Stanley Robert Hart (born 20 June 1935 in Swampscott, Massachusetts) [1] is an American geologist, geochemist, leading international expert on mantle isotope geochemistry, and pioneer of chemical geodynamics. [2]
Hart graduated from MIT with a bachelor's degree in geology in 1956 and a master's degree in geochemistry in 1957 from Caltech. In 1960 he received his doctorate in geochemistry from MIT with thesis Mineral ages and metamorphism under the supervision of Patrick M. Hurley. After a year as a Carnegie Fellow, Hart was from 1961 to 1975 at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C. in the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. From 1975 to 1989 he was a professor of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at MIT and from 1989 to 1992 a visiting professor there. From 1989 to 2007 he was a Senior Scientist in geology and geophysics at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. [3] He retired from Woods Hole in 2007 as Scientist Emeritus. [4]
Hart is a leading pioneer in the introduction of geochemistry into the Earth sciences. He developed comparative geochronology, which accounts for geological perturbations in various geochronometers. At the Carnegie Institution of Washington, he worked with George Wetherill, George Tilton, L. T. Aldrich, and G. L. Davis on mapping Precambrian rocks in the USA using comparative geochronology. There Hart became the leader of a group including Thomas Krogh, Albrecht Hofmann, Christopher Brooks, and others. [5]
According to Claude Allègre: [5]
Stan has studied basalts in every environment: mid-oceanic ridge basalts, oceanic island basalts, subduction zone basalts, old basalts, Archean basalts. He has also studied basaltic systems in the laboratory, where he was a pioneer in the measurement of partition coefficients for trace elements, but more importantly, he was one of the first to study quantitatively the effect of diffusion and to understand the fundamental problem of how isotopic memories work. His paper with Al Hofmann in the volume honoring Paul Gast is a keystone for geochemistry, isotopic coding with magma, and isotopic memory in solids.
Hart focused on the application of isotopic chemistry to age determination in geology, the geochemical evolution of mantle and oceanic lithosphere, and the geochemistry of strontium, neodymium, and lead isotopes in volcanic rocks. He also studied the long-term behavior of the chemical composition of the oceans due to their interaction with the oceanic crust and the experimental determination of fundamental geochemical properties such as mineral-melt partition coefficients in silicates and solid-state diffusion rates. In 1968, together with John S. Steinhart, he published the Steinhart-Hart equation, which provides a mathematical model of how the temperature and the electrical resistance of a thermistor vary, based upon 3 so-called Steinhart-Hart coefficients. [6]
He was a co-editor from 1970 to 1972 of the Reviews of Geophysics , from 1970 to 1976 of the Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta , and from 1975 to 1992 of Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors . In 1975/76 he chaired the US National Committee for Geochemistry. [7] His doctoral students include Erik Hauri.
Hart has three children, one daughter from his first marriage, which ended in divorce in 1978, and a son and a daughter from his second marriage which began in 1980.
The Samoan archipelago is a chain of 16 islands and numerous seamounts covering 3,123 km2 (1,206 sq mi) in the central South Pacific, south of the equator, about halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand, forming part of Polynesia and of the wider region of Oceania. The islands are Savaiʻi, Upolu, Tutuila, ’Uvea, Taʻū, Ofu, Olosega, Apolima, Manono, Nuʻutele, Niulakita, Nuʻulua, Namua, Fanuatapu, Rose Atoll, Nu'ulopa, as well as the submerged Vailuluʻu, Pasco banks, and Alexa Bank.
A mantle plume is a proposed mechanism of convection within the Earth's mantle, hypothesized to explain anomalous volcanism. Because the plume head partially melts on reaching shallow depths, a plume is often invoked as the cause of volcanic hotspots, such as Hawaii or Iceland, and large igneous provinces such as the Deccan and Siberian Traps. Some such volcanic regions lie far from tectonic plate boundaries, while others represent unusually large-volume volcanism near plate boundaries.
The Iceland hotspot is a hotspot which is partly responsible for the high volcanic activity which has formed the Iceland Plateau and the island of Iceland.
Paul Werner Gast was an American geochemist and geologist.
The Petrological Database of the Ocean Floor (PetDB) is a relational database for global geochemical data on igneous and metamorphic rocks generated at mid-ocean ridges including back-arc basins, young seamounts, and old oceanic crust, as well as ophiolites and terrestrial xenoliths from the mantle and lower crust and diamond geochemistry. These data are obtained by analyses of whole rock powders, volcanic glasses, and minerals by a wide range of techniques including mass spectrometry, atomic emission spectrometry, x-ray fluorescence spectrometry, and wet chemical analyses. Data are compiled from the scientific literature by PetDB data managers, and entered after methodical metadata review. Members of the scientific community can also suggest entry of specific data that has been entered into the EarthChem Library. PetDB is administered by the EarthChem group under the IEDA facility at LDEO headed by K. Lehnert. PetDB is supported by the U.S. National Science Foundation.
Professor Henry "Harry" Elderfield, was Professor of Ocean Chemistry and Palaeochemistry at the Godwin Laboratory in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Cambridge. He made his name in ocean chemistry and palaeochemistry, using trace metals and isotopes in biogenic carbonate as palaeochemical tracers, and studying the chemistry of modern and ancient oceans - especially those of the glacial epoch and the Cenozoic.
