Tobias P. Fischer

Distinguished Professor

Photo: Tobias P. Fischer

Director, Volatiles Laboratory
PI, CONVERSE Center

Education: 
Ph.D., Arizona State University, 1999
Email: 
fischer@unm.edu
Phone: 
505-277-0683
Office: 
Northrop Hall Rm. 316B

Related Website/s

Research Area/s:

Geochemistry/Petrology/Mineralogy,  Tectonics/Structural Geology,  Volcanology

Research and Academic Interests:

Volcanology with emphasis on active volcanism. Geochemistry of fluids discharging from active volcanoes and hydrothermal systems. Flux of volatiles from magmas to the atmosphere during magma ascent and eruption. Element cycling from the mantle and crust to the atmosphere through volcanism and active faulting. Volatile composition of melts and their influence on eruption style. Diffuse degassing of CO2 from continental rift systems. Field remote sensing, direct sampling and analyses of volcanic and hydrothermal fluids. Current field research areas are in Central America, the Aleutians, the East African Rift and Antarctica.  Current Chair of the Board of Directors for the Deep Carbon Observatory Deep Carbon Degassing (DCO-DECADE) Initiative. See DeepCarbon.net

Recent Publications:

Muirhead, J.D., Fischer,T.P., Oliva, S., Laizer, A, van Wijk, J., Currie, C.A., Lee. H, Judd, E.J., Kazimoto, E., Sano, Y. Takahata. N., Tiberi, C., Foley, S. F., Dufek, J., Reiss, M.C., Ebinger, C.J. (2020) Displaced cratonic mantle concentrates deep carbon during continental rifting. Nature 582, 67-72 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2328-3

Fischer, T.P. and Aiuppa, A. (2020): AGU Centennial Grand Challenge: Volcanoes and Deep Carbon Global CO2 emissions from subaerial volcanism: recent progress and future challenges. G-cubed v. 21, issue 3 e2019GC008690.

Labidi, J., Barry, P.H., Bekaert, D.V., Broadley, M.W., Marty, B., Giunta, T., Warr, O., Sherwood Lollar, B., Fischer, T.P., Avice, G., Caracausi, A., Ballentine, C.J., Halldórsson, S. ,Stefánsson, A. ,Kurz, M., Kohl, I., Young, E. D. (2020) Hydrothermal 15N15N abundances constrain the origins of mantle nitrogen. Nature.

Fischer, T.P. Arellano, S., Carn, S., Aiuppa, S., Galle, B., Allard, P., Lopez, T., Shinohara, H., Kelly, P., Werner, C., Cardellini, C., Chiodini, G. (2019) The emissions of CO2 and other volatiles from the world’s subaerial volcanoes. Scientific Reports 9, Article #: 18716

Werner, C., Fischer, T.P., Aiuppa, A., Edmonds, M., Cardellini, C., Carn, S., Chiodini, G., Cottrell, E., Burton, M., Shinohara, H., Allard, P. (2019), Carbon Dioxide Emissions from Subaerial Volcanic Regions, IN Deep Carbon: Past to Present. Edited by Beth N. Orcutt, Isabelle Daniel, Rajdeep Dasgupta. Cambridge University Press.

Blomgren, V., Crossey, L, Karlstrom, K.E., Fischer, T.P., Darrah, T (2019) Hot spring hydrochemistry of the Rio Grande rift in northern New Mexico reveals a distal geochemical connection between Valles Caldera and Ojo Caliente. J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res. 387, 106663, p.1-22

McMurtry, G., Dasilveira, L., Falinski, K., Fischer, T.P. (2019) VGAM: Compact and Low Power Mass Spectrometer-based Instrumentation for Volcanic Gas Monitoring. Geochem. Geophys. Geosys. 20 (7), 3782-3798

Ilanko, T., Fischer, T.P., Kyle, P., Curtis, A., Lee, H., Sano, Y. (2019) Modification of fumarolic gases by the ice-covered edifice of Erebus volcano, Antarctica. J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2019.05.017

Ratschbacher, B.C., Paterson, S.R., Fischer, T.P (2019) Spatial and depth-dependent variations in magma volume addition to continental arc crust and inferred global CO2 fluxes since 750 Ma, Geochem. Geophys. Geosys. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GC008031

Rahilly, K., Simmons, S., Fischer, T.P., (2019) Carbon dioxide flux and carbon and helium isotopic composition of soil gases across the FORGE site and Opal Mound Fault, Utah (in press)

Aiuppa, A, Fischer, T.P., Plank, T., Bani, P (2019) CO2 flux emissions from the Earth’s most actively degassing volcanoes, 2005–2015 Scientific Reports 9:5442 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-019-41901-y

Barry, P.H., J. M. de Moor, D. Giovannelli, M. Schrenk, D. Hummer, T. Lopez, K. Pratt,Y. Alpízar Segura, A. Battaglia, P. Beaudry, G. Bini, M. Cascante, G. d’Errico, M. di Carlo, D. Fattorini, K. Fullerton, E. Gazel, G. González, S. A. Halldórsson, K. Iacovino, J.T. Kulongoski, E. Manini, M. Martinez, H. Miller, M. Nakagawa, S. Ono, S. Pathwardhan, C.J. Ramirez, F. Regoli, F. Smedile, S. Turner, C. Vetriani, M. Yucel, C.J. Ballentine, T.P. Fischer, D.R. Hilton, K.G. Lloyd (2019) Forearc carbon sinks reduce long-term volatile recycling into the mantle. Nature 568, p. 487

de Moor, J.M., Stix, J., Avard, G, Muller, C., Coralles, E., Diaz, J.A., Alan, A., Berens, J, Pacheco, J, Aiuppa, A., Fischer, T.P. (2019) Insights on hydrothermal-magmatic interactions and eruptive processes at Poás volcano (Costa Rica) from high-frequency gas monitoring and drone measurements Geophys. Res. Lett. 10.1029/2018GL080301

Foley, S.F. and Fischer, T.P (2017) The essential role of continental rifts and lithosphere in the deep carbon cycle. Nature Geoscience, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-017-0002-7