Thesis: S.M., Joint Program in Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2014. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 79-81). / The ocean is a complex, constantly changing, highly dynamical system. Prediction capabilities are constantly being improved in order to better understand and forecast ocean properties for applications in science, industry, and maritime interests. Our overarching goal is to better predict the ocean environment in regions of complex topography with a continental shelf, shelfbreak, canyons and steep slopes using the MIT Multidisciplinary Simulation, Estimation and Assimilation Systems (MSEAS) primitive-equation ocean model. We did this by focusing on the complex region surrounding Taiwan, and the period of time immediately following the passage of Typhoon Morakot. This area and period were studied extensively as part of the intense observation period during August - September 2009 of the joint U.S. - Taiwan program Quantifying, Predicting, and Exploiting Uncertainty Department Research Initiative (QPE DRI). Typhoon Morakot brought an unprecedented amount of rainfall within a very short time period and in this research, we model and study the effects of this rainfall on Taiwan's coastal oceans as a result of river discharge. We do this through the use of a river discharge model and a bulk river-ocean mixing model. We complete a sensitivity study of the primitive-equation ocean model simulations to the different parameters of these models. By varying the shape, size, and depth of the bulk mixing model footprint, and examining the resulting impacts on ocean salinity forecasts, we are able to determine an optimal combination of salinity relaxation factors for highest accuracy. / by Jennifer Jacobs Landry. / S.M.

Thesis: Ph. D. in Mechanical and Oceanographic Engineering, Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Mechanical Engineering; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 93-104). / The effects of waves, wind, and bathymetry on tidal and subtidal hydrodynamics at unstratified, shallow New River Inlet, NC, are evaluated using field observations and numerical simulations. Tidal flows are ebb-dominated (-1.5 to 0.6 m/s, positive is inland) inside the main (2 to 5 m deep) channel on the (1 to 2 m deep) ebb shoal, owing to inflow and outflow asymmetry at the inlet mouth. Ebb-dominance of the flows is reduced during large waves (> 1 m) owing to breaking-induced onshore momentum flux. Shoaling and breaking of large waves cause depression (setdown, offshore of the ebb shoal) and super-elevation (setup, on the shoal and in the inlet) of the mean water levels, resulting in changes to the cross-shoal pressure gradient, which can weaken onshore flows. At a 90-degree bend 800-m inland of the inlet mouth, centrifugal acceleration owing to curvature drives two-layered cross-channel flows (0.1 to 0.2 m/s) with surface flows going away from and bottom flows going toward the bend. The depth-averaged dynamics are tidally asymmetric. Subtidal cross-channel flows are correlated (r² > 0.5) with cross-channel wind speed, suggesting that winds are enhancing and degrading the local-curvature induced two-layer flow, and driving three-layer flow. / by Anna Wargula. / Ph. D. in Mechanical and Oceanographic Engineering

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2009. / Includes bibliographical references. / Driven by commercial promise, the carbon nanotube (CNT) industry is growing rapidly, yet little is known about the potential environmental impacts of these novel materials. In particular, there are no methods to detect CNTs in environmental matrices (e.g.,sediment) and thus, there is no way to study their transport or gauge ecological exposure. Thermal methods were developed to quantify CNTs in coastal sediments down to 10 ug per sample, which is sufficient to for CNTs in laboratory air, but not sufficient to measure contemporary levels of CNTs in the environment (which were estimated to be present at pg g' sediment levels using a dynamic mass balance model). In addition to the CNTs themselves, potential impacts of CNT production were assessed by monitoring emissions from a representative synthesis. An ethene-fed chemical vapor deposition process generated several compounds of environmental concern, including the greenhouse gas, methane, the hazardous pollutants, benzene and 1,3-butadiene, and toxic polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. By identifying critical CNT precursors (alkynes), I delivered these compounds without thermal pre-treatment and achieved rapid CNT growth. This approach reduced carbonaceous emissions by more than an order of magnitude, and lowered initial feedstock requirements and energetic demands by at least 20%, without sacrificing CNT yield. / by Desirée L. Plata. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 1998. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Youngsook Huh. / Ph.D.

