iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

Here’s my idea… When we talk about viscosity in my Petrology class, I am going to use these Brice Marden paintings to illustrate the idea of increasing depolymerization (eg in silicate melts) (Filed under ideas only I am excited about)

273

Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 09/10/2026

We could all aspire to be more boglike

031

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

191

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)

072

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

001

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

060

Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

You want sheep and Scandi modern houses? I got you too

030

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

091

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

081

Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 04/09/2026

Will definitely happen again! On the scale of the CRB, maybe not for millions of years, but in the context of Earth history that is not too long.

140

Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Finding myself weirdly torn on this one. On the one hand, ??!?, and on the other hand, kind of jazzed as always that we are talking about large igneous provinces…

110

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.

019878

Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 05/06/2026

Update: I just submitted my comment on the proposed OMB rule (and you should too). But whew! The regulation is not easy to read or parse!

000

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.

111

Reposted by Ben Black

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...

4388

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 …

070

Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 25/02/2026

Um, there was some really big hail during this most recent blizzard… This one hatched

061

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

131

Reposted by Ben Black

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

17470

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.

031

Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 23/10/2025

Interesting point in the editorial. They say: “A good peer-reviewer should be responsible and reliable. He/she should (1) accept promptly an invitation, (2) not turn down any invitation for review…” I agree with most of their points. But never turning down an invite? That’s a heavy lift… thoughts?

110

Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

It really helps me just to start by reading what I have written already. Sometimes the day before I plan to spend some time writing so that ideas can settle and grow

030

Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 11/10/2025

Cowboy and sidekick herding cattle off the road and into the frenchglen corral. Mooo

021

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

0210

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

3476

Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 16/09/2025

Highly recommend this essay, which underscores the risks posed by under-the-radar volcanoes

160

Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 07/09/2025

Photos or it didn’t happen!

210

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.

050

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.

040

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

050

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)

0112

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

020

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!

040

Ben Black @magmatist.bsky.social · 20/07/2025

We have been discussing the extent to which this place could be analogous to the plumbing system beneath that place (guessing you are thinking of Ol Doinyo Lengai?)

010

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

083

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!

050

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.

2203

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

000

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

051

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

052

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

170

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…

1243

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

040

Reposted by Ben Black

Benjamin Mills @bjwmills.bsky.social · 08/07/2025

Hi Goldschmidt! Catch my Berner Lecture at 2.30 today!

0102

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

0102

Reposted by Ben Black

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

15924

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

051

Reposted by Ben Black

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.

3112