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Ben Black

@magmatist.bsky.social
922 followers 364 following 83 posts

Petrologist, volcanologist, and Earth historian. Associate Professor at Rutgers. rutgersvolcano.weebly.com

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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
We think we may have found a vent structure. What do you think?
Geologists contemplating an interesting outcrop
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
The last outcrop of the day was pretty epic—great rocks inside this sea cave (Which formed because of a recessive pyroclastic unit)
Waterfall and caveCave with blue water
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Hard 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
Dunes with house in distanceGlass front house
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
This 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
Staircase with basalt bricks
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
You want sheep and Scandi modern houses? I got you too
SheepModern house next to field
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
For the people who just want to see some pictures of lovely Faroe Island houses by the harbor, I’ve got you
Green roofed houseTurf roofed houseWhite gate with sun beyond
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Field work in the Faroe Islands—why aren’t more movies shot here? Definitely feels like another planet
Dike through mossy cliffsOcean in distanceSun through clouds over village
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Reposted by Ben Black
Jacquelyn Gill @jacquelyngill.bsky.social · 08/06/2026
This 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.
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 03/06/2026
This seems like a great thread and links to a useful primer on how to comment on the proposed changes to grant funding.
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Peter Brannen @peterbrannen.bsky.social · 19/03/2026
Not 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.com
The 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...
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 26/02/2026
At 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 …
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 25/02/2026
Um, there was some really big hail during this most recent blizzard… This one hatched
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 23/02/2026
Columnar 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
Sculpture outside museumBasalt on a sidewalk
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Bob 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... #SaveNCAR
agu.quorum.us
Share your comments on NCAR with NSF
Tell NSF the future that you want for NCAR by 13 March
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 18/12/2025
NCAR 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.us
Save 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.
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 11/10/2025
Cowboy and sidekick herding cattle off the road and into the frenchglen corral. Mooo
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 10/10/2025
Pre-Steens rhyolites with the Alvord Desert in the background Just for your eyes to feel better
Rocky canyon with sunlit flats
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 09/10/2025
What is better than pet photos? You know the answer is a praying mantis on a rock hammer Columbia River Basalts in the background
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 16/09/2025
Highly recommend this essay, which underscores the risks posed by under-the-radar volcanoes
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 28/07/2025
The 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.
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 23/07/2025
These 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.
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
I will just put these photos here without much comment beyond wow this is a nice place
RocksRocksRocks
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
One 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)
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 22/07/2025
There 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
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
We 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!
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 20/07/2025
Yesterday 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
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
Tomorrow 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!
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 19/07/2025
First 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.
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 18/07/2025
Quick 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
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
Made 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
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
The 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
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
How 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
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 16/07/2025
Leaving 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…
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
I 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.edu
mikewong's astroblog
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Reposted by Ben Black
Benjamin Mills @bjwmills.bsky.social · 08/07/2025
Hi Goldschmidt! Catch my Berner Lecture at 2.30 today!
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 05/07/2025
Some nice fresh looking tephra from Laki. Imagine these fragments quenching in fire fountains a kilometer high
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Benjamin Mills @bjwmills.bsky.social · 02/07/2025
Great 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...
Figure from the paper showing our model results when considering the tropical vegetaiton collapse - a long-high temperature period following the PTME
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 27/06/2025
If 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
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Christy Till @ctill.bsky.social · 26/06/2025
Shocked to learn this incredibly tragic news - we have lost one of the most influential volcano scientists of our times.
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
Super valuable live posting of today’s NSF Earth Sciences informational session… (Thanks for this @brandontbishop.bsky.social)
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 25/05/2025
This poses a particular challenge for Neoproterozoic glaciations… if LIP weathering is not the primary driver of cooling, what might be?
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 13/05/2025
The 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.org
Donate Online
Thank 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...
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Tessa Hill @tessahill.bsky.social · 09/05/2025
Here 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.gov
Tableau
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 10/05/2025
For those looking for a meaningful way to push back against the devastation at NSF, here is one way…
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 05/04/2025
Niche joke. And also—it’s not easy to shift tephra production domestically—need to understand the magma supply chain
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 03/04/2025
A crazy thing about middle age, I am learning, is that sometimes you feel the old human inside you clamoring to emerge from its chrysalis
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Eos @eos.org · 25/03/2025
To 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.org
The Deep Frontier of Mantle Magma Supply - Eos
Compared 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.
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
How are folks at USGS being affected by [gestures] all this?
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Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 11/01/2025
And 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-...
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