Bruce Moskowitz
241 Tate Hall
bmosk@umn.edu
Professor and Director, Institute for Rock Magnetism
PhD, 1980, University of Minnesota
The field of paleomagnetism and rock magnetism is founded on the ability of magnetic minerals in rocks, sediments, soils, and dust to record and store information about the geologic history of the Earth's magnetic field. I'm a geophysicist interested in the physical and chemical foundations of rock and mineral magnetism with an emphasis on magnetic iron nanophases and the interconnections between macroscopic magnetic behavior associated with magnetic memory and the underlying micromagnetic structures of iron oxide particles. This magnetic memory, if stored in nature and read in the laboratory correctly, provides geoscientists with information about the evolution of the geomagnetic field and the deep interior of the Earth and terrestrial planets; the history of tectonic plates and mantle dynamics; and the evolution of Earth's surficial environments. My researches emphasizes laboratory based experiments (magnetometry and magnetic imaging) and currently involves understanding the physicochemical properties of micron- and nanoscale iron oxide and oxyhydroxide minerals in aeolian mineral dust, and the temperature- and magnetic-field response of micromagnetic structures most responsible for remanence in natural materials and synthetic analogs. I am also the Director of the Institute for Rock Magnetism, a National multi-user facility whose core mission is to provide access to advanced instrumentation, technical expertise, and training to an international community of researchers and students using magnetism to solve diverse problems in the Earth Sciences.
GEO 1001 Earth and its Environments
GEO 1012 Natural Hazards and Disasters
GEO 2201 Solid Earth Dynamics
GEO 4203 Principles of Geophysical Exploration
GEO 4204 Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism
E. Khakhalova, B.M. Moskowitz, W. Williams, A.R. Biedermann, P. Solheid (2018) Magnetic Vortex States in Small Octahedral Particles of Intermediate Titanomagnetite, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 19, doi.org/10.1029/2018GC007723
McCollom, T. M, Chris Donaldson, Bruce Moskowitz, Thelma S. Berquó, and Brian Hynek, (2018). Phosphorous Immobility During Formation of the Layered Sulfate Deposits of the Burns Formation at Meridiani Planum, Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, 123, doi.org/10.1029/2017JE005493
Hettiarachchi, Eshani, Gayan Rubasinghege, Richard Reynolds, Harland Goldstein, Bruce Moskowitz (2018), Iron Dissolution and Speciation in Atmospheric Mineral Dust: Metal-Metal Synergistic and Antagonistic Effects, Atmospheric Environment, 187, 417–423.
Luhmann, Andrew J., Benjamin M. Tutolo, Chunyang Tan, Bruce M. Moskowitz, Martin O. Saar, William E. Seyfried, Jr, (2017). Whole rock basalt alteration from CO2-rich brine during flow-through experiments at 150°C and 150 bar, Chemical Geology, 453, 92-110.
Li, Z., J. Zheng, B. M. Moskowitz, Q. Liu, Q. Xiong, J. Yang, and X. Hu (2017), Magnetic properties of serpentinized peridotites from the Dongbo ophiolite, SW Tibet: Implications for suture-zone magnetic anomalies, J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth, 122, doi:10.1002/2017JB014241.
McCollom, Thomas M., Frieder Klein, Mark Robbins, Bruce Moskowitz, Thelma S. Berquó, Niels Jöns, Wolfgang Bach, and Alexis Templeton (2016), Temperature Trends for Reaction Rates, Hydrogen Generation, and Partitioning of Iron During Experimental Serpentinization of Olivine, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 181, 175–200
Moskowitz, B. M., Richard L. Reynolds, Harland L. Goldstein, Thelma Berquó, Raymond F. Kokaly, and Charlie S. Bristow, Iron oxide minerals in dust-source sediments from the Bodélé Depression, Chad: Implications for radiative properties and Fe bioavailability of dust plumes from the Sahara, (2016), Aeolian Research. 22C, 93-106
Moskowitz, B.M, Jackson, M., and Chandler, V., Geophysical Properties of the Near Surface Earth: Magnetic Properties In: Gerald Schubert (editor-in-chief) Treatise on Geophysics, 2nd edition, Vol 11. Oxford: Elsevier; 2015. p. 139-174.
Chen, A. P. V.M. Berounsky, M.K. Chan, M.G. Blackford4, C. Cady, B.M. Moskowitz, P. Kraal,E.A. Lima, R.E. Kopp, G.R. Lumpkin, B.P. Weiss, P. Hesse & N.G.F. Vella (2014) Magnetic properties of uncultivated magnetotactic bacteria and their contribution to a stratified estuary iron cycle. Nat. Commun. 5:4797 doi: 10.1038/ncomms5797.
Klein, Frieder, Wolfgang Bach, Susan Humphris, Wolf-Achim Kahl, Niels Jöns, Bruce Moskowitz, and Thelma Berquó (2014) Magnetite in seafloor serpentinites- Some like it hot, Geology, 42;135-138.
Reynolds, Richard L, Stephen R. Cattle, Bruce M. Moskowitz, Harland L. Goldstein, Kimberly Yauk, Cody B. Flagg, Thelma S. Berquó, Raymond F. Kokaly, Suzette Morman, George N. Breit, (2014). Iron oxide minerals in dust of the Red Dawn event in eastern Australia, September 2009, Aeolian Research, Aeolian Research 15, 1–13.
Till, J. L. , and B. Moskowitz ( 2013 ), Magnetite deformation mechanism maps for better prediction of strain partitioning , Geophys. Res. Lett. , 40, doi:10.1002/GRL.50170
Recent Research Support
2017-2022 NSF Continuation of a Facility: Institute for Rock Magnetism
2015-2018 NSF High-Temperature Magnetic Imaging of Magnetic Minerals
2013-2015 NSF Acquisition of high-temperature rock magnetic instruments
Recent Honors and Awards
Fellow, American Geophysics Union, elected 2000