Marta Torres

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Marta E. Torres is a marine geologist known for her work on the geochemistry of cold seeps and methane hydrates. She is a professor at Oregon State University, and an elected fellow of the Geochemical Society and the Geological Society of America.

Contents

Education and career

Torres has a B.S. from the Universidad de Costa Rica (1976), and an M.S. (1983) and a Ph.D. (1988) from Oregon State University. As of 2022 she is a professor at Oregon State University. [1]

Research

Torres is known for her work at cold seeps and gas hydrates, geochemical tracers used to track fluid flow in seep environments, and the chemistry of sediments and porewaters. Her early research examined the minerals associated with cold seeps near Peru, [2] with a focus on barium-containing minerals. [3] Her subsequent research has examined minerals in methane hydrates, [4] [5] methane venting from the seafloor, [6] and barite formed at cold seeps. [7] She has also examined the methane found in gas hydrates in the Arctic, [8] and silicate weathering in anoxic sediments. [9]

Selected publications

Awards and honors

In 2013 Torres was named a fellow of the Geological Society of America [10] and a fellow of Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg. [11] [ better source needed ] In 2021 Torres was named a fellow of the Geochemical Society. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Methane clathrate</span> Methane-water lattice compound

Methane clathrate (CH4·5.75H2O) or (8CH4·46H2O), also called methane hydrate, hydromethane, methane ice, fire ice, natural gas hydrate, or gas hydrate, is a solid clathrate compound (more specifically, a clathrate hydrate) in which a large amount of methane is trapped within a crystal structure of water, forming a solid similar to ice. Originally thought to occur only in the outer regions of the Solar System, where temperatures are low and water ice is common, significant deposits of methane clathrate have been found under sediments on the ocean floors of the Earth. Methane hydrate is formed when hydrogen-bonded water and methane gas come into contact at high pressures and low temperatures in oceans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cold seep</span> Ocean floor area where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs

A cold seep is an area of the ocean floor where hydrogen sulfide, methane and other hydrocarbon-rich fluid seepage occurs, often in the form of a brine pool. Cold does not mean that the temperature of the seepage is lower than that of the surrounding sea water. On the contrary, its temperature is often slightly higher. The "cold" is relative to the very warm conditions of a hydrothermal vent. Cold seeps constitute a biome supporting several endemic species.

TEX<sub>86</sub>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clathrate gun hypothesis</span>

The clathrate gun hypothesis is a proposed explanation for the periods of rapid warming during the Quaternary. The hypothesis is that changes in fluxes in upper intermediate waters in the ocean caused temperature fluctuations that alternately accumulated and occasionally released methane clathrate on upper continental slopes. This would have had an immediate impact on the global temperature, as methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Despite its atmospheric lifetime of around 12 years, methane's global warming potential is 72 times greater than that of carbon dioxide over 20 years, and 25 times over 100 years. It is further proposed that these warming events caused the Bond Cycles and individual interstadial events, such as the Dansgaard–Oeschger interstadials.

Anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) is a methane-consuming microbial process occurring in anoxic marine and freshwater sediments. AOM is known to occur among mesophiles, but also in psychrophiles, thermophiles, halophiles, acidophiles, and alkophiles. During AOM, methane is oxidized with different terminal electron acceptors such as sulfate, nitrate, nitrite and metals, either alone or in syntrophy with a partner organism.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Methane chimney</span>

A methane chimney or gas chimney is a rising column of natural gas, mainly methane within a water or sediment column. The contrast in physical properties between the gas phase and the surrounding water makes such chimneys visible in oceanographic and geophysical data. In some cases, gas bubbles released at the seafloor may dissolve before they reach the ocean surface, but the increased hydrocarbon concentration may still be measured by chemical oceanographic techniques.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hydrate Ridge</span>

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Crocetane, or 2,6,11,15-tetramethylhexadecane, is an isoprenoid hydrocarbon compound. Unlike its isomer phytane, crocetane has a tail-to-tail linked isoprenoid skeleton. Crocetane has been detected in modern sediments and geological records as a biomarker, often associated with anaerobic methane oxidation.

