James Webster
James Webster
Contact Info
About James Webster
James D. Webster studies geochemistry, petrology, and volcanology, relying on laboratory and field-based investigations of igneous rocks and ore samples to study how volatile elements and compounds of water, fluorine, chlorine, sulfur, and carbon dioxide influence the formation of metallic ore deposits. Dr. Webster is particularly interested in the role fluids play in transporting and depositing ore metals to create mineral deposits, and in how the violent escape of volatile compounds from magmas drives explosive volcanic eruptions. Dr. Webster studies the influence of these volatiles on melting behavior and the stability of minerals, and on how and when fluids are released from magma. Specifically, he is interested in how these volatiles in magmas lead to volcanic eruptions at such sites as Mt. Vesuvius, Italy, and Augustine Volcano, Alaska. These data are needed to help predict volcanic eruptions worldwide. With colleague Senior Research Scientist, Dr. Charles W. Mandeville, he has focused on chlorine, sulfur, carbon dioxide, and water because they represent the primary media for transporting metals, and because they drive explosive volcanic eruptions. Using equipment in the Department's Experimental Petrology Laboratory, Dr. Webster melts rock samples at pressures and temperatures equivalent to those in the Earth's crust. In the lab, he also reacts molten rocks with volatile compounds to understand how hot fluids and magma interact in nature.
Dr. Webster served as a NATO post-doctoral fellow at the University of Edinburgh before joining the Museum in 1990.
Ph.D., Arizona State University, 1987 "Experimental Investigation of Phase Equilibria, Water and Chlorine Solubility, and the Behavior of Lithophile Ore Metals and Trace Elements in Fluorine-Rich Siliceous Aluminosilicate Melts."
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
- The American Geophysical Union
- The Geochemical Society
- The Society of Economic Geologists