Lamont Weekly Report, January 23, 2015

     The week began with announcements from NASA and NOAA that the combined average land and ocean surface temperatures during 2014 were the highest on record (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/17/science/earth/2014-was-hottest-year-on-record-surpassing-2010.html?_r=0). This news item found its way into Tuesday’s State of the Union speech by President Obama, who devoted four paragraphs to the topic of climate change (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/21/us/politics/obamas-state-of-the-union-2015-address.html?_r=0).

 

    Tuesday also brought the announcement that the 2015 Vetlesen Prize will go to volcanologist Stephen Sparks of the University of Bristol. Hallmarks of the extraordinarily broad contributions to volcanology by Prof. Sparks are his combination of novel ideas with fluid dynamical models thoroughly tested against innovative field observations. Prof. Sparks has written landmark papers on such processes as bubble nucleation and degassing in subsurface magmas, the interaction of magmas with their surrounding rock and consequent changes to magma chemistry and eruptive styles, the formation of pyroclastic flows, the formation of calderas, and the physics of volcanic plumes in the atmosphere. He has applied his general models to major historical and recent eruptions in Iceland, Italy, Montserrat, and other volcanic areas, and he has exploited the detailed chemical, petrological, and physical characteristics of volcanic deposits to illuminate and sharpen his models. A web story by Kim Martineau (http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news-events/geologist-who-modernized-volcanology-wins-2015-vetlesen-prize) summarizes well the impact that Prof. Sparks has had on our understanding of volcanic processes. The Vetlesen Prize will be given to Prof. Sparks at a black tie ceremony in Low Library this June.

 

    The Geochemistry Division welcomed Mathieu Pythoud this week as a part-time Staff Associate. A Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Minnesota, Mathieu will be hosted while at Lamont by Bob Anderson, Jerry McManus, and Mo Raymo.

 

    Five Lamont geochemists – Bob Anderson, Marty Fleischer, Steve Goldstein, Tim Kenna, and Bill Smethie – returned from a workshop held in Miami last week to prepare for a two-month expedition to the Arctic Ocean this summer on the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker Healy. The expedition constitutes the U.S. contribution to a three-ship international GEOTRACES program designed to explore the marine biogeochemical cycles of trace elements and their isotopes in the Arctic Ocean. Four NSF-funded projects at Lamont are part of this initiative. The U.S. GEOTRACES Project Office, hosted at Lamont, handled most of the logistics for the Miami workshop, under the direction of Karen Benedetto.

 

    Wednesday saw the release of the January issue of Lamont’s electronic newsletter (http://us2.campaign-archive1.com/?u=71431ee4099fcd9f2e20d401a&id=6f1d062a7e). In addition to a story on the Vetlesen Prize, there are articles on Mark Cane’s election as a fellow of The Oceanography Society and Ricardo Ramalho’s photo essay of the most recent eruption of Fogo volcano on the Cape Verde Islands, as well as links to media stories on the work or scientific commentary of Lamont scientists.

 

    Also on Wednesday, Richard Seager, Adam Sobel, Pete Sobel, IRI’s Lisa Goddard, and I participated in a briefing in Washington, D.C., to Congressional staffers and agency representatives. Sponsored by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, the briefing focused on the topic of subseasonal to interannual forecasting of weather and climate variability and particularly the research investments by NOAA, NASA, and NSF needed to improve forecasts on such timescales in the interest of public safety, agriculture, commerce, and natural resource management. While on Capitol Hill, groups of us also met with Congresswoman Nita Lowey – whose 17^th New York District includes Lamont – and staffers in the offices of New York Senators Gillibrand and Schumer. The briefing and visits were arranged by Joel Widder and Meg Thompson at Federal Science Partners and by Nathan Robb in Columbia’s Office of Government and Community Affairs.

 

    Robin Bell is a coauthor of an article posted online by Nature magazine on Wednesday describing evidence that the rapid drainage of a subglacial lake in Greenland was followed by refilling of the lake by surface meltwater. The changes documented in this system have implications for the role of surface meltwater in the heating and lubrication of the glacial bed and for ice sheet dynamics in a warming climate. A story describing the paper’s findings was posted yesterday on Climate Central (http://www.climatecentral.org/news/surprise-lake-sheds-light-on-underbelly-of-greenland-ice-18580).

 

    Today, Yang Zha successfully defended his thesis on “Imaging the seismic structure beneath oceanic spreading centers using ocean-bottom geophysical techniques.” Congratulations, Dr. Zha!

 

    Also today, it was my pleasure to host a lunch for those on this campus who at some point in the past year completed 10 years of service to Columbia University. Those recognized included the following:

 

 

 

 

    These individuals have collectively contributed more than 170 years of effort to the scientific, administrative, and operational health of this campus, and they warrant our collective appreciation. The lunch, at The ’76 House in Tappan, also included Bob Chen, Lisa Goddard, Art Lerner-Lam, Virginia Maher, and Helen Olivette.

 

   This afternoon, the first Earth Science Colloquium in the spring season will be given by Kelly Wrighton, an Assistant Professor of Microbiology at The Ohio State University (http://microbiology.osu.edu/faculty/wrighton-kelly). Kelly’s lecture poses the question (and answer), “Who gives a frack? Life in the deep shale biosphere” (http://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/files/uploaded/image/file/Kelly%20Wrighton.pdf). I hope to see you there.