Research News

Taking Teachers Into Field Helps Schools, Students, Study Finds

kmartine — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:41:55 -0400

Training teachers to do science in the field or laboratory measurably increases the academic performance of their students and may have far-reaching economic benefits, according to a new study in the journal Science.

Polar Survival a Century Ago: Good Planning, or Just Good Weather?

kmartine — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:48:12 -0400

Before airplanes and satellite phones, polar exploration was a more dangerous undertaking than it is now. A new article in American Scientist retraces Nansen and Shackleton's expeditions from the perspective of modern ocean conditions and sea ice drift conditions.

Peering Under the Ice of a Collapsing Polar Coast

webmaster — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:56:30 -0400

Starting this month, a giant NASA DC-8 aircraft loaded with geophysical instruments and scientists will buzz at low level over the coasts of West Antarctica, where ice sheets are collapsing at a pace far beyond what scientists expected a few years ago.

‘Killer’ Southeast Drought Low on Scale, Says Study

webmaster — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:59:52 -0400

A 2005-2007 dry spell in the southeastern United States destroyed billions of dollars of crops, drained municipal reservoirs and sparked legal wars among a half-dozen states—but the havoc came not from exceptional dryness but booming population and bad planning, says a new study.

Glaciers Have Moved Together in Far-Flung Regions

kmartine — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 15:35:00 -0400

A new study adds evidence that climate swings in Europe and North America during the last ice age were closely linked to changes in the tropics. The study, published this week in the journal Science, suggests that a prolonged cold spell...

U.S. Funds To Upgrade Seismic Network

webmaster — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 11:28:03 -0400

That rumbling you feel is not necessarily a passing subway. New York City and the surrounding region gets a surprising number of small earthquakes, and a 2008 study from the region’s network of seismographs, run by Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, suggests that the risk of a damaging one is not negligible. This week, the federal government announced a major upgrade to that network.

Sea Change

webmaster — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 16:25:23 -0400

The world’s oceans are growing more acidic as carbon emissions from the modern world are absorbed by the sea. A new film, “A Sea Change,” explores what this changing chemistry means for fish and the one billion people who rely on them for food. This first-ever documentary about ocean acidification is told through the eyes of a retired history teacher who reads about the problem in a piece in The New Yorker and is inspired to find out more. His quest takes him to Alaska, California, Washington and Norway to talk with oceanographers, climatologists and others.

National Geographic Channel Airs Special Featuring Lamont-Doherty Scientists

webmaster — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 11:28:55 -0400

“Drain the Ocean” will be aired Sunday, August 16, 2 p.m. on the National Geographic channel. The special put computer-generated imagery and digital mapping technology to imaginative use through showing what the oceans would look like if all their water was emptied through an imaginary drain. The result would be a landscape far more dramatic than anything on dry land, including a 40,000 mile-long mountain range, the world’s deepest canyon and widest plains, and bizarre, bioluminescent life forms

Earth Science Made Easier

kmartine — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 11:14:55 -0400

Instead of an ice-covered South Pole, picture sub-tropical temperatures and flowering plants. That’s what parts of Antarctica looked like 85 million years ago. How long ago was that? If you’re drawing a blank you’re not alone.

Thinking on geologic time scales does not come easily for many people, and that’s a challenge in teaching earth science, says Lamont-Doherty oceanographer Kim Kastens, in a recent cover story in EOS, a weekly newspaper published by the American Geophysical Union.

Wallace Broecker Speaks to BBC's "The World"

kmartine — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:21:24 -0400

Wallace Broecker Speaks to BBC's "The World", broadcast on July 7th & July 9th 2009 as part of a three part series on energy and climate.

As politicians and environmentalists prepare for the UN Climate Change talks in December to discuss urgent reduction of CO2 emissions, the BBC asked what is the future for global energy production?

Study Predicts Maximum Sea Level Rise Close to One Meter by 2100

webmaster — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 09:34:47 -0400

A new study of sea level fluctuations over the last 22,000 years is the latest to predict that rising seas could reach close to one meter by the end of this century, consistent with the most recent sea level projections made by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Gas-Hydrate Deposits in Gulf of Mexico

kmartine — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:49:04 -0400

U.S. scientists working on a research vessel in the Gulf of Mexico have made the most promising discovery so far of marine gas hydrate, a possible new energy source.

Potential Alternative Fuel, Usually Too Thinly Spread to Exploit

Five Decades of Studying CO2 at Sea : Takahashi Honored for Pioneering Measurements

webmaster — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:08:34 -0400

The oceans play a central role in cycling carbon dioxide into and out of the atmosphere, and thus an essential role in regulating climate. Taro Takahashi, a geochemist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, has spent the last five decades measuring this process, and the April issue of the journal Deep Sea Research II is dedicated to him for this pioneering work.

CO2 Higher Today Than Last 2.1 Million Years

kmartine — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 12:08:45 -0400

Researchers have reconstructed atmospheric carbon dioxide levels over the past 2.1 million years in the sharpest detail yet, shedding new light on its role in the earth’s cycles of cooling and warming.

Fighting Global Warming by Turning CO2 into Stone

kmartine — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 17:34:11 -0400

A power plant in Iceland is set to become the first in the world to try turning carbon dioxide emissions into solid minerals underground, starting this September.

In an $11 million pilot project, Reykjavik Energy will capture CO2 from its plant, dissolve the gas in water and inject it deep into volcanic basalt nearby. Over the nine-month study, some 2,000 tons of greenhouse gas will be treated.

Wallace Broecker Featured on WNJN

webmaster — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 15:57:32 -0400

Lamont Scientist Wallace Broecker was featured in a two part series on WNJN, New Jersey Public Television.

Latest Korean Blast Outdid 2006 Nuke Test

webmaster — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:02:37 -0400

Seismologists, Pinpointing Location, See Little Doubt It Was Bomb

Seismologists who have intensively studied North Korea’s nuclear testing efforts say Monday’s blast was certainly a nuclear bomb, roughly five times larger than the country’s first test in 2006.

Pondering the Deep : An Artist's Take on the Hudson River Bottom

kmartine — Wed, 13 May 2009 11:41:05 -0400

Another world lies beneath the Hudson River, as scientists have shown using pulses of sound to map the bottom. In recent years, the bathymetry maps developed at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Stony Brook University have turned up hundreds of shipwrecks and a new channel off Battery Park City, drawing interest from treasure hunters and mariners alike. Now a new group is finding inspiration: artists.

New Geochemistry Center Wins Awards

webmaster — Tue, 12 May 2009 15:58:07 -0400

The new Gary C. Comer Geochemistry Building at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, N.Y., has won three top architecture awards. Recognized for its environment-friendly features, the building houses more than 80 staff, many of whom have long been at the forefront of global climate research. Scientists in Lamont's geochemistry division study the movements and interactions of substances in air, oceans, groundwater, biological remains, sediments and rocks.

Mudslides: Forecasting Risk

kmartine — Thu, 07 May 2009 14:46:09 -0400

Landslides kill thousands of people each year but because they're often triggered by earthquakes or heavy rains, the danger remains poorly understood. A PhD candidate at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory has put together a global catalog of recent mudslides to help scientists better predict where and when the next one will occur.