State of the Planet

News from the Columbia Climate School

oceanography3

  • Carbon Lurking in Deep Ocean Threw Ancient Climate Switch, Say Researchers

    Carbon Lurking in Deep Ocean Threw Ancient Climate Switch, Say Researchers

    A million years ago, a longtime pattern of alternating glaciations and warm periods dramatically changed, when ice ages suddenly became longer and more intense. Scientists have long suspected that this was connected to the slowdown of a key Atlantic Ocean current system that today once again is slowing. A new study of sediments from the…

  • Drill Cores From Pre-Ancient Greece Open Insights to Climate

    Drill Cores From Pre-Ancient Greece Open Insights to Climate

    Newly analyzed drill cores taken from the bottom of Greece’s Gulf of Corinth show that sediment flow into the basin has varied dramatically over the past 500,000-plus years, as the earth passed in and out of ice ages, and humans later dominated the surrounding landscape.

  • Wallace Broecker, Prophet of Climate Change

    Wallace Broecker, Prophet of Climate Change

    Wallace Broecker, a geochemist who initiated key research into the history of earth’s climate and humans’ influence upon it, died Feb. 18 in New York. He was 87.

  • North Atlantic Is Getting Less Salty, But It’s Too Soon to Blame Climate Change

    North Atlantic Is Getting Less Salty, But It’s Too Soon to Blame Climate Change

    Researchers report a sharp drop in salinity in the North Atlantic Ocean over the last decade, providing the most detailed look yet at the region’s changing ocean conditions. A continued decline could impact fish stocks and the ocean’s ability to absorb CO2.

  • Live from Antarctica: Scientists #TakeoverNSF

    Live from Antarctica: Scientists #TakeoverNSF

    On January 31 at 1:00 p.m. EST, Lamont-Doherty’s Hugh Ducklow and his colleagues will use National Science Foundation social media to discuss their research on Antarctic ecology.

  • Eavesdropping on the Ocean’s Mighty Microorganisms

    Eavesdropping on the Ocean’s Mighty Microorganisms

    Now, nearing the end of our three-week cruise of the North Pacific off Hawaii, we are working to understand how these tiny bacteria connect and communicate with one another.

  • How Drones are Advancing Scientific Research

    How Drones are Advancing Scientific Research

    Where once scientists could only observe earth from above by using manned aircraft or satellites, today they are expanding, developing and refining their research in a variety of ways thanks to drones.

  • Transforming a Passion for Oceans into Discovery

    Transforming a Passion for Oceans into Discovery

    Sustainability Management graduate Melissa Meggiolaro (’17) interviews Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory oceanographer Arnold Gordon.

  • Meltwater Lakes Existed Under Antarctic Ice in Ancient Times

    Meltwater Lakes Existed Under Antarctic Ice in Ancient Times

    In recent years, scientists have discovered hundreds of lakes lying hidden deep beneath the Antarctic ice sheet. Now a team of researchers has found the remains of at least one sub-ice lake that existed when the ice was far more extensive, in sediments on the Antarctic continental shelf.

  • Carbon Lurking in Deep Ocean Threw Ancient Climate Switch, Say Researchers

    Carbon Lurking in Deep Ocean Threw Ancient Climate Switch, Say Researchers

    A million years ago, a longtime pattern of alternating glaciations and warm periods dramatically changed, when ice ages suddenly became longer and more intense. Scientists have long suspected that this was connected to the slowdown of a key Atlantic Ocean current system that today once again is slowing. A new study of sediments from the…

  • Drill Cores From Pre-Ancient Greece Open Insights to Climate

    Drill Cores From Pre-Ancient Greece Open Insights to Climate

    Newly analyzed drill cores taken from the bottom of Greece’s Gulf of Corinth show that sediment flow into the basin has varied dramatically over the past 500,000-plus years, as the earth passed in and out of ice ages, and humans later dominated the surrounding landscape.

  • Wallace Broecker, Prophet of Climate Change

    Wallace Broecker, Prophet of Climate Change

    Wallace Broecker, a geochemist who initiated key research into the history of earth’s climate and humans’ influence upon it, died Feb. 18 in New York. He was 87.

  • North Atlantic Is Getting Less Salty, But It’s Too Soon to Blame Climate Change

    North Atlantic Is Getting Less Salty, But It’s Too Soon to Blame Climate Change

    Researchers report a sharp drop in salinity in the North Atlantic Ocean over the last decade, providing the most detailed look yet at the region’s changing ocean conditions. A continued decline could impact fish stocks and the ocean’s ability to absorb CO2.

  • Live from Antarctica: Scientists #TakeoverNSF

    Live from Antarctica: Scientists #TakeoverNSF

    On January 31 at 1:00 p.m. EST, Lamont-Doherty’s Hugh Ducklow and his colleagues will use National Science Foundation social media to discuss their research on Antarctic ecology.

  • Eavesdropping on the Ocean’s Mighty Microorganisms

    Eavesdropping on the Ocean’s Mighty Microorganisms

    Now, nearing the end of our three-week cruise of the North Pacific off Hawaii, we are working to understand how these tiny bacteria connect and communicate with one another.

  • How Drones are Advancing Scientific Research

    How Drones are Advancing Scientific Research

    Where once scientists could only observe earth from above by using manned aircraft or satellites, today they are expanding, developing and refining their research in a variety of ways thanks to drones.

  • Transforming a Passion for Oceans into Discovery

    Transforming a Passion for Oceans into Discovery

    Sustainability Management graduate Melissa Meggiolaro (’17) interviews Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory oceanographer Arnold Gordon.

  • Meltwater Lakes Existed Under Antarctic Ice in Ancient Times

    Meltwater Lakes Existed Under Antarctic Ice in Ancient Times

    In recent years, scientists have discovered hundreds of lakes lying hidden deep beneath the Antarctic ice sheet. Now a team of researchers has found the remains of at least one sub-ice lake that existed when the ice was far more extensive, in sediments on the Antarctic continental shelf.