Xiaoqing Chen

OS Ocean Sciences

The 2023 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Xiaoqing Chen for the poster/PICO entitled:

Time-Lapse Volumetric Seismic Imaging of Water Masses at a Major Oceanic Confluence in the South Atlantic Ocean (Chen, X.; White, N.; Woods, A.)

Click here to download the poster/PICO file.

Xiaoqing Chen is a PhD candidate in the Bullard Laboratories at the University of Cambridge, supervised by Nick White and Andy Woods. She has a master degree in Applied Geophysics from ETH Zurich and a bachelor degree in geology engineering from China University of Petroleum (Beijing).

Her research topic is the water-mass interaction processes within the Southern Ocean. In particular, she aims to exploit time-lapse volumetric seismic imaging of the Brazil-Malvinas Confluence (BMC) in order to elucidate the detailed thermohaline structure of this critical region. Her work combines regional in situ measurements, numerical modelling and seismic imaging.

The work presented in EGU 2023 highlights adeep transient mesoscale eddy that is embedded in a major oceanic front. This eddy appears to grow and decay over ~11 day period and it has a maximum diameter of ~40 km. Time-lapsed imagery also reveals mesoscale to sub-mesoscale complexity at all depths. Her results highlight the importance of combining high quality three-dimensional seismic imagery with hydrographic observations in order to elucidate the fluid dynamics of complex oceanic fronts.