Questions and Clarity: Insights from Applying Computational Methods to Paleoclimate Archives
It is a scientifically accepted fact that the Earth’s climate is presently undergoing significant changes with the potential for immense negative impacts on human society. As evidence of these impacts become clear and common, it becomes ever more important to constrain the nature, magnitude, and spe...
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| Format: | Thesis |
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Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2022
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/144737 |
| _version_ | 1826209471783763968 |
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| author | Fendrock, Michaela |
| author2 | McGee, David |
| author_facet | McGee, David Fendrock, Michaela |
| author_sort | Fendrock, Michaela |
| collection | MIT |
| description | It is a scientifically accepted fact that the Earth’s climate is presently undergoing significant changes with the potential for immense negative impacts on human society. As evidence of these impacts become clear and common, it becomes ever more important to constrain the nature, magnitude, and speed of changes to Earth systems. A fundamentally important tool to this understanding is the Earth’s past, recorded in the geologic record. There, lie examples of climate change under various forcings: important data for understanding the fundamental dynamics of climate change on our planet. However, when a climate signal is written in the geologic record, it is coded into the language of proxies and distorted by time. This thesis endeavors to decode that record using a variety of computational methods on a number of challenging proxies, to draw more information from the climate past than has previously been possible. First, machine learning and computer vision are used to decipher the primary, centimeter-scale textures of carbonate deposits in Searles Valley and Mono Lake, California. This work is able to connect facies in the tufa at Searles, grown during the Last Glacial Period, and those forming presently at Mono Lake. Next, the tracks of icebergs purged during Heinrich Events are simulated using the MIT General Circulation Model. This work, running multiple experiments exploring different aspects internal and external to the icebergs, reveals wind and sediment partitioning as centrally important to the spatial extent of Heinrich Layers. Each of these works considers a traditional geologic archive – a carbonate facies, a marine sediment layer – and uses computational methods to approach that archive from a different perspective. By applying these new methods, more information can be gleaned from the geologic record, building a richer narrative of the Earth’s climate history. The final chapter of this thesis discusses effective teaching and strategies for building communities to support teaching practice in Earth Science departments. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:23:03Z |
| format | Thesis |
| id | mit-1721.1/144737 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:23:03Z |
| publishDate | 2022 |
| publisher | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1447372022-08-30T03:19:27Z Questions and Clarity: Insights from Applying Computational Methods to Paleoclimate Archives Fendrock, Michaela McGee, David Condron, Alan Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences It is a scientifically accepted fact that the Earth’s climate is presently undergoing significant changes with the potential for immense negative impacts on human society. As evidence of these impacts become clear and common, it becomes ever more important to constrain the nature, magnitude, and speed of changes to Earth systems. A fundamentally important tool to this understanding is the Earth’s past, recorded in the geologic record. There, lie examples of climate change under various forcings: important data for understanding the fundamental dynamics of climate change on our planet. However, when a climate signal is written in the geologic record, it is coded into the language of proxies and distorted by time. This thesis endeavors to decode that record using a variety of computational methods on a number of challenging proxies, to draw more information from the climate past than has previously been possible. First, machine learning and computer vision are used to decipher the primary, centimeter-scale textures of carbonate deposits in Searles Valley and Mono Lake, California. This work is able to connect facies in the tufa at Searles, grown during the Last Glacial Period, and those forming presently at Mono Lake. Next, the tracks of icebergs purged during Heinrich Events are simulated using the MIT General Circulation Model. This work, running multiple experiments exploring different aspects internal and external to the icebergs, reveals wind and sediment partitioning as centrally important to the spatial extent of Heinrich Layers. Each of these works considers a traditional geologic archive – a carbonate facies, a marine sediment layer – and uses computational methods to approach that archive from a different perspective. By applying these new methods, more information can be gleaned from the geologic record, building a richer narrative of the Earth’s climate history. The final chapter of this thesis discusses effective teaching and strategies for building communities to support teaching practice in Earth Science departments. Ph.D. 2022-08-29T16:08:14Z 2022-08-29T16:08:14Z 2022-05 2022-05-27T15:47:07.759Z Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/144737 In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted Copyright retained by author(s) https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC-EDU/1.0/ application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| spellingShingle | Fendrock, Michaela Questions and Clarity: Insights from Applying Computational Methods to Paleoclimate Archives |
| title | Questions and Clarity: Insights from Applying Computational Methods to Paleoclimate Archives |
| title_full | Questions and Clarity: Insights from Applying Computational Methods to Paleoclimate Archives |
| title_fullStr | Questions and Clarity: Insights from Applying Computational Methods to Paleoclimate Archives |
| title_full_unstemmed | Questions and Clarity: Insights from Applying Computational Methods to Paleoclimate Archives |
| title_short | Questions and Clarity: Insights from Applying Computational Methods to Paleoclimate Archives |
| title_sort | questions and clarity insights from applying computational methods to paleoclimate archives |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/144737 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT fendrockmichaela questionsandclarityinsightsfromapplyingcomputationalmethodstopaleoclimatearchives |