The Samoa hotspot is a volcanic hotspot located in the south Pacific Ocean. The hotspot model describes a hot upwelling plume of magma through the Earth's crust as an explanation of how volcanic islands are formed. The hotspot idea came from J. Tuzo Wilson in 1963 based on the Hawaiian Islands volcanic chain.
The Society hotspot is a volcanic hotspot in the south Pacific Ocean which is responsible for the formation of the Society Islands, an archipelago of fourteen volcanic islands and atolls spanning around 720 kilometres (450 mi) of the ocean which formed between 4.5 and <1 Ma.
Ocean island basalt (OIB) is a volcanic rock, usually basaltic in composition, erupted in oceans away from tectonic plate boundaries. Although ocean island basaltic magma is mainly erupted as basalt lava, the basaltic magma is sometimes modified by igneous differentiation to produce a range of other volcanic rock types, for example, rhyolite in Iceland, and phonolite and trachyte at the intraplate volcano Fernando de Noronha. Unlike mid-ocean ridge basalts (MORBs), which erupt at spreading centers (divergent plate boundaries), and volcanic arc lavas, which erupt at subduction zones (convergent plate boundaries), ocean island basalts are the result of intraplate volcanism. However, some ocean island basalt locations coincide with plate boundaries like Iceland, which sits on top of a mid-ocean ridge, and Samoa, which is located near a subduction zone.
Crustal recycling is a tectonic process by which surface material from the lithosphere is recycled into the mantle by subduction erosion or delamination. The subducting slabs carry volatile compounds and water into the mantle, as well as crustal material with an isotopic signature different from that of primitive mantle. Identification of this crustal signature in mantle-derived rocks is proof of crustal recycling.
Terry Ann Plank is an American geochemist, volcanologist and professor of earth science at Columbia College, Columbia University, and the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory. She is a 2012 MacArthur Fellow and member of the National Academy of Sciences. Her most prominent work involves the crystal chemistry of lava minerals in order to determine magma ages and movement, giving clues to how quickly magma can surface as lava in volcanoes. Most notably, Plank is known for her work establishing a stronger link between the subduction of ocean sediments and volcanism at ocean arcs. Her current work can be seen at her website.
Plank states that her interest in volcanoes began when her Dartmouth professor took her and other students to Arenal volcano in Costa Rica. He had them sit and have lunch while on top of a slow-moving lava flow and while watching bright red goops of lava crack out from their black casings. "It was totally cool, how could you not like that?" Plank recalled the event to State of the Planet, an Earth Institute News source at Columbia University.
Sethunathasarma Krishnaswami (1945–2015), popularly known as Swami, was an Indian geochemist and an honorary scientist at the geosciences division of the Physical Research Laboratory. He was known for his studies on low temperature geochemistry and was an elected fellow of the Indian Academy of Sciences, Indian National Science Academy, The World Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, India, American Geophysical Union, Geochemical Society and European Association of Geochemistry (2003). The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, the apex agency of the Government of India for scientific research, awarded him the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize for Science and Technology, one of the highest Indian science awards for his contributions to Earth, atmosphere, ocean and planetary Sciences in 1984.
Arago hotspot is a hotspot in the Pacific Ocean, presently located below the Arago seamount close to the island of Rurutu, French Polynesia.
Discovery Seamounts are a chain of seamounts in the Southern Atlantic Ocean, which include the Discovery Seamount. The seamounts lie 850 kilometres (530 mi) east of Gough Island and once rose above sea level. Various volcanic rocks as well as glacial dropstones and sediments have been dredged from the seamounts.
The Rarotonga hotspot is a volcanic hotspot in the southern Pacific Ocean. The hotspot is claimed to be responsible for the formation of Rarotonga and some volcanics of Aitutaki but an alternative explanation for these islands most recent volcanics has not been ruled out. Recently alternatives to hotspot activity have been offered for several other intra-plate volcanoes that may have been associated with the Rarotonga hotspot hypothesis.
Janet Margaret Hergt is an Australian geochemist. She is a Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor in the School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The main focus of her research has been in the chemical analysis of rocks and minerals to explore the exquisite record of Earth processes preserved within them. Hergt is best known for her geochemical investigations of magmatic rocks although she has employed similar techniques in interdisciplinary projects including areas of archaeological and biological science.
Sidney Hemming is an analytical geochemist known for her work documenting Earth's history through analysis of sediments and sedimentary rocks. She is a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University.
Catherine Chauvel is a geochemist at the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris known for her research on the impact of volcanic activity on the chemistry of the mantle, continental crust, and island arc geochemistry.
Susan Humphris is a geologist known for her research on processes at mid-ocean ridges. She is an elected fellow of the American Geophysical Union.
Asish R. Basu is a geologist, academic, and researcher. He is Professor Emeritus of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Texas at Arlington. He is most known for his research in Earth Science -related subjects, such as isotope geochemistry, flood basalt volcanism, and mineralogy-petrology.