flies in Siberia. But Norway may have Siberia beat for the sheer diversity of biters… a very heterogeneous mix of small biting flies, giant biting flies, and mosquitoes. All living their best lives 020
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 21/07/2025We climbed through a remote Norwegian valley on a reindeer path, and you’ll never guess what we saw next… It was a cliff of hornblendite and carbonatite! 040
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 20/07/2025Yesterday we were working near a mine. We thought maybe mining the carbonatites because they are one of the major sources of rare earth elements. But actually they were mining the nephrite syenite to make porcelain! Just a reminder that we use rocks for all kinds of things. Rocks->teacups 083
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 19/07/2025Tomorrow we will try a new way to reach the interior of the island and then meet the boat on the other side. There are some bugs… but the geology is very exciting! 050
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 19/07/2025First cell reception after two great field days! We are looking at an enormous magmatic system at 5-10 kbar pressure (mid to lower crust). Very volatile rich, including carbonatites (inaccesible today due to snow). Big thank you to @fredrhog.bsky.social for sharing some nice NGU maps of the area. 2203
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 18/07/2025Quick run around Alta in the morning. Tons of wildflowers on the streets. Some old classic wooden houses…. Plus lots of buildings that feel like bunkers against the winter months 000
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 17/07/2025Made it to Alta! Some photos from the flight in. It is 11 PM and the sunlight is golden. Tomorrow we meet up with colleagues from Uni of Lausanne to take a boat out to the rocks 051
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 17/07/2025The compare/contrast between Denmark and Norway—photos taken just a few minutes apart across the Skagerrak strait—is stark. Sand vs rock. Next: the journey 1500 km north, to the Arctic 052
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 16/07/2025How do others feel about packing for field work? I don’t especially enjoy normal packing, but there is a pleasure in trying to imagine a future moment on an unknown mountain, and what you might wish for in that moment—and then later, with luck, being on the mountain and having just what you need 170
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 16/07/2025Leaving for field work tomorrow with a team heading to northern Norway to explore the exhumed remnants of a very large mafic magmatic system—possibly the lower crustal roots of an Ediacaran large igneous province! I don’t know if I will have any internet, but if so I will try to tweet along the way… 1243
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 12/07/2025I see we are talking about ROSES-2025 and Mike Wong’s analysis (which implies a dismal 5% funding rate for solar system science). I will say, as depressing as the NASA funding outlook is, I appreciate these nice visualizations of that depressing funding. research.ssl.berkeley.edu/~mikewong/bl...research.ssl.berkeley.edumikewong's astroblog 040
Reposted by Ben BlackBenjamin Mills @bjwmills.bsky.social · 08/07/2025Hi Goldschmidt! Catch my Berner Lecture at 2.30 today! 0102
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 05/07/2025Some nice fresh looking tephra from Laki. Imagine these fragments quenching in fire fountains a kilometer high 0102
Reposted by Ben BlackBenjamin Mills @bjwmills.bsky.social · 02/07/2025Great to see this finally out today! We show that the collapse of tropical vegetation during the Permo-Triassic extinction is a key driver of the long-term super-greenhouse climate that followed it. Read more at www.nature.com/articles/s41... 15924
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 27/06/2025If you are in Eastern Oregon today, stop by the C2C project’s booth at the Watershed Festival, where we explore how ancient volcanic eruptions have shaped climate and life. Volcanoes, Lava, and Life—words to live by! Featuring Leif Karlstrom, Lauren Adamo, & @pedromonarrez.bsky.social 051
Reposted by Ben BlackChristy Till @ctill.bsky.social · 26/06/2025Shocked to learn this incredibly tragic news - we have lost one of the most influential volcano scientists of our times. 3112
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 17/06/2025Super valuable live posting of today’s NSF Earth Sciences informational session… (Thanks for this @brandontbishop.bsky.social) 041
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 25/05/2025This poses a particular challenge for Neoproterozoic glaciations… if LIP weathering is not the primary driver of cooling, what might be? 262
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 13/05/2025The Early Career Workshop for Geoscience faculty needs our help! It helped me (& many others) learn to balance teaching, research, & planning for the future when I was just starting out. Now the NSF grant funding the workshop has been terminated. Donate here! nagt.org/nagt/get_inv...nagt.orgDonate OnlineThank you for being a member of NAGT! Donating through your account is quick and easy. Click the link below to be directed to the member donation page. Donate Now » Your NAGT membership has lapsed! Pl... 158
Reposted by Ben BlackTessa Hill @tessahill.bsky.social · 09/05/2025Here are the NSF funding data by state. Click on your state, peruse data, and then click on the Fact Sheet at the top to see annual spending. Then, please call your congressional reps. NSF money creates stable jobs for people at all career stages. tableau.external.nsf.gov/views/NSFbyN...tableau.external.nsf.govTableau 06654
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 10/05/2025For those looking for a meaningful way to push back against the devastation at NSF, here is one way… 021
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 05/04/2025Niche joke. And also—it’s not easy to shift tephra production domestically—need to understand the magma supply chain 2234
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 03/04/2025A crazy thing about middle age, I am learning, is that sometimes you feel the old human inside you clamoring to emerge from its chrysalis 052
Reposted by Ben BlackEos @eos.org · 25/03/2025To better understand mantle magma supplies deep beneath volcanoes, scientists must catalyze research progress to address grand challenges, write @magmatist.bsky.social, @compucian.bsky.social, + colleagues from @whoi.edu and @carnegiescience.bsky.social. cc @sz4d.bsky.social eos.org/science-upda...eos.orgThe Deep Frontier of Mantle Magma Supply - EosCompared with crustal magma systems, little is known about the deep sources of volcanic supply chains. Interdisciplinary efforts can help answer key questions about how magma migrates from the mantle. 0105
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 01/02/2025How are folks at USGS being affected by [gestures] all this? 100
Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 11/01/2025And how about this granitoid engraved by Ken Hiratsuka at the corner of Prince and Broadway … here is some interesting backstory sohobroadway.org/a-look-back-... 120