Pavia Lab at UW

The Southern Ocean comprises the waters surrounding Antarctica. Here, there are no continents blocking the flow of waters, allowing for westerly winds to drive a current flowing all the way around Antarctica – aptly named the Antarctic Circumpolar current. This part of the ocean is special. It is one of the only places in the world where the deepest ocean waters, rich in carbon and nutrients, which have been kept away from the atmosphere for hundreds to thousands of years,…

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The South Pacific Gyre is an oceanographic desert. Inward-spiraling currents push surface waters downward, prevent nutrient-rich waters from reaching the sunlit oceans, and inhibit plankton growth. It’s also about as far from the continents as you can get. So, atmospheric dust inputs are extremely low – and as a result, so are the inputs of micronutrients like iron, which are critical for the few biota that are around to conduct biochemical processes like nitrogen fixation. In 2015-2016, I sailed on…

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The GEOTRACES IPO posted a highlight summarizing the findings from our recent paper synthesizing data from three radiogenic thorium isotopes, ²³⁴Th, ²³⁰Th, and ²²⁸Th to study the kinetics of trace element removal processes by metalliferous particles in hydrothermal plumes. Have a look! http://geotraces.org/science/science-highlight/1663-thorium-isotope-toolbox