Blair Schoene

About

Blair Schoene is a Professor of Geosciences at Princeton University, specializing in geochronology and Earth history. He leads a high-precision U-Pb geochronology lab within the Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer Laboratory (TIMS Lab), where his research focuses on understanding timescales related to magmatic processes that build continental crust and influence the biosphere, atmosphere, and oceans. His work begins in the field with outcrop to regional scale mapping and employs complementary approaches such as thermochronology, radiogenic isotope tracing, structural analysis, geochemistry, and numerical and statistical techniques. Schoene's lab is equipped with low-blank clean room facilities, two thermal ionization mass spectrometers, and rock and mineral separation and characterization facilities. His research group shares space and instrumentation with other department labs that measure stable and radiogenic isotopes and geochemistry of various Earth materials.

Research topics

• Geology
• Geochemistry
• Chromatography
• Chemistry
• Paleontology
• Earth science
• Environmental chemistry
• Environmental science
• Physics
• Seismology

Selected publications

• Mercury linked to Deccan Traps volcanism, climate change and the end-Cretaceous mass extinction

  Global and Planetary Change · 2020 · 124 citations

  DOI

• Long-term repeatability and interlaboratory reproducibility of high-precision ID-TIMS U–Pb geochronology

  Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry · 2021 · 89 citations

  U date, 417.353 ± 0.052 Ma). These data will allow U-Pb laboratories to evaluate their analytical performance and to independently calibrate non-EARTHTIME tracer solutions in use.

  DOI

• Volcano-pluton connections at the Lake City magmatic center (Colorado, USA)

  Geosphere · 2022 · 21 citations

  Abstract Exposed at the Lake City caldera (Colorado, USA) is the ca. 23 Ma reversely stratified (rhyolite to trachyte) Sunshine Peak Tuff and post-collapse syenite and monzonite resurgent intrusions. Existing models for this system suggest that the rhyolites are related to the trachyte and resurgent syenite through fractional crystallization, separation, and remobilization (crystal mush model), and that multiple magma batches were involved in the system (Hon, 1987; Kennedy et al., 2016; Lubbers…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Earth orbital rhythms links timing of Deccan trap volcanism phases and global climate change

  Science Advances · 2025-03-07 · 12 citations

  articleOpen access

  At the end of the Cretaceous, the massive Deccan trap (DT) volcanic eruptions are regarded as the primary driver of global climate deterioration. Accurate age models are key to unravel the sequence of events related to DT volcanism onset and effects on the global climate system. We establish a direct geochemical link between DT volcanism as recorded in marine osmium isotopic data and global climate change documented in benthic foraminifera carbon and oxygen isotope records. Based on our state-of…

  PublisherDOI

• Completion of lunar magma ocean solidification at 4.43 Ga

  Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 2025-01-06 · 11 citations

  articleOpen access

  Crystallization of the lunar magma ocean yielded a chemically unique liquid residuum named KREEP. This component is expressed as a large patch on the near side of the Moon and a possible smaller patch in the northwest portion of the Moon’s South Pole-Aitken basin on the far side. Thermal models estimate that the crystallization of the lunar magma ocean (LMO) could have spanned from 10 and 200 My, while studies of radioactive decay systems have yielded inconsistent ages for the completion of LMO…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• Collaborative research: Andean Plutonic Perspectives on Generation, Storage, and Eruption of Rhyolite

  NSF · $90k · 2017–2019

• Laboratory Technician Support: Expanding the capacity for U-Pb geochronology at Princeton University

  NSF · $749k · 2017–2026

• Collaborative Research: EarthScope Geochronology Graduate Student Training Program

  NSF · $36k · 2014–2018

Frequent coauthors

• C. Brenhin Keller

  Dartmouth College

  59 shared

• Michael P. Eddy

  44 shared

• Kyle M. Samperton

  43 shared

• Dawid Szymanowski

  39 shared

• S. A. MacLennan

  University of the Witwatersrand

  37 shared

• Urs Schaltegger

  35 shared

• Thierry Adatte

  University of Lausanne

  34 shared

• Gerta Keller

  Princeton University

  33 shared

Labs

• Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer Laboratory (TIMS Lab)PI

Education

• PhD, EAPS

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  2006

• BA, Geology

  Colorado College

  1999

Awards & honors

• Geosciences Alumni honored at AGU 2024 Fall Meeting

Similar researchers at Princeton University

• Daniel M. Sigmanh-106
• Michael Oppenheimerh-103
• Bess B. Wardh-81