# Terry Plank
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{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2022}}
{{short description|Geologist and volcanologist}}
{{Infobox scientist
|name = Terry Ann Plank
|image = Dr Terry Ann Plank.JPG
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|birth_date = {{birth year and age|1963}}
|birth_place = [Wilmington, Delaware](/source/Wilmington%2C_Delaware)
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|fields = [Geochemistry](/source/Geochemistry)
[Volcanism](/source/Volcanism)
|workplaces = [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University) / [Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory](/source/Lamont_Doherty_Earth_Observatory)
|alma_mater = [Dartmouth College](/source/Dartmouth_College), [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University)/[Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory](/source/Lamont_Doherty_Earth_Observatory)
|doctoral_advisor = Charles H. Langmuir
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|awards = [MacArthur Fellow](/source/MacArthur_Fellow)
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'''Terry Ann Plank''' is an American geochemist, [volcanologist](/source/volcanologist) and professor of earth science at [Columbia College, Columbia University](/source/Columbia_College%2C_Columbia_University), and the [Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory](/source/Lamont_Doherty_Earth_Observatory). She is a [2012 MacArthur Fellow](/source/MacArthur_Fellows_Program) and member of the [National Academy of Sciences](/source/National_Academy_of_Sciences).[{{cite web|title=2012 MacArthur Foundation 'Genius Grant' Winners|url=http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2012-macarthur-foundation-genius-grant-winners#overlay-context=users/rjagodzinski|agency=[AP](/source/Associated_Press)|access-date=October 1, 2012|archive-date=June 30, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150630194257/http://bigstory.ap.org/article/2012-macarthur-foundation-genius-grant-winners#overlay-context=users/rjagodzinski|url-status=dead}}][{{cite web|title=MacArthur Foundation: Terry Plank|url=http://www.macfound.org/fellows/873/|date=August 1, 2015|publisher=MacArthur Foundation|access-date=July 20, 2020}}] Her most prominent work involves the crystal chemistry of lava minerals (mostly olivines) in order to determine magma ages and movement, giving clues to how quickly magma can surface as lava in volcanoes. Most notably, Plank is known for her work establishing a stronger link between the subduction of ocean sediments and volcanism at ocean arcs. Her current work can be seen at her website.[{{cite web|title=Terry Plank Home Page|url=http://ldeo.columbia.edu/~tplank/Plank-2015/welcome.html|publisher=[Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University)|access-date=February 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160822163918/http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~tplank/Plank-2015/Welcome.html|archive-date=August 22, 2016|url-status=dead}}]
Plank states that her interest in volcanoes began when her Dartmouth professor took her and other students to Arenal volcano in Costa Rica. He had them sit and have lunch while on top of a slow-moving lava flow and while watching bright red goops of lava crack out from their black casings. "It was totally cool, how could you not like that?" Plank recalled the event to State of the Planet, an Earth Institute News source at Columbia University.[{{cite web|title=Terry Plank Volcano Maven|date=February 14, 2014|url=http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2014/02/14/terry-plank-volcano-maven/|agency=State of the Planet, Columbia University|access-date=January 29, 2021}}]
==Education==
Plank was born in [Wilmington, Delaware](/source/Wilmington%2C_Delaware).[{{cite web|last=Rouen|first=Ethan|title=5 Minutes with … Terry Plank|url=http://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/jan_feb11/around_the_quads12|date=January–February 2011|work=Columbia College Today|access-date=October 3, 2012|archive-date=December 22, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121222040030/http://www.college.columbia.edu/cct/jan_feb11/around_the_quads12|url-status=dead}}] As a child, she grew up in a schist quarry and was the youngest member of the [Delaware Mineralogical Society](/source/Delaware_Mineralogical_Society) in third grade.[{{cite web|title=Volcano Expert Wins MacArthur 'Genius Grant'|url=http://earth.columbia.edu/articles/view/3018|date=October 2, 2012|publisher=The Earth Institute, Columbia University|access-date=October 6, 2012}}] She graduated from Tatnall High School in 1981 and then graduated summa cum laude in Earth Sciences from [Dartmouth College](/source/Dartmouth_College) in 1985 with her thesis ''Magmatic Garnets from the Cardigan Pluton, NH'' under the supervision of John B. Lyons. She received her Ph.D. in Geosciences with distinction in 1993 from Columbia University, Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory with her thesis ''Mantle Melting and Crustal Recycling at Subduction Zones'' under the advising of [Charles H. Langmuir](/source/Charles_H._Langmuir).
