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On why geologists are the coolest people...

My father was a geologist. He suggested that I take a geology class, and I did and I loved it. Geologists like to camp, play Frisbee, look at rocks, be outside, and rock climb, so it was a natural fit with my personality.

On great opportunities for students...

I had a graduate student whose project was to date the timing of magmatism in Fiordland in southwest New Zealand. He was looking at 4,000 square kilometers of lower continental crust and over that area a lot of the dates were the same. That revealed to us that there was a surge of magmatism that was emplaced into the lower crust in a very short 10 million-year window. It really set the stage for understanding how that happens.

"I’ve always been interested in time and how volcanoes form."

On the facilities available at CSUN...

We have a laboratory in Chaparral Hall where we use a mass spectrometer to determine isotope ratios of uranium and lead from minerals like zircon which are these tiny radiometric clocks. They are smaller than a human hair, but they have small amounts of uranium that decays to lead. By analyzing uranium and lead we can calculate the age at which those crystals formed.

On what he likes about Los Angeles...

The San Gabriel mountains are a great place to get away. There is geology for everybody – the San Andreas Fault, ancient volcanoes, granite – there is something for everybody!

More information about Joshua J Schwartz