Earth Sciences102
-
Santa Comes Bearing an OBS
Recovering OBS instruments from the ocean floor is always a tricky business, especially in our case; these instruments have been sitting beneath more than 3.5 miles of water for over a year. With cold, tired batteries powering the instruments’ acoustic transponders, communicating with them through miles of ocean currents amounts to a whispered conversation on…
-
What Dust May Have To Do With Earth’s Rapidly Warming Poles
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.
-
The Impact of Sea Level Rise on Coastal Wetlands
An analysis of coastal wetlands loss from sea level rise that was conducted for the Ramsar Convention’s Scientific and Technical Review Panel provides estimates of wetland losses as a basis for identifying potential adaptation measures.
-
Transiting the Pacific
Today marks our sixth day aboard the R.V. Melville on a journey to a remote region of the Pacific to retrieve seismic instruments that have been quietly recording earthquake signals on the ocean floor for the past year. We have covered more than 2,600 km thus far but must cruise for another two and a…
-
One Year Later – Return to the NoMelt Site
On December 18, 2012, the Research Vessel Melville departed San Diego to recover remainder of the NoMelt instruments and data. The expedition includes two scientists from Columbia’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory: Post-doctoral scientist Patty Lin and graduate student Natalie Accardo. Natalie is sending regular reports from the ship.
-
Smaller Colorado River Projected for Coming Decades, Study Says
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.
-
Using Spatial Analysis to Help Manage Conflict
Peri-urban areas are particularly vulnerable to land use conflicts due to their geographic and socio-economic characteristics: They are transitional zones in transforming societies, where various economic activities associated with each urban setting try to co-exist. In this context, peri-urban agriculture plays a key role for the multiplicity and diversity of stakeholders providing environmental and economic…
-
New Understanding of Soil Quality throughout Africa
A new interactive mapping tool lets users visualize a broad range of soil data for the continent of Africa.
-
Clues from Last Ice Age May Hint at Drying Ahead for Some Regions
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…
October 28, 2026 is Columbia Giving Day! Your gift to Columbia Climate School helps advance interdisciplinary research, educate the next generation of leaders, and transform bold ideas into real-world solutions for climate, Earth, and society.
