Nick Barber 🌋

@volcannick.bsky.social

1836 Followers 1055 Following

Asst Professor, geoscientist, volcanophile magma, metals, and minerals 🌋🪨🛰️Philadelphian 🦅, father, husband. he/him. www.volcannick.com Opinions my own

The Ijen Caldera Complex (ICC) in East Java, Indonesia is defined by 10+ eruptive centers distributed over 200 km2. The eastern rim of the ICC hosts Kawah Ijen, an active stratovolcano with a hyperacidic brine crater lake. Despite close study over the last few decades, there lacks a systematic framework for integrating petrological, field, and geochemical insights across the ICC. In this work, we present the results of several phases of research conducted at the ICC since 2023, combining a range of geochemical, textural, field, and computational methods. We focused our attention on three ICC eruptive periods: (1) the caldera-forming eruption or CFE (2) the monogenetic scoria cones of the intracaldera (IC) series; and (3) the 1817 CE phreatomagmatic eruption of Kawah Ijen. The earlier eruptive periods have not been systematically mapped. This work presents the first phase of a revised stratigraphic column for the region, indicating a that the ICC grew out of five major ignimbrites with interspersed cyclic pumice falls. Furthermore, we evaluate the likely petrogenetic source of CFE vs. later magmas in relation to major regional geochemical reservoirs. We also show what eruptive processes predominate at monogenetic centers littering the caldera floor today. For the 1817 eruption, we have developed two complementary tools for analyzing vesicles in pyroclasts from the ICC. We introduce a Python-based reimplementation of the FOAMS framework [1] for stereological analysis of vesicle number and size distributions in 2D thin sections of deposits from the 1817 eruption. PyFOAMS replicates the original software’s core functions while adding automated preprocessing and updated stereological formulas. We also compare these 2D results with 3D micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) data from select ICC samples. These were trained with deep learning models to segment the ICC rock volumes using the open-source Dragonfly program.
Overhead view of a messy lab with dozens of ziploc bags filled with rock samples. Chair and desk in foreground - storage shelves and computer in background.
Triangular shaped pattern of interbedded sediments at Vinicunca, Peru.
Screen grab from BHRC report on mining abuses in the green energy transition. Image shows a graphic reporting attacks on environment defenders related to 5 mines in 2025: Grasberg, Cobre Panama, Sino Metals, Curipampa-El Dome, and Tia Maria.
Man wearing a blue suit and blue hat pointing at white streaks in a devitrifying obsidian; Obsidian Dome California
“Ferricrete” andesite lava flow altered to heck by fluids likely associated with alteration caused by Comstock hydrothermal fluids.
Group of students holding rock hammers and standing in front of a mineral display case. They are wearing graduation robes
Google earth snapshot showing overview of trip to italy. Colored lines represent driving and hiking courses. Sicily, Aeolian islands, and Calabria are visible.
Foreground: Tonaolite boudlers with weak fabrice cross cut by massive biotite-feldspar pegmatite dikes Background: Tyrhenian Sea off coast of Capo Vaticano, Calabria
View from M Guardia looking N towards Panarea and Stromboli in the distance. Degassing plume is visible. Town of Lipari visible in the foreground
Weakly foliated lava dome
A man who needs a haircut grinning in front of an Etna lava flow. Black, fragmentary basalt about 5 m high piled up in the background - possible hornito?
Screen grab from google maps interactive showing locations of my stduents final paper
Histogram of melt inclusion abundance vs. melt inclusion volume separated into inclusions that are all glass (337 inclusions) and those that contain some crystals (65 inclusions). The largest inclusions contain crystals, whereas the smallest are dominated by crystal-free glass, as observed by Roedder (1976) in the rocks that he studied.
Screenshot form suggested job on LinkedIn. the ad reads " AI Tutor - Earth Science Specialist." Posted by xAI
Semeru eruptive active chart showing different eruptive and hazard data over a 90 day window, taken Mar 22 2026. Background seismics in blue so repetivie small spikes in activity; eruptions are marked in red.
Three different types of isostasy a) Pratt (varying thickness); b) Airy (varying density); c) Flexural
A screenshot of a graph from a scientific paper. Consensus dates for 68 dynastic collapses (blue dashed vertical columns; Supplementary Data 1), overlain by ice-core-based dates and climate forcing potential of inferred-tropical and extratropical Northern Hemispheric explosive volcanic eruptions (n = 156) as inferred by multi-ice-core measurements of polar sulfate deposition (in kg/km−2)42 (graduated red circles), for 1–1911 CE. Also shown is annual warfare frequency from 850 to 1911 CE12 (continuous tan line), with the thick brown line representing a 10-year smoothing using the Savitzky-Golay filter. The figure is split into two consecutive periods for visual clarity; a and b cover the first and second millennia CE, respectively.
Crowd marching with banners and signs
An ai slop image titled “favorite country of us presidents” showing mislabeled presidents next to mislabeled countries.
Picture of two books resting on leg of post author. One is titled “Mining North America: an environmental history since 1522.” Edited by JR McNeill and George Vritis. The second book is titled Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism by Thea Riofrancos.
Image of an open pit mine
Overview of Ijen acid lake from an overlook at sunrise.
Low lying clouds over Charlotte, NC.
A can of crisp refreshing Pennsylvania Dutch birch beer. Yellow can with red type face
