Last Saturday, over 2,000 visitors streamed through the welcome tent and onto the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory campus for the 2024 edition of Open House—a once-a-year tradition that stretches back decades. This year also marks the 75th anniversary of Lamont, and so guests were treated to a wide variety of installations, experiments and lectures, including (but hardly limited to) a giant inflatable JOIDES Resolution, an augmented reality sandbox, VR games and a “warming stripe” installation, and some classics like bathtub science, exploding volcanoes, art, sticky glacier goo, rocks from space, and lectures on everything from seafloor mapping to nanoplastics, earthquakes to black holes, and so much more!
An augmented reality sandbox, where participants could help “map” the seafloor. Different colors represent different underwater depths. Photo: Adrienne Day A model of a cinder cone volcano—the most common type of volcano in the world. Photo: Adrienne Day
What a blast! These eruptions mimic those of Plinian volcanoes, using ping pong balls and liquid nitrogen.
You can’t buy this on Amazon: Nick Frearson of Lamont’s Polar Geophysics group discusses his housemadeIcePod, which takes detailed measurements of polar ice. Bring your own LC-130 aircraft.Not exactly the USS Enterprise, but still a pretty cool ship: A giant inflatable JOIDES Resolution teaches audiences about topics in ocean science. Photo: Adrienne Day The Lamont Core Repository is the most extensive collection of deep sea sediments on Earth. The cores contain layers of sediments deposited on the bottom of the ocean over millions of years. They are loaned to scientists worldwide to learn more about Earth’s climate history. Credit: Francesco Fiondella
Lamont geophysicist Marc Spiegelman demonstrates how to make “oobleck” goo out of cornstarch and water, then shows how the substance is a great example of rheology—or how liquids, and solids, behave under pressure. Video: Francesco FiondellaA young visitor tries out a VR headset. Photo: Caroline AdelmanFrom blue (cooler) to orange (warmer), this data visualization uses a series of colored stripes chronologically ordered to portray long-term temperature trends. Photo: Adrienne Day
Walking the stripes, from 1850 to the present. Video: Tara SpinelliNature’s blues and oranges were also in full effect on this spectacular fall day. Photo: Adrienne DayThis art installation explores the connection between research and art. Here, what the inside of an oyster shell looks using a powerful microscope, by Luca Telesca. Photo: Adrienne DaySpace totally rocks! Visitors check out Lamont’s collection of extraterrestrial matter from meteorites, asteroids and the moon. Photo: Jennifer GenrichVisitors sampled cups of water with different amounts of salt dissolved in them (from “tap” to “Red Sea”) and had to guess the relative PSU, or salinity, of each. Photo: Tara SpinelliArt exhibit: Climate Disasters Inspired by Great Masters. From the left: Steven Goldstein, interim director, Lamont; Mary Tiegreen, art director, Climate Change Resources; Lena Tabori, cofounder, Climate Change Resources
Weather in a tank: a rotating tank experiment that demonstrates the two key ingredients for the generation of weather systems atmosphere: rotation and differential heating. It demonstrates the process of baroclinic instability. Video: Francesco FiondellaAn Atlantic sturgeon model from Lamont’s Hudson River Field Station provides a unique opportunity to learn about this Hudson River species. Atlantic sturgeon are migratory and spend six years of their juvenile life in Haverstraw Bay—our special section of the Hudson. Photo: Tara SpinelliCaitlin Dieck Locke, a PhD candidate in marine and polar geophysics, shows the complex layers beneath Antarctica’s ice sheet. Photo: Adrienne DayIn the Tree Ring Lab, visitors are challenged to think like a dendrochronolgist and read the rings to determine a tree’s age. Photo: Tara Spinelli
Happy 75th, Lamont! See you next year.
Tangible excitement everywhere on campus this year. I’ve attended the Open House many times; this was the very best! I wanted to do more than I could, but took extensive notes on what I learned that will impact my daily life.
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Tangible excitement everywhere on campus this year. I’ve attended the Open House many times; this was the very best! I wanted to do more than I could, but took extensive notes on what I learned that will impact my daily life.
Food was fast and delicious, too.