juliet kinney

Juliet Kinney

Hydrographic AnalystMultibeam Mapping and Data Research Analyst
Phone: (603) 862-3452
Office: UNH Center for Coastal & Ocean Mapping, Chase Ocean Engineering Lab, Durham, NH 03824

Juliet is excited to be working on the Post Hurricane Sandy Project with the IOCM group. She received her Ph.D. in Marine and Atmospheric Sciences from Stony Brook University. She is interested in paleoclimate/paleoceanography and her expertise as a geological oceanographer is in high resolution sea floor mapping. High resolution maps of geomorphology are used to study both the present environment as well as to study changes in the past. Storms, for example, can have very large scale changes on geomorphology. Changes in climate patterns, and storm tracks and sizes can also affect the morphology. Storms and morphological changes can have big impacts on society, such as we saw with Hurricane Sandy.

Juliet's dissertation focused on “The Evolution of the Peconic Estuary 'Oyster Terrain,’ Long Island, NY.” Her study included high resolution mapping using a combination of geophysical techniques: multibeam sonar, chirp seismic profiles, and sidescan sonar. Her thesis work used 3D high resolution morphology data and geochemical analyses of stable and radiogenic isotopes to guide the interpretation of sediment samples from the paleoenvironment. She examined geochemical proxy data from the Peconic Estuary in order to determine how submarine groundwater discharge changed during the demise of an oyster terrain that was comprised of over 10,000 reefs. Variations in salinity were examined using 87Sr/86Sr in shells, while variability in submarine groundwater discharge was examined using 226Ra in relict dated shells.

Before coming to CCOM, Juliet was a temporary full-time faculty member in the Department of Geological Sciences at Bridgewater State University in Bridgewater, MA. Prior to graduate school, she worked at the USGS as an ECO intern for two years in Menlo Park, CA with the Coastal and Marine Geology Program. She primarily worked with physical oceanographic and sediment transport data while at the USGS. Juliet graduated with a B.S. in Earth Systems Science from the UMass-Amherst Geosciences Department. 

EDUCATION

State University of New York - Stony Brook, Ph.D.
Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, August 2003–May 2012

  • Thesis Advisor: Prof. Roger D. Flood
  • Thesis: Evolution of the Peconic Estuary ‘Oyster Terrain’, Long Island, NY

University of Massachusetts–Amherst, B.S., magna cum laude, September 2000
Earth Systems Major, Art Minor

  • Honors Research Project: The Effect of Global Warming on Wildfires and Forest Ecology
  • Undergraduate Advisors: Dr. Rob Deconto and Frank Keimig