==Career==
Beginning a postdoctoral career at [Cornell University](/source/Cornell_University), Plank worked under the supervision of W.M. White from 1993 to 1995. From there, Plank became an assistant professor at the [University of Kansas](/source/University_of_Kansas) from 1995 to 1999. There, she collaborated with her PhD advisor from Columbia (Langmuir) to work on her most cited publication, ''The chemical composition of subducting sediment and its consequences for the crust and mantle'' (see below). From 1999 to 2007, Plank was a professor of earth sciences at [Boston University](/source/Boston_University) (associate professor from 1999 to 2005 and professor from 2005 to 2007). Since 2008, Plank has been at [Columbia University](/source/Columbia_University) in New York, New York, appointed as an Arthur D. Storke Memorial Professor in their Earth and Environmental Science Department. Plank has held two visiting professor positions in France: summer 1998 at the [University of Rennes](/source/University_of_Rennes) in Rennes and summer 2002 at the [Universite Joseph Fourier](/source/Universite_Joseph_Fourier) in Grenoble.[{{cite web|last=Plank|first=Terry Ann|url=http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~tplank/Plank-2015/Plank_CV.html|title=CV: Terry Ann Plank|format=[PDF](/source/Portable_Document_Format)|access-date=February 19, 2017}}][
Plank has also been instrumental in establishing the AVERT (Anticipating Volcanic Eruptions in Real-Time) project, funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, which aims to deploy open-data, real-time, multi-sensor monitoring networks on active volcanoes across a range of settings worldwide.][{{cite web|title=AVERT Project|url=https://people.climate.columbia.edu/projects/view/1984|publisher=Columbia University|access-date=11 April 2026}}] A central challenge the project addresses is that seismic, geodetic, and gas-flux data — each capable of revealing precursory eruption signals — have rarely been collected together in real-time to build forecasts. Initial deployments focused on the Alaskan volcanoes Okmok and Cleveland, with later work expanding to Poás volcano in Costa Rica in partnership with OVSICORI.[{{cite web|title=AVERT Project Overview|url=https://avert-legacy.ldeo.columbia.edu/|publisher=Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory|access-date=11 April 2026}}]
==Research focus==
{{Quote box |quoted=true |bgcolor=#FFFFF0 |salign=center
| quote = Every rock has a story to tell.
| source = Terry Plank[{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2014/02/14/terry-plank-volcano-maven/|title = Terry Plank: Volcano Maven|date = 14 February 2014}}]
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She has spent her career researching [magma](/source/magma) and [volcanoes](/source/volcanoes). One specific area of her research is how the chemical composition of magma and crystals that form during eruption can provide information about the amount of water present during the eruption and explain how explosive it was. She uses microanalysis and modeling of volatile diffusion along small melt tubes and embayments, found in olivine crystals. She has done field work around the [ring of fire](/source/Pacific_Ring_of_Fire), [Philippines](/source/Philippines), [Nicaragua](/source/Nicaragua), [Iceland](/source/Iceland), and across the southwest United States as well as the [Aleutian Islands](/source/Aleutian_Islands).[ Plank serves on the executive committee of the [Deep Carbon Observatory](/source/Deep_Carbon_Observatory).]
