Ph.D., Arizona State University, 1987
Associate Curator James Webster is a geochemist and petrologist, a scientist who studies rocks and the chemistry of the Earth. His research involves laboratory and field-based investigations of igneous rocks (rocks formed when magma cools in the Earth or on the Earth's surface) and ore samples from mineral deposits, because the formation of these rocks involves hot fluids containing volatile compounds like water, carbon dioxide, fluorine, or chlorine.
Using equipment in the experimental petrology laboratory at the AMNH, Jim melts rock samples at pressures and temperatures equivalent to those in the Earth's crust. In the lab, he reacts molten rocks with volatile compounds to understand how hot fluids and magma interact in nature. Jim is particularly interested in the role fluids play in transporting and depositing ore metals to create mineral deposits. He is also very interested in how the violent escape of volatile compounds from magmas drives explosive volcanic eruptions. Jim is married to Marie and has two sons, Brian and Paul.
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Jim Webster on the lava flow during the Hawaiian Lava Expedition.
photo credit: Jackie Beckett, © American Museum of Natural History |
