Henrietta N. Edmonds 

Associate Professor, Department of Marine Science  Research Associate Professor, Marine Science Institute  Ph.D., Oceanography, Massachusetts Institute of Technology/Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (1997)  B.S., Chemistry, Yale University (1991) Home page

Marine Chemistry

Natural and anthropogenic radionuclides as tracers of physical and biogeochemical processes; geochemistry of submarine hydrothermal systems and hydrothermal plumes; groundwater inputs to Texas bays and estuaries; Arctic and Atlantic oceanography.

Research Interests

My research interests can be divided into two broad categories: tracer oceanography and hydrothermal geochemistry. One theme that links my work in these diverse areas is the use of uranium series radionuclides as natural tracers of various processes, for example particle cycling or water mass formation and circulation rates, in these systems. I use both radiochemical ("counting") equipment and mass spectrometers (TIMS and ICPMS) as analytical tools, depending on the half lives of the isotopes I am looking at, and the size of the samples I have available to me. I also use inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICPMS) for analysis of long-lived radionuclides, metals, and rare-earth elements (REE's) in water and particulate samples.

Recent and ongoing projects include
 

• Hydrothermal exploration in the Arctic Ocean (Gakkel Ridge); 

• Hydrothermal processes in the Lau Basin, southwest Pacific (Ridge2000 program)  

• Groundwater/coastal water interactions in south Texas

• Particle cycling in hydrothermal plumes

• Th-230 and Pa-231 in the water column and sediments of the Arctic Ocean.

Breier, J.A., Jr., C.F. Breier, and H.N. Edmonds. 2005. Detecting submarine groundwater discharge with synoptic surveys of sediment resistivity, radium, and salinity. Geophysical Research Letters in press.

Moran, S.B., C.-C. Shen, R.L. Edwards, H.N. Edmonds, J.C. Scholten, J.N. Smith, and T.-L. Ku. 2005. ²³¹Pa and ²³⁰Th in surface sediments of the Arctic Ocean: implications for ²³¹Pa/²³⁰Th fractionation, boundary scavenging, and advective export. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 234:235-248.

Edmonds, H.N., S.B. Moran, H. Cheng, and R.L. Edwards. 2004. ²³⁰Th and ²³¹Pa in the Arctic Ocean: Implications for particle fluxes and basin-scale Th/Pa fractionation. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 227:155-167.

Baker, E.T., H.N. Edmonds, P.J. Michael, W. Bach, H.J.B. Dick, J.E. Snow, S.L. Walker, N.R. Banerjee, and C.H. Langmuir. 2004. Hydrothermal venting in magma deserts: The ultraslow-spreading Gakkel and Southwest Indian Ridges. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 5(8): Q08002, doi: 10.1029/2004GC000712.

Edmonds, H.N. and C.R. German. 2004.  Particle geochemistry in the Rainbow hydrothermal plume, Mid-Atlantic Ridge.  Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 68(4): 759-772. 

Edmonds, H.N., P.J. Michael, E.T. Baker, D.P. Connelly, J.E. Snow, C.H. Langmuir, H.J.B. Dick, R. Mühe, C.R. German, and D.W. Graham.  2003.  Discovery of abundant hydrothermal venting on the ultra-slow spreading Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Ocean. Nature 421: 252-256.

Contact: Henrietta N. Edmonds
Created: Thu Nov 1 11:15 New Zealand Daylight Time 2000