Identifying and Characterizing Outflows in Outflows of Metal-Poor Starbursting Galaxies

This thesis studies several nearby, low-metallicity starbursting galaxies using the Keck II telescope on Mauna Kea in order to determine the presence of, and characterize the properties of star-formation driven galaxy-scale gas outflows. This thesis developed new methods for measuring and defining these outflows, intended for application to large samples of galaxies. The thesis provides measurement of the global geometric properties of the observed outflows, and compares the outflow gas to that observed within the galaxy disk, with a view to answering the question of how these outflows fit into the overall picture of galaxy evolution.