State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Tag: ice ages

  • Why Did Glacial Cycles Intensify a Million Years Ago?

    Why Did Glacial Cycles Intensify a Million Years Ago?

    A new study suggests that a million years ago, glaciers began sticking more persistently to their beds, triggering cycles of longer ice ages.

  • Tackling a 40 Million-Year-Old Conundrum

    Tackling a 40 Million-Year-Old Conundrum

    A new study bolsters the idea that the uplifts of the Himalayas and Andes that began tens of millions years ago helped trigger the many ice ages that followed.

  • The ‘Zealandia Switch’: Missing Link in Big Natural Climate Shifts?

    The ‘Zealandia Switch’: Missing Link in Big Natural Climate Shifts?

    Movements of winds in the Southern Hemisphere may be the key to waxing and waning of ice ages, says a new study.

  • Maureen Raymo Elected to National Academy of Sciences

    Maureen Raymo Elected to National Academy of Sciences

    Maureen Raymo, a marine geologist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory whose name is connected with key theories about how ice ages wax and wane and how sea levels change, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors awarded to scientists in the United States.

  • Study Tracks an Abrupt Climate Shift as Ice Age Glaciers Began to Retreat

    Study Tracks an Abrupt Climate Shift as Ice Age Glaciers Began to Retreat

    That change would have affected the monsoons, today relied on to feed over half the world’s population, and could have helped tip the climate system over the threshold for deglaciation.

  • Did New Zealand Dust Influence the Last Ice Age?

    Did New Zealand Dust Influence the Last Ice Age?

    Bess Koffman, a postdoctoral researcher at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, recently traveled to New Zealand to collect dust ground-up by glaciers during the last ice age. In this photo essay, she explains how she collected the dust, what analysis looks like in the lab and what she hopes to learn.

  • Earth’s Climate History, Written in Dust

    Earth’s Climate History, Written in Dust

    Dust blowing onto the oceans can help algae grow and pull CO2 out of the atmosphere. It influences the radiative balance of the planet by reflecting sunlight away. Scientists want to know what role this plays in the coming and going of the ice ages, and how it affects our climate.

  • Tackling an Ice Age Mystery

    Tackling an Ice Age Mystery

    In a new study in Nature, climate scientist Maureen Raymo and her colleagues show that variations in sunlight interact with Earth’s topography and the size of ice sheets to control Earth’s ice ages on 100,000 year cycles. One important finding: as ice sheets grow bigger, they also become more vulnerable to melting.

Science for the Planet: In these short video explainers, discover how scientists and scholars across the Columbia Climate School are working to understand the effects of climate change and help solve the crisis.
  • Why Did Glacial Cycles Intensify a Million Years Ago?

    Why Did Glacial Cycles Intensify a Million Years Ago?

    A new study suggests that a million years ago, glaciers began sticking more persistently to their beds, triggering cycles of longer ice ages.

  • Tackling a 40 Million-Year-Old Conundrum

    Tackling a 40 Million-Year-Old Conundrum

    A new study bolsters the idea that the uplifts of the Himalayas and Andes that began tens of millions years ago helped trigger the many ice ages that followed.

  • The ‘Zealandia Switch’: Missing Link in Big Natural Climate Shifts?

    The ‘Zealandia Switch’: Missing Link in Big Natural Climate Shifts?

    Movements of winds in the Southern Hemisphere may be the key to waxing and waning of ice ages, says a new study.

  • Maureen Raymo Elected to National Academy of Sciences

    Maureen Raymo Elected to National Academy of Sciences

    Maureen Raymo, a marine geologist at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory whose name is connected with key theories about how ice ages wax and wane and how sea levels change, has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors awarded to scientists in the United States.

  • Study Tracks an Abrupt Climate Shift as Ice Age Glaciers Began to Retreat

    Study Tracks an Abrupt Climate Shift as Ice Age Glaciers Began to Retreat

    That change would have affected the monsoons, today relied on to feed over half the world’s population, and could have helped tip the climate system over the threshold for deglaciation.

  • Did New Zealand Dust Influence the Last Ice Age?

    Did New Zealand Dust Influence the Last Ice Age?

    Bess Koffman, a postdoctoral researcher at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, recently traveled to New Zealand to collect dust ground-up by glaciers during the last ice age. In this photo essay, she explains how she collected the dust, what analysis looks like in the lab and what she hopes to learn.

  • Earth’s Climate History, Written in Dust

    Earth’s Climate History, Written in Dust

    Dust blowing onto the oceans can help algae grow and pull CO2 out of the atmosphere. It influences the radiative balance of the planet by reflecting sunlight away. Scientists want to know what role this plays in the coming and going of the ice ages, and how it affects our climate.

  • Tackling an Ice Age Mystery

    Tackling an Ice Age Mystery

    In a new study in Nature, climate scientist Maureen Raymo and her colleagues show that variations in sunlight interact with Earth’s topography and the size of ice sheets to control Earth’s ice ages on 100,000 year cycles. One important finding: as ice sheets grow bigger, they also become more vulnerable to melting.