Christopher Kinsley Postdoctoral Associate ckinsley@mit.edu 617 253 5733 E25-629
Education
PhD in Inorganic Geochemistry / Paleoclimate, 2019 from MIT-WHOI (EAPS), MEarthSc, 2012 from University of Oxford
Bio and Interests
I am a geoscientist fascinated by the controls on Earth’s climate, and how we can reconstruct past changes to the climate system to inform ourselves of potential future change. I use inorganic geochemistry as a tool to examine changes to windblown mineral dust over the most recent glacial-interglacial cycles. Through high precision measurements of radiogenic isotopes on dust physically and chemically isolated from ocean sediments, I produce records of dust flux (using uranium and thorium) and provenance change (using lead, neodymium, and strontium). These data provide quantitative reconstructions of dust flux changes and can also be used to infer changes to atmospheric circulation and hydroclimate. I am currently working on core sites influenced by the West African and East Asian Monsoons where my work will inform our understanding of how hydroclimate in these regions responds to changing climate boundary conditions over orbital- to millennial-timescales.