Reverse weathering generally refers to the formation of a clay neoformation that utilizes cations and alkalinity in a process unrelated to the weathering of silicates. More specifically reverse weathering refers to the formation of authigenic clay minerals from the reaction of 1) biogenic silica with aqueous cations or cation bearing oxides or 2) cation poor precursor clays with dissolved cations or cation bearing oxides.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Hydrate Ridge</span>

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Janet Margaret Hergt is an Australian geochemist. She is a Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor in the School of Geography, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The main focus of her research has been in the chemical analysis of rocks and minerals to explore the exquisite record of Earth processes preserved within them. Hergt is best known for her geochemical investigations of magmatic rocks although she has employed similar techniques in interdisciplinary projects including areas of archaeological and biological science.

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References

  1. "Marta Torres". College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. Retrieved 2022-03-15.
  2. Torres, Marta E.; Bohrmann, Gerhard; Suess, Erwin (1996-11-01). "Authigenic barites and fluxes of barium associated with fluid seeps in the Peru subduction zone". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 144 (3): 469–481. Bibcode:1996E&PSL.144..469T. doi:10.1016/S0012-821X(96)00163-X. ISSN   0012-821X.
  3. Torres, M. E.; Brumsack, H. J.; Bohrmann, G.; Emeis, K. C. (1996-01-10). "Barite fronts in continental margin sediments: a new look at barium remobilization in the zone of sulfate reduction and formation of heavy barites in diagenetic fronts". Chemical Geology. 127 (1): 125–139. Bibcode:1996ChGeo.127..125T. doi:10.1016/0009-2541(95)00090-9. ISSN   0009-2541.
  4. Torres, M. E.; McManus, J.; Hammond, D. E.; de Angelis, M. A.; Heeschen, K. U.; Colbert, S. L.; Tryon, M. D.; Brown, K. M.; Suess, E. (2002-08-15). "Fluid and chemical fluxes in and out of sediments hosting methane hydrate deposits on Hydrate Ridge, OR, I: Hydrological provinces". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 201 (3): 525–540. Bibcode:2002E&PSL.201..525T. doi:10.1016/S0012-821X(02)00733-1. ISSN   0012-821X.
  5. Torres, M. E.; Wallmann, K.; Tréhu, A. M.; Bohrmann, G.; Borowski, W. S.; Tomaru, H. (2004-09-30). "Gas hydrate growth, methane transport, and chloride enrichment at the southern summit of Hydrate Ridge, Cascadia margin off Oregon". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 226 (1): 225–241. Bibcode:2004E&PSL.226..225T. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2004.07.029. ISSN   0012-821X.
  6. Torres, M. E.; Mix, A. C.; Kinports, K.; Haley, B.; Klinkhammer, G. P.; McManus, J.; de Angelis, M. A. (2003-07-24). "Is methane venting at the seafloor recorded by δ13C of benthic foraminifera shells?". Paleoceanography. 18 (3): n/a. Bibcode:2003PalOc..18.1062T. doi: 10.1029/2002pa000824 . ISSN   0883-8305.
  7. Torres, Marta E.; Bohrmann, Gerhard; Dubé, Thomas E.; Poole, Forrest G. (2003-10-01). "Formation of modern and Paleozoic stratiform barite at cold methane seeps on continental margins". Geology. 31 (10): 897–900. Bibcode:2003Geo....31..897T. doi:10.1130/G19652.1. ISSN   0091-7613.
  8. Klasek, Scott A.; Hong, Wei-Li; Torres, Marta E.; Ross, Stella; Hostetler, Katelyn; Portnov, Alexey; Gründger, Friederike; Colwell, Frederick S. (2021). "Distinct methane-dependent biogeochemical states in Arctic seafloor gas hydrate mounds". Nature Communications. 12 (1): 6296. Bibcode:2021NatCo..12.6296K. doi:10.1038/s41467-021-26549-5. ISSN   2041-1723. PMC   8563959 . PMID   34728618.
  9. Torres, Marta E.; Hong, Wei-Li; Solomon, Evan A.; Milliken, Kitty; Kim, Ji-Hoon; Sample, James C.; Teichert, Barbara M. A.; Wallmann, Klaus (2020-01-01). "Silicate weathering in anoxic marine sediment as a requirement for authigenic carbonate burial". Earth-Science Reviews. 200: 102960. Bibcode:2020ESRv..20002960T. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2019.102960. ISSN   0012-8252. OSTI   1799759. S2CID   214021672.
  10. "Fellowship - Current Fellows". www.geosociety.org. Retrieved 2022-03-15.
  11. "Faculty Professional Awards". College of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences. 2019-08-01. Retrieved 2022-03-15.
  12. "Geochemistry Fellows | Geochemical Society". www.geochemsoc.org. Retrieved 2022-03-15.