astronomy

Sidney Hemming

Sidney Hemming is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sidney Hemming rather than just read about it. In short: Sidney Ann Rasbury Hemming is an analytical geochemist known for her work documenting Earth's history through analysis of sediments and sedimentary rocks. She is a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University.

Key takeaways

Sidney Hemming belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sidney Hemming to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sidney Hemming from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sidney Ann Rasbury Hemming is an analytical geochemist known for her work documenting Earth's history through analysis of sediments and sedimentary rocks. She is a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Columbia University.

Education and career Hemming earned a BS from Midwestern University in 1983 and an MS from Tulane University in 1986. In 1994 she earned her PhD from Stony Brook where she studied lead isotopes in sedimentary rocks. In 1994, Hemming started a postdoc with Wally Broecker at Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory. As of 2021, Hemming is a professor of earth and environmental sciences at Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory. In 2018, Hemming was named a fellow of the American Geophysical Union who cited her "for the development of geochemical and isotopic tracers for sediments to reveal geological processes and events through Earth's history". In 2021, Hemming received a Guggenheim Fellowship which she plans to use to study the time period between the Pliocene and the Pleistocene.

Research Hemming's research documents Earth's historical changes through the analysis of chemical signals preserved in sedimentary rocks and sediments. She uses geochronology to obtain age estimates of events occurring in the ocean thereby tracking changes in water circulation, winds, and glaciers. She has used neodymium isotopes to track rapid changes in Antarctic Intermediate Water and changes in North Atlantic Deep Water. In the southern Ocean, Hemming has used strontium isotopes in sediments to track changes in the strength of the Agulhas current during the Last Glacial Maximum and constrained the location of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. In California, her research on past climate conditions at Mono Lake revealed chemical signatures in the sediments recorded the Laschamp event, a global geomagnetic shift. In the North Atlantic Ocean, Hemming's research on Heinrich events has constrained the amount of ice-rafted debris moved by icebergs into the North Atlantic Ocean.

Selected publications McLennan, S.M.; Hemming, S. R.; McDaniel, D. K.; Hanson, G. N. (1993). "Geochemical approaches to sedimentation, provenance, and tectonics". In Johnsson, M. J.; Basu, A. (eds.). Processes controlling the Composition of Clastic Sediments. Vol. 284. Geological Society of America Special Paper. pp. 21–40. doi:10.1130/SPE284-P21. ISBN 9780813722849. S2CID 129996010. Rutberg, Randye L.; Hemming, Sidney R.; Goldstein, Steven L. (2000). "Reduced North Atlantic Deep Water flux to the glacial Southern Ocean inferred from neodymium isotope ratios". Nature. 405 (6789): 935–938. Bibcode:2000Natur.405..935R. doi:10.1038/35016049. ISSN 0028-0836. PMID 10879531. S2CID 205007120. Broecker, W. S.; Hemming, Sidney (December 14, 2001). "Climate Swings Come into Focus". Science. 294 (5550): 2308–2309. Bibcode:2001Sci...294.2308B. doi:10.1126/science.1068389. PMID 11743191. S2CID 129844023. Goldstein, S.L.; Hemming, S.R. (2003), "Long-lived Isotopic Tracers in Oceanography, Paleoceanography, and Ice-sheet Dynamics", Treatise on Geochemistry, vol. 6, Elsevier, pp. 453–489, Bibcode:2003TrGeo...6..453G, doi:10.1016/b0-08-043751-6/06179-x, ISBN 978-0-08-043751-4, S2CID 131959671, retrieved August 16, 2021 Hemming, Sidney R. (2004). "Heinrich events: Massive late Pleistocene detritus layers of the North Atlantic and their global climate imprint". Reviews of Geophysics. 42 (1). Bibcode:2004RvGeo..42.1005H. doi:10.1029/2003RG000128. ISSN 1944-9208. S2CID 53526029.

Awards and honors Fellow, American Geophysical Union (2018) Fellow, Geological Society of America (2018) Fellow, Geochemical Society (2020) Guggenheim Foundation Fellow (2021)

References

External links Sidney Hemming publications indexed by Google Scholar Earth2Class with Dr. Sidney Hemming April 3 2021 on YouTube

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sidney Hemming

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sidney Hemming claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sidney Hemming before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sidney Hemming ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sidney Hemming

In research: Sidney Hemming appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sidney Hemming in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sidney Hemming is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Columbia University faculty, Fellows of the American Geophysical Union, Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory people, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sidney Hemming outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sidney Hemming in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sidney Hemming means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sidney Hemming out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sidney Hemming in simple terms?

Why does Sidney Hemming matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sidney Hemming?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sidney Hemming.