Sophie ten Hietbrink Post-doctoral researcher
Contact
Name and title: Sophie ten HietbrinkPost-doctoral researcher
ORCID0000-0002-0000-7363 Länk till annan webbplats.
Workplace: Department of Geological Sciences Länk till annan webbplats.
Visiting address Svante Arrheniusväg 8 C, Geohuset
Postal address Institutionen för geologiska vetenskaper106 91 Stockholm
About me
With a BSc in Earth Sciences (Utrecht University), an MSc in Climate Physics (Utrecht University), and a PhD in Geochemistry (Stockholm University), I have developed a transdisciplinary research approach spanning hydrogeology, geochemistry, and cryosphere dynamics. My current research focuses on the two-way interactions between the cryosphere and offshore groundwater systems over both modern and geological timescales. To understand these complex systems, I integrate field observations with numerical modeling.
For my postdoc project, I investigate which processes predominantly drive contemporary subsea permafrost degradation in the Siberian Arctic, and the role of subsurface processes like thermal convection, groundwater dynamics and salinization therein.
During my PhD, I studied how past glaciations have shaped, and continue to shape, offshore freshened groundwater systems and submarine groundwater discharge fluxes. I also helped develop radiocarbon dating approaches to infer mean residence times of offshore groundwater, a crucial constraint to understand offshore groundwater emplacement mechanisms.
Highlighted research topics:
- Identifying the dominant drivers of contemporary subsea permafrost degradation: observations from offshore boreholes are used to constrain a numerical model that incorporates density-driven flow, Darcian flow and thermodynamical processes to reproduce observed permafrost degradation rates.
- Method development of radiocarbon dating for submarine groundwater ages: using isotope end-member mixing models, mean residence times of saline and fresh groundwater components can be estimated, revealing temporal constraints on groundwater emplacement events.
- Impact of glacial loading and unloading on offshore groundwater systems: source apportionment of offshore freshened groundwater highlights the importance of subglacial meltwater infiltration in polar regions. A numerical model was used to quantify groundwater infiltration and exfiltration rates under glacial (un)loading, and to estimate offshore freshened groundwater volumes over glacial-interglacial cycles.
- The distribution of nanoplastic in the North Atlantic subtropical gyre (master thesis): ocean water samples were analysed using Thermal Desorption - Proton Transfer Reaction - Mass Spectrometry and fingerprinting algorithms to detect nanoplastics. Results demonstrated that nanoplastics constitute the dominant fraction of marine plastic pollution.
