She has spent over thirty years investigating the geology of mid-ocean ridges and identified the importance of the physical conditions of mantle melting on the chemical composition of basalt.
[4] During her time at Columbia University she worked with Charles Langmuir on the study of mid-ocean ridge basalts, and together they produced many papers which gave her name increasing recognition within the field of geology.
She is still active in her career today continuing to travel and complete sea excursions to gather research and data.
[8] After graduating, she received a lot of offers and opportunities, but she decided to teach undergrad at Duke University instead with the hope of inspiring students to study earth sciences.
[2] From 2004 to 2012, Klein served as Director of the Baldwin Scholars' Program at Duke University, which provides leadership opportunities for women students.
[12] She uses remotely operated underwater vehicles to map the deep ocean, and directs submersible vessels to collect rock samples.
[3] She is mainly interested in silica, iron, magnesium and aluminium, but also analyses trace elements such as copper, vanadium and uranium.
By studying the composition of lava she was able to retrieve key information about the temperature and pressures of magma below the crust, as well as determining its origin.
Klein researched samples of dikes beside rift walls, and assumed that they formed from the same part of the magma chamber, thus making their chemical composition relatively the same.
Ultimately, Klein found that magma does not rise straight up to the surface of the ocean floor, and that dikes cannot be chemically identified by only the composition of lava on the seafloor.
[15] In 2002 Klein sailed to the East Pacific Rise to further research a tectonic plate named the Galapagos Microplate.
They found volcanic activity along the entire rift, discovering that it was a plate boundary and what could be a newly forming microplate.
[15] Klein has done extensive research regarding Pito Deep, an underwater abyss, in order to gain a greater understanding of the geology under the oceanic floor.
Klein and other scientists sent a robot (Jason II) underwater to take pictures and obtain samples of lava and rocks for further testing.
In the Pito Deep abyss, tectonic forces cause a large fault and rift, enabling geologists like Klein to look into the deeper layers of the ocean’s crust.