Research News 2019

A new project from the Center for Sustainable Development and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory will use education interventions to try to curb fluorosis, caused by high fluoride levels in drinking water, in Alirajpur, India.

Despite all the “Waiting on Weather” and “Running Away from Weather,” the expedition recovered exciting new sedimentary climate records in the remote and notoriously stormy Southern Ocean.

In the Southeastern United States, the increasing amount of rain during hurricane season is coming not from hurricanes but from non-tropical storms created by weather fronts, new research finds.

The American Meteorological Society will award him the Henry Stommel Research Medal for his research on the Southern Ocean and inter-basin circulation.

Short answer: A little bit goes a long way.

As part of the MPA in Environmental Science and Policy, students undertake science courses that will serve as a foundational basis for tackling policy issues. Who better to learn from than the individuals who dominate earth science research?

By Elizabeth Case and Jonny Kingslake

Climate scientists often invoke the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age as natural worldwide climate swings predating human influences. They may not have worked the way we think.

I am back in Bangladesh for a new project examining the balance between sea level rise, land subsidence and sedimentation. We will be installing, repairing or upgrading equipment to measure changes to the landscape.

Millions of years ago, vegetation across much of the world underwent a transformation as grasses with a new way of doing photosynthesis displaced previously dominant plants, shrubs and trees. A new study examines what got these plants started, and why they spread so far and wide.

The Apollo missions brought back unique samples from the moon that have been analyzed by researchers around the world. This data is getting lost and forgotten. A new database collects it and makes it easy to find and use.

Hundreds of experts gathered on campus to discuss possibilities for protecting coastal communities and withdrawing when we can no longer safely inhabit our coastlines.

A scientist explains how she lines up wiggles on a screen to recover the missing layers in cores drilled from the bottom of the ocean.

It took six days to sail to Point Nemo, the most inaccessible point of the ocean on this planet, to drill a sample from the ocean floor.

New research will advance understanding of how wildfires may evolve in the future, and how we can most effectively respond to them.

Scientists aboard the R/V Joides Resolution prepare to set sail into the Southern Ocean.

Observational data confirms that Hadley cell circulation is weakening, which has important consequences for future rainfall in the subtropics.

In a new survey of the sub-seafloor off the U.S. Northeast coast, scientists have made a surprising discovery: a gigantic aquifer of relatively fresh water trapped in porous sediments lying below the salty ocean.

A new study is the latest and perhaps most convincing indication that climate change is eating the Himalayas’ glaciers, potentially threatening water supplies for hundreds of millions of people downstream across much of Asia.

Research by Lamont’s Johnny Kingslake and Elizabeth Case advances understanding of ice sheet dynamics and how our world may change in the coming centuries.

The three new Fellows, all scientists at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, will pursue high-risk, high-reward research that furthers understanding of how climate change impacts human sustainability.

The annual survey of biodiversity in New York City’s waterways had a great turnout on Saturday.

ROSETTA-Ice project reveals that local ocean currents may play a critical role in the ice shelf’s future retreat.

A new study finds that as air circulation patterns change with the climate, coastal states could get hit with stronger hurricanes.

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the planet’s most powerful and arguably most important. It is the only one to flow clear around the globe without getting diverted by any landmass, sending up to 150 times the flow of all the world’s rivers clockwise around the frozen continent. 

In an unusual new study, scientists say they have detected a growing fingerprint of human-driven global warming on global drought conditions starting as far back as 1900.

Columbia Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory seismologist Göran Ekström has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences.

A Lamont climate researcher breaks down why our atmosphere is the way it is, how it’s changed over time, and what the future may hold.

The new findings offer clues about how the solar system formed and how rocky planets change over time.

In celebration of Earth Month and Earth Day, our scientists are tackling reader questions on science and sustainability.

The paleoclimatologist and marine geologist talks about why the miles and miles of marine sediment samples in Lamont’s Core Repository are so important.

New research shows that the Larsen C ice shelf—the fourth largest ice shelf in Antarctica, located just south of the former Larsen B shelf—experienced an unusual spike in late summer and early autumn surface melting in the years 2015 to 2017.

This year’s theme encourages students to explore the relationship between human beings and water through various art forms.

A team of scientists working in Antarctica faces a host of new challenges.

Equipped with a field testing kit originally developed within Columbia’s Earth Institute, the “Lead-Free Kids Peru” project has tested hundreds of soil samples for the toxic metal — and dug up some startling results in the process.

Scientists from NASA’s MESSENGER mission share some of its top discoveries — and lingering mysteries — in a new compendium.

In the early spring, volcanologists monitoring the ground around Kilauea, the most active volcano on the island of Hawai’i, noticed a significant increase in seismicity, a sign of an impending eruption. Meanwhile, in Palisades, New York, Lamont volcanologist Einat Lev was also watching developments at Kilauea closely, scanning United States Geological Survey (USGS) reports and keeping in regular touch with friends and colleagues directly tasked with monitoring volcanic activity.

A discussion on the challenges women scientists often face, and what we can all do to help.

Rainy weather is becoming increasingly common over parts of the Greenland ice sheet, triggering sudden melting events that are eating at the ice and priming the surface for more widespread future melting, says a new study.

Satellite imagery of earth’s vegetation, measurements of carbon dioxide in the air and computer models all help scientists understand how climate is affecting carbon dynamics and the world’s forests.

Newly analyzed drill cores taken from the bottom of Greece’s Gulf of Corinth show that sediment flow into the basin has varied dramatically over the past 500,000-plus years, as the earth passed in and out of ice ages, and humans later dominated the surrounding landscape.

In a hearing before the House Subcommittee on Environment, Radley Horton delivered sobering remarks about how climate change will impact our coastlines, economy, and society at large.

On February 21, scientists learned the essentials of science communication during a half-day workshop at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

Tributes continue pouring in as Lamont mourns the loss of Wally Broecker "grandfather of climate science."

A new study shows that phosphorus and nitrogen should be reduced to mitigate harmful algae blooms in coastal NY waters.

Attaching the sensors that will help us study erosion rates required vacuum grease, patience, and a lot of masking tape.

On the volcanic Indian Ocean island of Anjouan, scientists are investigating a rock that apparently formed on a far-off continent.

After bad weather and a busy week of packing and preparation, the team is finally ready to strike out on its own in the coldest, driest, and windiest place on the planet.

The team is using two techniques to study weathering and erosion in Antarctica’s McMurdo Dry Valleys.