State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory185

  • Turning CO2 Into Stone

    A power plant in Iceland is set to become the first in the world to try turning carbon dioxide emissions into solid minerals underground, starting this September.

  • Latest Korean Blast Outdid 2006 Nuke Test

    Seismologists, Pinpointing Location, See Telltale Images of Bomb

  • Down by the River, Running Out of Water

    Too little water for too many people is a growing problem in poor countries–and in thriving suburban Rockland County, N.Y., just north of New York City. A new website, Water Resources in Rockland County, lays out the case, and neatly puts it into global context. The site is run by the Earth Institute’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network…

  • Pondering the Deep

    Another world lies beneath the Hudson River, as scientists have shown using pulses of sound to map the bottom. In recent years, the bathymetry maps developed at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Stony Brook University have turned up hundreds of shipwrecks and a new channel off Battery Park City, drawing interest from treasure hunters and mariners…

  • ‘Green’ Geochemistry Building Wins Awards

    Leading Climate Studies, Sustainably

  • Mudslides: Forecasting Risk

    Landslides kill thousands of people each year but because they’re often triggered by earthquakes or heavy rains, the danger remains poorly understood. “In densely populated areas, landslides take no prisoners,” said Art Lerner-Lam, a scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.  “They’ll wipe out an entire village at once. Even a small landslide can kill…

  • Southern Glaciers Grow Out of Step With North

    New Dating Technique Points to Differences Over 7,000 Years

  • Wind Shifts May Stir CO2 From Antarctic Depths

    Releases May Have Speeded End of Last Ice Age—And Could Act Again

  • Foot Forward

    In 1968, 14-year-old Paul Olsen of suburban Livingston, N.J., and his friend Tony Lessa heard that dinosaur tracks had been found in a nearby quarry. They raced over on their bikes.  “I went ballistic,” Olsen recalls. Over the next few years, the boys uncovered and studied thousands of tracks and other fossils there, often working into the night.  It opened the…

  • Turning CO2 Into Stone

    A power plant in Iceland is set to become the first in the world to try turning carbon dioxide emissions into solid minerals underground, starting this September.

  • Latest Korean Blast Outdid 2006 Nuke Test

    Seismologists, Pinpointing Location, See Telltale Images of Bomb

  • Down by the River, Running Out of Water

    Too little water for too many people is a growing problem in poor countries–and in thriving suburban Rockland County, N.Y., just north of New York City. A new website, Water Resources in Rockland County, lays out the case, and neatly puts it into global context. The site is run by the Earth Institute’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network…

  • Pondering the Deep

    Another world lies beneath the Hudson River, as scientists have shown using pulses of sound to map the bottom. In recent years, the bathymetry maps developed at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and Stony Brook University have turned up hundreds of shipwrecks and a new channel off Battery Park City, drawing interest from treasure hunters and mariners…

  • ‘Green’ Geochemistry Building Wins Awards

    Leading Climate Studies, Sustainably

  • Mudslides: Forecasting Risk

    Landslides kill thousands of people each year but because they’re often triggered by earthquakes or heavy rains, the danger remains poorly understood. “In densely populated areas, landslides take no prisoners,” said Art Lerner-Lam, a scientist at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.  “They’ll wipe out an entire village at once. Even a small landslide can kill…

  • Southern Glaciers Grow Out of Step With North

    New Dating Technique Points to Differences Over 7,000 Years

  • Wind Shifts May Stir CO2 From Antarctic Depths

    Releases May Have Speeded End of Last Ice Age—And Could Act Again

  • Foot Forward

    In 1968, 14-year-old Paul Olsen of suburban Livingston, N.J., and his friend Tony Lessa heard that dinosaur tracks had been found in a nearby quarry. They raced over on their bikes.  “I went ballistic,” Olsen recalls. Over the next few years, the boys uncovered and studied thousands of tracks and other fossils there, often working into the night.  It opened the…