Thesis: Ph.D. in Geochemistry, Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2017. / This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (pages 123-143). / This thesis documents the origin, distribution, and fate of methane and several of its isotopic forms on Earth. Using observational, experimental, and theoretical approaches, I illustrate how the relative abundances of ¹²CH₄, ¹³CH₄, ¹²CH₃D, and ¹³CH₃D record the formation, transport, and breakdown of methane in selected settings. Chapter 2 reports precise determinations of ¹³CH₃D, a "clumped" isotopologue of methane, in samples collected from various settings representing many of the major sources and reservoirs of methane on Earth. The results show that the information encoded by the abundance of ¹³CH₃D enables differentiation of methane generated by microbial, thermogenic, and abiogenic processes. A strong correlation between clumped- and hydrogen-isotope signatures in microbial methane is identified and quantitatively linked to the availability of H₂ and the reversibility of microbially-mediated methanogenesis in the environment. Determination of ¹³CH₃D in combination with hydrogen-isotope ratios of methane and water provides a sensitive indicator of the extent of C-H bond equilibration, enables fingerprinting of methane-generating mechanisms, and in some cases, supplies direct constraints for locating the waters from which migrated gases were sourced. Chapter 3 applies this concept to constrain the origin of methane in hydrothermal fluids from sediment-poor vent fields hosted in mafic and ultramafic rocks on slow- and ultraslow-spreading mid-ocean ridges. The data support a hypogene model whereby methane forms abiotically within plutonic rocks of the oceanic crust at temperatures above ca. 300 °C during respeciation of magmatic volatiles, and is subsequently extracted during active, convective hydrothermal circulation. Chapter 4 presents the results of culture experiments in which methane is oxidized in the presence of O₂ by the bacterium Methylococcus capsulatus strain Bath. The results show that the clumped isotopologue abundances of partially-oxidized methane can be predicted from knowledge of ¹³C/¹²C and D/H isotope fractionation factors alone. / by David Texan Wang. / Ph.D. in Geochemistry

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2004. / Includes bibliographical references. / Onshore sediment transport and sandbar migration are important to the morphological evolution of beaches, but are not understood well. Here, a new model that accounts for accelerations of wave-orbital velocities predicts onshore sandbar migration observed on an ocean beach. In both the observations and the model, the location of the maximum acceleration-induced transport moves shoreward with the sandbar, resulting in feedback between waves and morphology that drives the bar shoreward until conditions change. A model that combines the effects of transport by waves and mean currents simulates both onshore and offshore bar migration observed over a 45-day period. A stochastic nonlinear Boussinesq model for the evolution of waves in shallow water is coupled with the wave-acceleration-driven sediment transport model to predict observed onshore sediment transport and sandbar migration given observations of the offshore wave field and initial bathymetry. The Boussinesq-wave model has skill in predicting wave spectra, as well as velocity and acceleration statistics across the surfzone, but it underpredicts acceleration skewness on top of the sandbar. As a result, the coupled wave-sediment transport model underpredicts sediment transport, and thus fails to move the sandbar onshore. Although the coupled wave and sediment model can be tuned to yield skillful predictions of onshore sandbar migration, in general, closer agreement between observed and modeled statistics of the wave field is essential for the successful application of wave models to predict sediment transport. / by Fernanda Gemael Hoefel. / Ph.D.

Thesis: Ph. D., Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / Scleractinian corals extract calcium (Ca²⁺) and carbonate (CO₃²⁻) ions from seawater to construct their calcium carbonate (CaCO₃) skeletons. Key to the coral biomineralization process is the active elevation of the CO₃²⁻ concentration of the calcifying fluid to achieve rapid nucleation and growth of CaCO3 crystals. Coral skeletons contain valuable records of past climate variability and contribute to the formation of coral reefs. However, limitations in our understanding of coral biomineralization hinder the accuracy of (1) coral-based reconstructions of past climate, and (2) predictions of coral reef futures as anthropogenic CO₂ emissions drive declines in seawater CO₃²⁻ concentration. In this thesis, I investigate the mechanism of coral biomineralization and evaluate the sensitivity of coral reef CaCO₃ production to seawater carbonate chemistry. First, I conducted abiogenic CaCO₃²⁻ precipitation experiments that identified the U/Ca ratio as a proxy for fluid CO₃²⁻ concentration. Based on these experimental results, I developed a quantitative coral biomineralization model that predicts temperature can be reconstructed from coral skeletons by combining Sr/Ca - which is sensitive to both temperature and CO₃²⁻ - with U/Ca into a new proxy called "Sr-U". I tested this prediction with 14 corals from the Pacific Ocean and the Red Sea spanning mean annual temperatures of 25.7-30.1 °C and found that Sr-U has uncertainty of only 0.5 °C, twice as accurate as conventional coral-based thermometers. Second, I investigated the processes that differentiate reef-water and open-ocean carbonate chemistry, and the sensitivity of ecosystem-scale calcification to these changes. On Dongsha Atoll in the northern South China Sea, metabolic activity of resident organisms elevates reef-water CO₃²⁻ twice as high as the surrounding open ocean, driving rates of ecosystem calcification higher than any other coral reef studied to date. When high temperatures stressed the resident coral community, metabolic activity slowed, with dramatic effects on reef-water chemistry and ecosystem calcification. Overall, my thesis highlights how the modulation of CO₃²⁻, by benthic communities on the reef and individual coral polyps in the colony, controls the sensitivity of coral reefs to future ocean acidification and influences the climate records contained in the skeleton. / by Thomas Mario DeCarlo. / Ph. D.