Two of her other main research contributions have been to the understanding of magma generation and crustal recycling at subduction zones. This is accomplished by geochemical observation of olivine minerals present in lavas. Her research focuses on magmas that evolve due to the [plate tectonic](/source/Plate_tectonics) cycle, namely [subduction zones](/source/Subduction). More specifically, Plank has published notable papers tracing sediments from sea floors to their ultimate end as lava from [arc volcanoes](/source/Volcanic_arc). This 'creation' of magma from sediments, how sediments decompress and at what temperature and water content, has remained the research in which she is most invested and interested.[{{cite web|title=Volcanism|url=http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~tplank/Plank-2015/Volcanism.html|date=2014|publisher=Columbia University|access-date=February 19, 2017}}]
One of Planks most notable works came from a collaboration with Langmuir in 1998.[{{Cite journal|title=The chemical composition of subducting sediment and its consequences for the crust and mantle|journal=Chemical Geology|volume=145|issue=3–4|pages=325–394|date=1998|doi=10.1016/S0009-2541(97)00150-2|last1=Plank|first1=Terry|last2=Langmuir|first2=Charles H.|bibcode=1998ChGeo.145..325P|doi-access=free}}] Not only did The chemical composition and its consequences for the crust and mantle provided a linkage in chemical composition between subducting ocean sediment and the composition of lava from arc volcanoes, but also it called for a development of a global subducting sediment (GLOSS) composition and flux similar to upper continental crust (UCC). Plank has since updated GLOSS to GLOSS-II in her 2014 publication, ''Chemical composition of subducting sediments.''[{{Cite book|title=The chemical composition of subducting sediment|pages=607–629|date=2014|doi=10.1016/B978-0-08-095975-7.00319-3|chapter=The Chemical Composition of Subducting Sediments|last1=Plank|first1=T.|isbn=9780080983004}}]
In one of her most recent papers, ''Thermal structure and melting conditions in the mantle beneath the Basin and Range province from seismology and petrology,'' a collaboration with D.W. Forsyth, Plank revised a mantle-melt thermobarometer. They did this revision to show more precise pressure and temperature equilibrium estimates of mantle melt in the Basin and Range region of the United States.[{{Cite journal|title=Thermal structure and melting conditions in the mantle beneath the Basin and Range province from Seismology and Petrology|journal=Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems|volume=17|issue=4|pages=1312–1338|date=2016|doi=10.1002/2015GC006205|last1=Plank|first1=T.|last2=Forsyth|first2=D. W.|bibcode=2016GGG....17.1312P|doi-access=free}}]
==Awards==
Plank was presented with the [John Ebers](/source/John_Ebers) Geology Award while at Dartmouth College. In 1998, Plank received the Houtermans Medal from the European Association for Geochemistry as well as the Donath Medal from the Geological Society of America.[ In 2012, Plank was awarded the [MacArthur Genius Grant](/source/MacArthur_Fellows_Program) and the following year was elected to the [National Academy of Sciences](/source/National_Academy_of_Sciences).][{{cite web|title=2013 NAS Members and Foreign Associates Elected|url=http://www.nasonline.org/news-and-multimedia/news/2013_04_30_NAS_Election.html|date=April 30, 2013|publisher=National Academy of Sciences|access-date=July 20, 2020}}] She received an honorary Doctor of Science degree from Dartmouth in 2015, and in 2016 was elected into the [American Academy of Arts and Sciences](/source/American_Academy_of_Arts_and_Sciences).[{{cite web|title=Dartmouth News: Terry Ann Plank (Doctor of Science)|url=https://news.dartmouth.edu/news/2015/06/terry-ann-plank-doctor-science|date=June 14, 2015|publisher=Dartmouth College|access-date=July 20, 2020}}][{{cite web|title=Terry A. Plank|url=https://www.amacad.org/person/terry-plank|date=March 1, 2018|publisher=American Academy of Arts and Sciences|access-date=July 20, 2020}}] She received the [Wollaston Medal](/source/Wollaston_Medal) of the [Geological Society of London](/source/Geological_Society_of_London) in 2018.
==Fellowships==
Source:[{{cite journal|title=NanoSIMS results from olivine-hosted melt embayments: Magma ascent rate during explosive basaltic eruptions|journal=Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research|volume=283|pages=1–18|url=http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/node/15285|date=2014|bibcode=2014JVGR..283....1L|last1=Lloyd|first1=Alexander S.|last2=Ruprecht|first2=Philipp|last3=Hauri|first3=Erik H.|last4=Rose|first4=William|last5=Gonnermann|first5=Helge M.|last6=Plank|first6=Terry|doi=10.1016/j.jvolgeores.2014.06.002|hdl=1911/80881|hdl-access=free|archive-date=January 28, 2021|access-date=February 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128083329/https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/node/15285|url-status=dead}}]
