Visiting Russian Scholar Studying Ferromanganese Crusts and Nodules from the Arctic Ocean

This article is part of the October-December 2016 issue of the Sound Waves newsletter.

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Natalia Konstantinova has joined the USGS Pacific Coastal Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, California, as a visiting scholar. Konstantinova is currently a Ph.D. student at the Institute of Earth Sciences at Saint Petersburg State University in Russia, where she received a bachelor’s degree in 2010 and a master’s degree in 2012. She investigates marine mineral deposits, particularly ferromanganese crusts—iron- and manganese-rich deposits that precipitate extremely slowly from cold seawater onto hard rock surfaces. Ferromanganese crusts form on seamounts, ridges, and plateaus throughout the global ocean.

Konstantinova’s academic advisor is Georgy Cherkashov, professor at Saint Petersburg State University, and her thesis advisor is James Hein, research geologist at the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, California. After receiving her master’s degree, Konstantinova was invited by Cherkashov to work at the I.S. Gramberg Institute for Geology and Mineral Resources of the Ocean, where she gained further experience in geological and oceanographic research. Konstantinova is now able to work part-time at the I.S. Gramberg Institute while pursuing a Ph.D.

Konstantinova is currently studying ferromanganese crusts from the Mendeleev Ridge in the western Arctic Ocean to better understand the nature and origin of these deposits. Konstantinova’s work at the USGS is funded through a nine-month Fulbright Fellowship with Hein, who is a world expert on marine ferromanganese deposits. Together, they will determine how the complex and unique characteristics of the Arctic Ocean produce crusts and nodules that are unlike any others formed throughout the global ocean. Konstantinova and Hein will also compare samples obtained from the Mendeleev Ridge during a 2012 Russian Arctic cruise with samples recovered from the Chukchi Plateau and Alpha Ridge during extended U.S. Continental Shelf cruises in 2008, 2009, and 2012.

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