Natural Disasters42
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The World’s First Seasonal Lightning Forecast
At about 250 lightning flashes per square kilometer per year, the Lake Maracaibo Basin in northwestern Venezuela has the highest annual lightning rate of any place in the world.
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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.
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Student Helps Engage Youth in Nepal’s Earthquake Recovery
Karolina Walęcik, a recently graduated MPA-DP student from the class of 2016, spent her summer field placement on a post-earthquake aid transparency project with the Accountability Lab in Kathmandu, Nepal.
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Accounting for Volcanoes Using Tools of Economics
Climate scientists teamed up with an econometrics expert to develop an innovative new method for picking out past volcanic eruptions in temperature reconstructions going back millennia and gauging their impact on the climate.
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Syria’s Drought Likely Its Most Severe in More than 900 Years
“If climate change is having an impact and is making droughts worse, then we should see this in the record over several centuries—and we do,” said the study’s author, Benjamin Cook.
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Ready for Natural Disasters? Not So Much
A new survey of American households finds two-thirds lack adequate plans and supplies for a disaster, and half of them are not confident in the ability of government to meet the needs of children in a disaster.
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Fast-Building Storms Play Key Role in Tropical Cyclone Risk
In studying climate and tropical cyclones, researchers find a weather phenomenon at play.
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Without the Montreal Protocol, More Intense Tropical Cyclones
Using one of the most advanced atmospheric computer models available, scientists compared our expected future with a scenario in which ozone-depleting substances had never been regulated.
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Detecting Landslides from a Few Seismic Wiggles
Over the last six years, seismologists Göran Ekström and Colin Stark have been perfecting a technique for picking out the seismic signature of large landslides. They just discovered North America’s largest known landslide in many years – 200 million tons of sliding rock in Alaska.
COP31, the 2026 United Nations Climate Change Conference, aims to advance dialogue, strengthen consensus, and accelerate climate action on a global scale. From November 9–20, 2026 in Antalya, Türkiye, heads of state, ministers, scientists, business leaders, and civil society will gather to advance efforts in emission targets, climate finance, and adaptation and resilience. Once again, our experts, students, and global thought leaders from Columbia Climate School and across Columbia University are contributing to key events, sharing insights, and helping shape the dialogue toward ambitious, science-based solutions. Learn More