Thesis (S.M.)--Joint Program in Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2012. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 139-143). / Adaptive equalization is an important aspect of communication systems in various environments. It is particularly important in underwater acoustic communication systems, as the channel has a long delay spread and is subject to the effects of time- varying multipath fading and Doppler spreading. The design of the adaptation algorithm has a profound influence on the performance of the system. In this thesis, we explore this aspect of the system. The emphasis of the work presented is on applying concepts from inference and decision theory and information theory to provide an approach to deriving and analyzing adaptation algorithms. Limited work has been done so far on rigorously devising adaptation algorithms to suit a particular situation, and the aim of this thesis is to concretize such efforts and possibly to provide a mathematical basis for expanding it to other applications. We derive an algorithm for the adaptation of the coefficients of an equalizer when the receiver has limited or no information about the transmitted symbols, which we term the Soft-Decision Directed Recursive Least Squares algorithm. We will demonstrate connections between the Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm and the Recursive Least Squares algorithm, and show how to derive a computationally efficient, purely recursive algorithm from the optimal EM algorithm. Then, we use our understanding of Markov processes to analyze the performance of the RLS algorithm in hard-decision directed mode, as well as of the Soft-Decision Directed RLS algorithm. We demonstrate scenarios in which the adaptation procedures fail catastrophically, and discuss why this happens. The lessons from the analysis guide us on the choice of models for the adaptation procedure. We then demonstrate how to use the algorithm derived in a practical system for underwater communication using turbo equalization. As the algorithm naturally incorporates soft information into the adaptation process, it becomes easy to fit it into a turbo equalization framework. We thus provide an instance of how to use the information of a turbo equalizer in an adaptation procedure, which has not been very well explored in the past. Experimental data is used to prove the value of the algorithm in a practical context. / by Atulya Yellepeddi. / S.M.

Thesis (S.M.)--Joint Program in Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Ocean Engineering; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2003. / Thesis (S.M.)--Joint Program in Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2003. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 73-79). / S.M.

Thesis: Ph. D., Joint Program in Oceanography/Applied Ocean Science and Engineering (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences; and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution), 2017. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis investigates the formation and subsequent motion of oceanic lithospheric plates through geophysical and petrological methods. Ocean crust and lithosphere forms at mid-ocean ridges as the underlying asthenosphere rises, melts, and flows away from the ridge axis. In Chapters 2 and 3, I present the results from partial melting experiments of mantle peridotite that were conducted in order to examine the mantle melting point, or solidus, beneath a mid-ocean ridge. Chapter 2 determines the peridotite solidus at a single pressure of 1.5 GPa and concludes that the oceanic mantle potential temperature must be -60 °C hotter than current estimates. Chapter 3 goes further to provide a more accurate parameterization of the anhydrous mantle solidus from experiments over a range of pressures. This chapter concludes that the range of potential temperatures of the mantle beneath mid-ocean ridges and plumes is smaller than currently estimated. Once formed, the oceanic plate moves atop the underlying asthenosphere away from the ridge axis. Chapter 4 uses seafloor magnetotelluric data to investigate the mechanism responsible for plate motion at the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary. The resulting two dimensional conductivity model shows a simple layered structure. By applying petrological constraints, I conclude that the upper asthenosphere does not contain substantial melt, which suggests that either a thermal or hydration mechanism supports plate motion. Oceanic plate motion has dramatically changed the surface of the Earth over time, and evidence for ancient plate motion is obvious from detailed studies of the longer lived continental lithosphere. In Chapter 5, I investigate past plate motion by inverting magnetotelluric data collected over eastern Zambia. The conductivity model probes the Zambian lithosphere and reveals an ancient subduction zone previously suspected from surface studies. This chapter elucidates the complex lithospheric structure of eastern Zambia and the geometry of the tectonic elements in the region, which collided as a result of past oceanic plate motion. Combined, the chapters of this thesis provide critical constraints on ocean plate dynamics. / by Emily Kathryn Sarafian. / Ph. D.