State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Author: Stacy Morford3


  • Project Maps the Chemistry of the World’s Oceans

    Project Maps the Chemistry of the World’s Oceans

    Until recently, too little data existed about the distribution of trace elements and nutrients in the oceans to provide a global picture. In 2002, a group of scientists connected with Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory set out to fill those gaps.

  • New Study Upends a Theory of How Earth’s Mantle Flows

    New Study Upends a Theory of How Earth’s Mantle Flows

    A new study carried out on the floor of Pacific Ocean provides the most detailed view yet of how the earth’s mantle flows beneath the ocean’s tectonic plates.

  • Massive Landslide Detected in Glacier Bay’s Fragile Mountains

    Massive Landslide Detected in Glacier Bay’s Fragile Mountains

    A 4,000-foot-high mountainside collapsed in Glacier Bay National Park this week in a massive landslide that spread debris for miles across the glacier below. Scientists at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory are studying it to improve understanding of landslide risks.

  • Wind-Blown Antarctic Sea Ice Helps Drive Ocean Circulation

    Wind-Blown Antarctic Sea Ice Helps Drive Ocean Circulation

    Antarctic sea ice is constantly on the move as powerful winds blow it away from the coast and out toward the open ocean. A new study shows how that ice migration may be more important for the global ocean circulation than anyone realized.

  • Watch Live: Turning CO2 to Stone, Scientists Discuss a Climate Solution

    Watch Live: Turning CO2 to Stone, Scientists Discuss a Climate Solution

    On June 24, a scientist involved in the CarbFix carbon capture and storage project in Iceland will give a live-streamed presentation about the technology and the project’s success at turning CO2 to stone.

  • An Ecological Traffic Jam in the Warming Tropics?

    An Ecological Traffic Jam in the Warming Tropics?

    The tropics are already hot, and they’re getting hotter as global temperatures rise. A new study offers a glimpse into how seriously a couple more degrees could disrupt the region’s ecological map.

  • Crushing Ice to Learn About Glaciers & Icy Moons

    Crushing Ice to Learn About Glaciers & Icy Moons

    To understand how quickly ice from glaciers can raise sea level or how moons far across the solar system evolved to hold vast, ice-covered oceans, we need to be able to measure the forces at work. A new instrument designed and built at Lamont does just that.

  • The Plate Tectonics Revolution: It Was All About the Data

    The Plate Tectonics Revolution: It Was All About the Data

    The young scientists who led the plate tectonics revolution 50 years ago showed how asking the right questions and having access to a wide range of shared data could open doors to an entirely new understanding of our planet.

  • John Imbrie, a Pioneer of Paleoceanography

    John Imbrie, a Pioneer of Paleoceanography

    Imbrie, a former head of the Department of Geological Sciences, helped confirmed connections between changes in Earth’s orbit and the timing of the ice ages and was a co-founder of CLIMAP, an international effort to use sediment cores to map Earth’s climate at the height of the last ice age.

  • Project Maps the Chemistry of the World’s Oceans

    Project Maps the Chemistry of the World’s Oceans

    Until recently, too little data existed about the distribution of trace elements and nutrients in the oceans to provide a global picture. In 2002, a group of scientists connected with Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory set out to fill those gaps.

  • New Study Upends a Theory of How Earth’s Mantle Flows

    New Study Upends a Theory of How Earth’s Mantle Flows

    A new study carried out on the floor of Pacific Ocean provides the most detailed view yet of how the earth’s mantle flows beneath the ocean’s tectonic plates.

  • Massive Landslide Detected in Glacier Bay’s Fragile Mountains

    Massive Landslide Detected in Glacier Bay’s Fragile Mountains

    A 4,000-foot-high mountainside collapsed in Glacier Bay National Park this week in a massive landslide that spread debris for miles across the glacier below. Scientists at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory are studying it to improve understanding of landslide risks.

  • Wind-Blown Antarctic Sea Ice Helps Drive Ocean Circulation

    Wind-Blown Antarctic Sea Ice Helps Drive Ocean Circulation

    Antarctic sea ice is constantly on the move as powerful winds blow it away from the coast and out toward the open ocean. A new study shows how that ice migration may be more important for the global ocean circulation than anyone realized.

  • Watch Live: Turning CO2 to Stone, Scientists Discuss a Climate Solution

    Watch Live: Turning CO2 to Stone, Scientists Discuss a Climate Solution

    On June 24, a scientist involved in the CarbFix carbon capture and storage project in Iceland will give a live-streamed presentation about the technology and the project’s success at turning CO2 to stone.

  • An Ecological Traffic Jam in the Warming Tropics?

    An Ecological Traffic Jam in the Warming Tropics?

    The tropics are already hot, and they’re getting hotter as global temperatures rise. A new study offers a glimpse into how seriously a couple more degrees could disrupt the region’s ecological map.

  • Crushing Ice to Learn About Glaciers & Icy Moons

    Crushing Ice to Learn About Glaciers & Icy Moons

    To understand how quickly ice from glaciers can raise sea level or how moons far across the solar system evolved to hold vast, ice-covered oceans, we need to be able to measure the forces at work. A new instrument designed and built at Lamont does just that.

  • The Plate Tectonics Revolution: It Was All About the Data

    The Plate Tectonics Revolution: It Was All About the Data

    The young scientists who led the plate tectonics revolution 50 years ago showed how asking the right questions and having access to a wide range of shared data could open doors to an entirely new understanding of our planet.

  • John Imbrie, a Pioneer of Paleoceanography

    John Imbrie, a Pioneer of Paleoceanography

    Imbrie, a former head of the Department of Geological Sciences, helped confirmed connections between changes in Earth’s orbit and the timing of the ice ages and was a co-founder of CLIMAP, an international effort to use sediment cores to map Earth’s climate at the height of the last ice age.