Components for a Raman microscope, wrapped in festive wrapping paper and boxed up. Boxes are stacked in two piles, places on palettes on a warehouse floor
Pirates of the Caribbean meme format, where Commodore Norrington berates Jack sparrow, except this time it's our old friend Ea-Nasir. First panel "You are without a doubt the worst copper merchant I have ever heard of." Second panel "But you HAVE heard of me."
Tetrathedrite crystal from Castor mine, Germany. https://www.mindat.org/photo-883935.html#:~:text=Tetrahedrite%20Subgroup%20%3A,Rhine%2DWestphalia%2C%20Germany
We have been successful in defeating this attempt to suppress my free speech. This was always an issue that threatens all of us. I'm deeply grateful to the many people who leapt courageously to this struggle. In challenging this suspension, my goals were twofold: most urgently, to return to my classrooms and continue the important work of critically examining the world and our relationship to it with my smart, thoughtful, and curious students. Secondly, I wanted to disabuse UNC's leaders of the notion that they can infringe on our constitutional right to speak and assemble as we choose.
Clinpyorxen flomercryst in XPL in Bawean thin section
Cartoon of a world map showing Africa, the Middle East, and southeastern Europe. Distinctive animals from each region are visible - Camels in Arabia, Rhinos in east Africa, and hedgehogs in Europe. Missing - the land bridge between Africa and Eurasia!
Gorgeous thin section udner cross-polarized light from Mt. Anyar, Ijen. Field of view is 3 mm (plus or minus half a millimeter) with large phenocrsyts of subequant olivine and zoned plagioclase crystals. Rounded vesicles and micro-phenocrysts or pyroxene, plag, and olivine make up the glassy groundmass.
Surface transmitted light image of olivine crystal from Mt. Galunggung, Indonesia. Dozens of melt inclusions with vapor bubbles can be seen throughout crystal. Odd line cutting through one crystal is a remnant of SIMS & EPMA anlyses.
My photo of Drumadoon sill from July 2021. Sill can be seen in background, looking east.
Cross-polarized light image of thin section from Mt. Ijen. Dark groundmass pockmarked by irregularly connected and sized vesicles. Phenocryst population is multimodal, with some crystal clots. Dominated by plagioclase, followed by 2 pyroxene's and some olivine.
Phase diagram to show how single phase magmatic fluids at depth are related to fumaroles (that represent the low-density vapor product of unmixing, with the brine phase sequestered at depth) and volcanic gases, which may be an advected mixture of both vapor and brine phases brought to the surface by high-temperature melts and outgassed at the magma-air interface (Hedenquist & Lowenstern 1994).
Crowd around coffee table at Uni Mail in Geneva
Screen shot from COMET Volcano Deformation portal, showing high-res InSAR deformation data available for Mt. Ijen, Indonesia. https://comet.nerc.ac.uk/comet-volcano-portal/volcano-index/Indonesia/Indonesia/Ijen/S1_analysis
A crowd of mostly older white people. Holding American flags, pride flags, and hand made signs
Herbie the orange muppet with his best friend Ms Rachel
Quartz crystals (A) often contain melt embayments (tubular melt-filled pockets burrowed into the side of volcanic crystals) (B), which preserve volatiles (water, carbon dioxide, and sulfur) that have different concentrations in different parts of the embayment (C). The changes in concentrations within the embayments can be directly measured and modeled to infer the speed of magma as it ascended in the lead up to an eruption (D)
Picture of drop down slide view of cover slide of workshop with same title as in main post.
Me, wielding a small sauce pan, in the midst of the riotous crowd. City Hall, Philly.
At the University of Chicago I also was lucky enough to go through a general education program devised by Robert M. Hutchins, where science was presented as an integral part of the gorgeous tapestry of human knowledge. It was considered unthinkable for an aspiring physicist not to know Plato, Aristotle, Bach, Shakespeare, Gibbon, Malinowski, and Freud—among many others. In an introductory science class, Ptolemy’s view that the Sun revolved around the Earth was presented so compellingly that some students found themselves re-evaluating their commitment to Copernicus. The status of the teachers in the Hutchins curriculum had almost nothing to do with their research; perversely—unlike the American university standard of today—teachers were valued for their teaching, their ability to inform and inspire the next generation.
Jeff gold bloom in Jurassic Park staring at a pile of triceratops dung, saying “that is one big pile of shit.”
EAR grants targetted by Cruz and the Senate Republicans in their anti-woke mccarthyite purge of scientific expertise. 73 EAR grants are shown listed in a color coded excel spreadsheet, where the color coded categories that flag the grants for "DEI" categories: STATUS, SOCIAL JUSTICE, RACE, GENDER, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE. These are the criteria his office used to decide thes grants are problematic.
Graphical map of major critical mineral deposits in Ukraine.
Screen grba from Penn DEI page. It reads: Belonging at Penn University of Pennsylvania A commitment to equal opportunity has long been one of Penn’s guiding principles. We have initiated a review of our programs in this area to ensure that they are both consistent with the new federal government guidance and Executive Orders, federal, state, and local law, and our values. We remain committed to providing a respectful and welcoming environment to our faculty, staff, and students.
Panel of four memes and a Twitter post celebrating the glorious victory of the majestic, incomparable philadelphia eagles. Upper left: Yu-Gi-Oh abridged meme; upper right: 'The Gang Wins the Big Game," IASIP title card; bottom right: Patrick Mahomes frowning; bottom left: Gritty asking "Where is your god now?"