Research

Disciplines
	Aqueous & Environmental Geochemistry	The Aqueous Geochemistry group is concerned with a range of fundamental problems involving the oceans and continental water systems.
	Atmospheric Science	The Atmospheric Science program focuses on the fundamental processes that control the global circulation of the atmosphere.
	Biogeoscience	The Biogeoscience group studies the physiological mechanisms underlying plant responses to environmental conditions and the influence these responses have on ecological patterns and processes.
	Climate Science	The Climate Science Group strives to solve problems in climate on timescales from seasonal to Quaternary and beyond.
	Geology	Active areas of research include the processes of fault growth, the character and origins of sedimentary layering patterns, Neoproterozoic Earth history, and orbital forcing of the Earth's climate.
	Marine Geology & Geophysics	This group focuses on the acoustic, gravity, magnetic and seismic measurements relevant to shallow structure and to understanding near surface processes including those forming the seafloor.
	Paleoclimatology & Paleoceanography	This group focuses on using ocean sediments to understand how and why climates have changed at timescales ranging from years to millions of years.
	Paleontology	The Paleontology group is concerned broadly with the evolution of life and life's interactions within the Earth system.
	Physical Oceanography	This group focuses on the high latitude (Arctic and Antarctic) and low latitude (equatorial) ocean dynamics to study the ocean's role in the global climate system.
	Seismology & Solid Earth Geophysics	This group is concerned both with the understanding the cause and mechanism of earthquakes and with determining the structure of the earth's interior.
	Solid Earth Geochemistry	This group studies processes and products of large-scale Earth differentiation, such as the composition, evolution and age of the deep mantle and core.

	Headlines
	Recent Undergraduate Alumna Co-Author on Death Valley Research Friday, February 10, 2012 Peri Sasnett, a recent undergraduate alumna, is first author of a study published in the current issue of the journal Geophysical Research Letters, indicating Death Valley's Ubehebe Crater formed just 800 years ago, and could still be active.


	After Sandy, Testing the Waters Monday, November 19, 2012 During Hurricane Sandy the seas rose a record 14-feet in lower Manhattan. Water flooded city streets, subways, tunnels and even sewage treatment plants. It is unclear how much sewage may have been released as plants lost power or were forced to divert untreated wastewater into the Hudson River. Hurricane Sandy: A Climate Change Wakeup Call Wednesday, November 7, 2012 For years before Hurricane Sandy charged ashore on Monday, researchers from the Earth Institute knew what was coming. In a rapidly urbanizing world, where hundreds of millions of people now live in low-lying coastal areas, those scientists have been urging policymakers to appreciate the threats posed by such natural disasters and find ways to make our cities more resilient. The Science and the Lessons of Hurricane Sandy Friday, November 2, 2012 The evening view from across the East River tells a tale of two cities: downtown Manhattan mostly shut down, without power, subways and most services; uptown Manhattan brightly lit, subways running, businesses and neighborhoods climbing back to some kind of usual. 2010 Korea Bomb ‘Tests’ Probably False Alarms, Says Study Tuesday, October 2, 2012 This spring, a Swedish scientist sparked international concern with a journal article saying that radioactive particles detected in 2010 showed North Korea had set off at least two small nuclear blasts--possibly in experiments designed to boost the yields of much larger bombs. Shortly after, the pot was stirred with separate claims that some intelligence agencies suspected the detonations were done in cooperation with Iran. Now, a new paper says the tests likely never took place—or that if they did, they were too tiny to have any military significance. The new report, by seismologists at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, will be published later this month in the journal Science & Global Security, where the earlier paper also appeared. more