* ''Melting during late-stage rifting in Afar is hot and deep Ferguson'', D. J.; Maclennan, J.; Bastow, I. D.; Pyle, D. M.; Jones, S. M., Keir; D., Blundy, J. D.; Plank, T.; Yirgu, G. ''[Nature](/source/Nature_(journal))'' 07/2013 Volume: 499 p.: 70-73 (2013) 0.1038/nature12292 [{{cite journal|title=Melting during late-stage rifting in Afar is hot and deep|journal=Nature|volume=499|issue=7456|pages=70–3|url=http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/node/15101|date=2013|bibcode=2013Natur.499...70F|last1=Ferguson|first1=D. J.|last2=MacLennan|first2=J.|last3=Bastow|first3=I. D.|last4=Pyle|first4=D. M.|last5=Jones|first5=S. M.|last6=Keir|first6=D.|last7=Blundy|first7=J. D.|last8=Plank|first8=T.|last9=Yirgu|first9=G.|doi=10.1038/nature12292|pmid=23823795|hdl=2158/1110140|s2cid=4321369|hdl-access=free|archive-date=January 24, 2021|access-date=February 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124124335/https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/node/15101|url-status=dead}}]
* ''Why do mafic arc magmas contain ~4 wt% water on average?'' Plank, T., Kelley, K.A., †Zimmer, M.M., Hauri, E.H. and Wallace, P.J. [Earth and Planetary Science Letters](/source/Earth_and_Planetary_Science_Letters), Frontiers Article Volume: 364 p.: 168-179 (2013)[{{cite journal|last1=Plank|first1=Terry|last2=Kelley|first2=Katherine A.|last3=Zimmer|first3=Mindy M.|last4=Hauri|first4=Erik H.|last5=Wallace|first5=Paul J.|title=Why do mafic arc magmas contain ~4 wt% water on average?|journal=Earth and Planetary Science Letters|volume=364|date=15 February 2013|pages=168–179|doi=10.1016/j.epsl.2012.11.044|url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X1200670X|url-status=live}}]
* ''Feeding andesitic eruptions with a high-speed connection from the mantle.'' Ruprecht, P. and Plank, T. [Nature](/source/Nature_(journal)) Volume: 50 p.: 68-72 (2013) doi:10.1038/nature12342[{{cite journal|title=Feeding andesitic eruptions with a high-speed connection from the mantle|journal=Nature|volume=500|issue=7460|pages=68–72|url=http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/node/15287|date=2013|bibcode=2013Natur.500...68R|last1=Ruprecht|first1=Philipp|last2=Plank|first2=Terry|doi=10.1038/nature12342|pmid=23903749|s2cid=4425354|url-access=subscription|archive-date=October 21, 2020|access-date=February 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021054124/https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/node/15287|url-status=dead}}]
* ''The Hf-Nd isotopic composition of marine sediments''. Vervoort, Jeff D.; Plank, Terry; Prytulak, Julie [Geochimica Et Cosmochimica Acta](/source/Geochimica_et_Cosmochimica_Acta) 10/2011 Volume: 75 p.: 5903-5926 (2011)[{{cite journal|title=The Hf-Nd isotopic composition of marine sediments|journal=Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta|volume=75|issue=20|pages=5903|url=http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/node/14913|date=2011|bibcode=2011GeCoA..75.5903V|last1=Vervoort|first1=Jeff D.|last2=Plank|first2=Terry|last3=Prytulak|first3=Julie|doi=10.1016/j.gca.2011.07.046|doi-access=free|archive-date=October 24, 2020|access-date=February 27, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024065322/https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/node/14913|url-status=dead}}]
* ''Emerging geothermometers for estimating slab surface temperatures.'' Plank, T.; Cooper, L.; Manning; C.E. [Nature Geoscience](/source/Nature_Geoscience) Volume: 2 p.: 611-615 (2009)[{{cite journal|last1=Plank|first1=Terry|last2=Cooper|first2=L.|last3=Manning|first3=C.|title=Emerging geothermometers for estimating slab surface temperatures|journal=Nature Geoscience|volume=2|date=16 August 2009|pages=611–615|doi=10.1038/ngeo614}}]
==References==
{{Reflist}}
==External links==
*[http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/~tplank/Plank-2015/Welcome.html Terry Plank home page]
*[http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/user/tplank Terry Plank at Lamont Doherty]
*[https://avert-legacy.ldeo.columbia.edu/ AVERT system homepage]
*[http://www.macfound.org/fellows/873/ MacArthur Foundation bio of Terry Plank]
*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p2TRKcI9W4 Plank discussing her work and the MacArthur Fellow award]
*[http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2014/02/14/terry-plank-volcano-maven/ Terry Plank: Volcano Maven]
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Plank, Terry Ann}}
Category:1963 births
Category:Living people
Category:American volcanologists
Category:American women geologists
Category:MacArthur Fellows
Category:Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory people
Category:Columbia University alumni
Category:Columbia University faculty
Category:20th-century American geologists
Category:21st-century American geologists
Category:20th-century American women scientists
Category:21st-century American women scientists
Category:Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences
Category:American women academics
Category:Women volcanologists
Category:Women geochemists
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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Terry Plank](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Plank) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Plank?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.