James Webster

Curator and Professor
Physical Sciences, Earth & Planetary Sciences

Download Curriculum Vitae

jdw@amnh.org
212-769-5401

Education

Arizona State University, Ph.D., 1987
Colorado School of Mines, M.S., 1980
North Carolina State University, B.S., 1978

Research Interests

Dr. Webster investigates how the volatiles water, fluorine, chlorine, sulfur, and carbon dioxide influence the formation of metallic ore deposits, and how these volatiles lead to volcanic eruptions. He is interested in determining how ore deposits form via late-stage magmatic and mineralizing processes in ore metal-rich magmas. To gain further understanding, Dr. Webster studies the influence of volatiles on the melting behavior and stability of minerals, and how and when magmatic hydrothermal fluids are released from magma. He also researches melt inclusions which are microscopic inclusions of silicate glass in minerals from mineralizing and/or erupting magmas. He is presently working with colleagues at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on chlorine stable isotopes in natural and experimentally prepared samples to better understand magmatic degassing. Other research, with museum colleagues, on sulfur, chlorine, and water provides information on the nature of gases released during explosive volcanism at Augustine volcano, Alaska, and Mt. Mazama, Oregon. With scientists from the University of Naples, he is examining volcanic rocks from Mt. Vesuvius, Italy, to better understand the behavior of volatiles in magmas that have erupted there during the past 25,000 years. Dr. Webster also studies mineralizing processes in tin-bearing granite magmas of the Erzgebirge province, Germany, with collaborators in Potsdam, Germany

Teaching Experience
GRADUATE ADVISEES