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Greenlandic ice archives of North Atlantic Common Era climate
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019)
The Common Era (A.D. 1- present) represents a crucial period for climatic studies, documenting the timespan over which human activities have become an increasingly domineering force in shaping Earth's landscape, climate, ...
Seismic and numerical constraints on the formation and evolution of ocean lithosphere
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019)
This thesis explicates aspects of the basic structure of oceanic lithosphere that are shaped by the processes that form the lithosphere. The strength of lithospheric plates relative to the underlying mantle enables the ...
Dynamics and kinematics of an estuarine network
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019)
This thesis addresses the dynamics of estuarine networks, based on hydrographic observations in Newark Bay, a sub-estuarine network connected to the Hudson River estuary through New York Harbor. Estuarine networks differ ...
The mineralogy and chemistry of modern shallow-water and deep-sea corals
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019)
The architecture of coral reef ecosystems is composed of coral skeletons built from the mineral aragonite (CaCO3). Coral reefs are currently being threatened by ocean acidification (OA), which may lower calcification rates, ...
The response of ocean salinity patterns to climate change : implications for circulation
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019)
Global patterns of ocean salinity arise from the exchange of freshwater between the sea surface and the atmosphere. For a quasi-steady state system, these surface fluxes are balanced by compensating transports of salt in ...
A modeling study of the marine biogeochemistry, plankton dynamics, and carbon cycle on the continental shelf off the West Antarctic Peninsula
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019)
Over the past several decades, the West Antarctic Peninsula (WAP) has undergone physical and ecological changes at a rapid pace, with warming surface ocean and a sharp decrease in the duration of the sea ice season. The ...
The production and fate of nitrogen species in deep-sea hydrothermal environments
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019)
Nitrogen (N) species in hydrothermal vent fluids serve as both a nutrient and energy source for the chemosynthetic ecosystems surrounding deep-sea vents. While numerous pathways have been identified in which N-species can ...
Geophysical and geochemical constraints on submarine volcanic processes
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019)
Submarine volcanic systems form new oceanic crust, host unique chemosynthetic ecosystems, concentrate rare metals, and provide a conduit for chemical transfer from the Earth's interior to hydrosphere. Although our understanding ...
The Influence of heat transport on Arctic amplification
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019)
The Arctic surface air temperature has warmed nearly twice as much as the global mean since the mid-20th century. Arctic sea ice has also been declining rapidly in recent decades. There is still discussion about how much ...
Lagrangian dispersion and deformation in submesoscale flows
(Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2019)
Submesoscale currents, with horizontal length scales of 1-20 km, are an important element of upper ocean dynamics. These currents play a crucial role in the horizontal and vertical redistribution of tracers, the cascade ...