http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu Tapping experts in climate, geology, oceanography, ecology, sustainable development, global health, energy, food and water, State of the Planet captures stories of how the Earth works and how we can sustainably make our lives better. Sun, 19 May 2013 09:20:41 +0000 en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2013/04/29/contest-aims-to-bring-dark-data-into-digital-archives/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2013/04/29/contest-aims-to-bring-dark-data-into-digital-archives/#comments Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:42:37 +0000 Kim Martineau http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=36014 The scientific publisher Elsevier and a data archiving facility at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory are offering $5,000 and a trophy to the person with the best example of how data-preservation techniques are being used to advance new discoveries in the earth sciences.]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2013/04/29/contest-aims-to-bring-dark-data-into-digital-archives/feed/ 1 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2013/04/02/plumbing-the-deep-ocean-floor/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2013/04/02/plumbing-the-deep-ocean-floor/#comments Tue, 02 Apr 2013 20:24:41 +0000 Kim Martineau http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=35412 A video profile of the Lamont-Doherty Core Repository—the world’s largest collection of deep sea sediments, some as old as 100 million years. The 19,000 cores, largely collected by Lamont’s own research vessels, are a central resource for the global scientific community, which uses them for studies of earth’s past and current environment, especially in regard to climate change.]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2013/04/02/plumbing-the-deep-ocean-floor/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2013/04/01/a-library-of-giant-landslides/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2013/04/01/a-library-of-giant-landslides/#comments Mon, 01 Apr 2013 15:27:29 +0000 Kim Martineau http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=35329 A new method for detecting big landslides is allowing scientists to understand the dynamics of these elusive events almost instantly, without traipsing to remote mountains or scrambling up rugged peaks months, or even years, later. In a recent study in the journal Science, Göran Ekström and Colin Stark, geophysicists at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, have catalogued the 29 largest landslides since 1980 using satellite images and recordings from a global network of seismic instruments. A third of the avalanches are documented now for the first time.]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2013/04/01/a-library-of-giant-landslides/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2013/01/09/what-dust-may-have-to-do-with-earths-rapidly-warming-poles/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2013/01/09/what-dust-may-have-to-do-with-earths-rapidly-warming-poles/#comments Wed, 09 Jan 2013 15:31:00 +0000 Kim Martineau http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=33466 As earth's climate warms, scientists have tried to understand why the poles are heating up two to three times faster than the rest of the planet. Airborne dust, it turns out, may play a key role.]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2013/01/09/what-dust-may-have-to-do-with-earths-rapidly-warming-poles/feed/ 1 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/12/23/smaller-colorado-river-projected-for-coming-decades-study-says/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/12/23/smaller-colorado-river-projected-for-coming-decades-study-says/#comments Sun, 23 Dec 2012 18:28:14 +0000 Kim Martineau http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=33260 Some 40 million people depend on the Colorado River Basin for water but warmer weather from rising greenhouse gas levels and a growing population may signal water shortages ahead.]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/12/23/smaller-colorado-river-projected-for-coming-decades-study-says/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/12/06/clues-from-last-ice-age-may-hint-at-drying-ahead-for-some-regions/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/12/06/clues-from-last-ice-age-may-hint-at-drying-ahead-for-some-regions/#comments Fri, 07 Dec 2012 01:16:02 +0000 Kim Martineau http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=32826 In the spectacular collapse of ice sheets as the last ice age ended about 18,000 years ago scientists hope to find clues for what regions may grow drier from human caused global warming. In a talk Thursday at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting, Aaron Putnam, a postdoctoral scholar at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, painted a picture of earth’s dramatic transformation as seen in climate records extracted from ancient cave formations, ice cores, lake shorelines and glacial moraines. ]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/12/06/clues-from-last-ice-age-may-hint-at-drying-ahead-for-some-regions/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/12/06/huge-landslide-linked-to-glacier-surge-in-tajikstans-pamir-mountains/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/12/06/huge-landslide-linked-to-glacier-surge-in-tajikstans-pamir-mountains/#comments Thu, 06 Dec 2012 17:51:06 +0000 Kim Martineau http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=32815 Glaciers advance in colder temperatures, but sometimes a big rock avalanche can also make a glacier grow, new research results presented at the American Geophysical Union’s annual meeting suggests.]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/12/06/huge-landslide-linked-to-glacier-surge-in-tajikstans-pamir-mountains/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/11/29/frozen-water-on-mercury-nasa-confirms/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/11/29/frozen-water-on-mercury-nasa-confirms/#comments Thu, 29 Nov 2012 22:50:03 +0000 Kim Martineau http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=32560 Mercury, the planet closest to the Sun, may hold at least 100 billion tons of ice in permanently shaded craters near its north pole, NASA scientists announced Thursday. The findings come as NASA's MESSENGER spacecraft nears its second year of orbit around Mercury. MESSENGER's lead investigator, Sean Solomon, is director of Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/11/29/frozen-water-on-mercury-nasa-confirms/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/11/19/after-sandy-testing-the-waters/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/11/19/after-sandy-testing-the-waters/#comments Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:32:45 +0000 Kim Martineau http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=32394 During Hurricane Sandy the seas rose a record 14-feet in lower Manhattan. Water flooded city streets, subways, tunnels and even sewage treatment plants. It is unclear how much sewage may have been released as plants lost power or were forced to divert untreated wastewater into the Hudson River. Four days after Sandy, the environmental group [...]]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/11/19/after-sandy-testing-the-waters/feed/ 3 http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/11/06/a-prescient-voice-on-sandy-suddenly-everyone-is-listening/ http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/11/06/a-prescient-voice-on-sandy-suddenly-everyone-is-listening/#comments Tue, 06 Nov 2012 14:45:39 +0000 Kim Martineau http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/?p=31893 For much of the last decade, Klaus Jacob warned of New York’s vulnerability to severe flooding in a major storm. Four days after the storm that crippled New York and New Jersey and swamped his own home along the Hudson River, Jacob reflected on Sandy's lessons and what comes next.]]> http://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2012/11/06/a-prescient-voice-on-sandy-suddenly-everyone-is-listening/feed/ 1