State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Earth Sciences144

  • Mapping Socioeconomic Data Reveals Trends

    In October 2006, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that the nation’s population had reached 300 million people — a number that has tripled since 1915. This milestone raises critical questions regarding where people live —or don’t live — in the U.S. that help feed high-level decisions on where to allocate government resources on education, health…

  • What’s in an Isotope? Quite a Lot

    A new technique developed by researchers at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory now allows scientists to use an isotope of manganese not abundant on Earth to understand the record of millions of years of changes to the Earth’s surface. According to the study’s lead scientists, the new technique relies on measuring extremely small amounts of the…

  • Lamont-Doherty Breaks Ground on New Geochemistry Building

    On Wednesday September 27, members and friends of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory broke ground on a new geochemistry research building. The celebration took place almost 52 years to the day after the Observatory opened its current geochemistry facility, a building that has made possible many of the most important advances in modern understanding of Earth’s…

  • Remembered: Marie Tharp, Pioneering Mapmaker of the Ocean Floor

    Marie Tharp, a pathbreaking oceanographic cartographer at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, co-creator of the first global map of the ocean floor and co-discoverer of the central rift valley that runs through the Mid-Atlantic Ridge died Wednesday August 23 in Nyack Hospital. She was 86. A pioneer of modern oceanography, Tharp was the first to map…

  • G. Michael Purdy Awarded 2006 Maurice Ewing Medal

    Honor by the American Geophysical Union recognizes more than 30-year commitment as a researcher, administrator and innovator in the earth sciences

  • Two New Lakes Found Beneath Antarctic Ice Sheet

    Ancient water bodies may contain ecosystems adapted to life beneath more than two miles of ice

  • Earth Institute Researchers Present Their Work at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting

    Wide array of topics includes climate change, social consequences of natural disasters

  • Soviet Union Conducted 130 Nuclear Tests in Remote Arctic Location, Study Says

    The Soviet Union conducted 130 underwater, atmospheric and underground nuclear tests in a remote archipelago above the Arctic Circle over a period of 35 years, according to a comprehensive study done by scientists at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the U.S. Geological Survey. Some of these tests involved multiple explosions. In all, 224 nuclear devices were…

  • Deep Magmatic Plumbing of Mid-Ocean Ridges Revealed

    New images suggest that the Earth’s lower oceanic crust is generated from multiple magma sources

Banner: Climate Week NYC 2025, September 21-28, 2025
  • Mapping Socioeconomic Data Reveals Trends

    In October 2006, the U.S. Census Bureau announced that the nation’s population had reached 300 million people — a number that has tripled since 1915. This milestone raises critical questions regarding where people live —or don’t live — in the U.S. that help feed high-level decisions on where to allocate government resources on education, health…

  • What’s in an Isotope? Quite a Lot

    A new technique developed by researchers at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory now allows scientists to use an isotope of manganese not abundant on Earth to understand the record of millions of years of changes to the Earth’s surface. According to the study’s lead scientists, the new technique relies on measuring extremely small amounts of the…

  • Lamont-Doherty Breaks Ground on New Geochemistry Building

    On Wednesday September 27, members and friends of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory broke ground on a new geochemistry research building. The celebration took place almost 52 years to the day after the Observatory opened its current geochemistry facility, a building that has made possible many of the most important advances in modern understanding of Earth’s…

  • Remembered: Marie Tharp, Pioneering Mapmaker of the Ocean Floor

    Marie Tharp, a pathbreaking oceanographic cartographer at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, co-creator of the first global map of the ocean floor and co-discoverer of the central rift valley that runs through the Mid-Atlantic Ridge died Wednesday August 23 in Nyack Hospital. She was 86. A pioneer of modern oceanography, Tharp was the first to map…

  • G. Michael Purdy Awarded 2006 Maurice Ewing Medal

    Honor by the American Geophysical Union recognizes more than 30-year commitment as a researcher, administrator and innovator in the earth sciences

  • Two New Lakes Found Beneath Antarctic Ice Sheet

    Ancient water bodies may contain ecosystems adapted to life beneath more than two miles of ice

  • Earth Institute Researchers Present Their Work at the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting

    Wide array of topics includes climate change, social consequences of natural disasters

  • Soviet Union Conducted 130 Nuclear Tests in Remote Arctic Location, Study Says

    The Soviet Union conducted 130 underwater, atmospheric and underground nuclear tests in a remote archipelago above the Arctic Circle over a period of 35 years, according to a comprehensive study done by scientists at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the U.S. Geological Survey. Some of these tests involved multiple explosions. In all, 224 nuclear devices were…

  • Deep Magmatic Plumbing of Mid-Ocean Ridges Revealed

    New images suggest that the Earth’s lower oceanic crust is generated from multiple magma sources