2004–2006 BIENNIAL REP ORT - Lamont–Doherty … · 2004–2006 BIENNIAL REP ORT . 36 Focused...
Transcript of 2004–2006 BIENNIAL REP ORT - Lamont–Doherty … · 2004–2006 BIENNIAL REP ORT . 36 Focused...
36 FocusedInitiatives:SeeingThroughtheSeaandSeafloor
38 FocusedInitiatives:HittingAlltheHotspots
40 FocusedInitiatives:WhattoDowithCO2?
42 FocusedInitiatives:CICAR,ADVANCE
44 SpecialEventsandAwards
46 Development
49 Lamont-DohertyAlumniAssociation
50 Administration
52 StaffListing
58 InMemoriam
LAMONT-DOHERTY EARTH OBSERVATORY IS RENOWNED IN THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY FOR
its success and innovation in advancing understanding of the Earth, for its unique geological and climatological archives and
state-of-the-art laboratory facilities, and for the outstanding achievement of its graduates. Observatory scientists observe
Earth on a global scale, from its deepest interior to the outer reaches of its atmosphere, on every continent and in every ocean.
They decipher the long record of the past, monitor the present and seek to foresee Earth’s future. From global climate change
to earthquakes, volcanoes, nonrenewable resources, environmental hazards and beyond, the Observatory’s fundamental
challenge is to provide a rational basis for the difficult choices faced by humankind in the stewardship of this fragile planet.
G. Michael Purdy
Director, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
View to the west, up Korridoren Glacier in East Greenland. Meredith Kelly, a postdoctoral research fellow in Geochemistry, is using surface exposure dating techniques on glacial moraines in the region to reconcile an inconsistency between existing ice core and mountain glacier temperature records.Credit: Meredith Kelly
2 LetterFromtheDirectorofLamont-Doherty
3 LetterFromtheDirectorofTheEarthInstitute
4 FeatureArticle:ChasingSciencetotheEndsoftheEarth
7 FeatureArticle:ANewHomeForGeochemistry
8 BiologyandPaleoEnvironment
12 Geochemistry
16 MarineGeologyandGeophysics
20 OceanandClimatePhysics
24 Seismology,GeologyandTectonophysics
28 OfficeofMarineAffairs
32 DepartmentofEarthandEnvironmentalSciences
WE STRIVE TO UNDERSTAND HOW OUR EARTH EVOLVES AND CHANGES—howthedeepinteriorisstructuredtofeedglobalvolcanismandtriggerearthquakes,howtheatmospherechangeswithadditionsofgreenhousegasesandaerosols,howtheoceans transportheat tocontrol theever-changingcyclesofclimatevariability.Whenthechangesrelatedtofundamentalprocessesliketheseoccurcatastrophically,as theydidwith the IndianOceantsunamiandHurricaneKatrina, thenthegeneralpublicisremindedoftheimportanceofearthsciencestothewell-beingofsociety. Theseprofoundtragediesofthelasttwoyearsarepoignantremindersofthesignificanceandurgencyof the researchwedo.Theydriveus tofindways toaccelerateourprogress. TheongoingconstructionofournewGeochemistry laboratorybuilding isoneexampleofhowwearedoing this.ThenewfacilitywillenableourGeochemistryDivisiontobehousedtogetherinasinglebuildingforthefirsttimeinmanyyears.Itssuperiorlaboratoriesandinnovativedesignwillprovidethecapabilitiesandworkingenvironment that our geochemists need to maintain their world leadership andexpandourunderstandingofEarth. Asourplanetchanges,fewareasareimpactedasrapidlyorassignificantlyasarethe poles. Observatory researchers have during the past two years developedleadershiprolesinplanningfortheInternationalPolarYearactivitiesthatwillbeginin2007,andyouwillreadmuchaboutthisimportantinitiativethroughoutthisreport. Youwillalsoreadaboutour increaseddedication toand involvement inearthscienceeducationatmanydifferentlevels;aboutourincreasinglevelofcoordinationand cooperation with other departments and units within Columbia University,enabledbythecontinuedgrowthandeffectivenessofTheEarthInstitute;andaboutourincreasinglyactiveAdvisoryBoardwhosededicationtotheObservatoryishavingrealimpactuponourgrowthandsecurity. Thepasttwoyearshavebeenmarkedbytoomanysuccessestobementionedinthesefewintroductorycomments,but Ihopethisreporteffectivelyconveystheoverall level of success and accomplishment that Observatory researchers haveachieved.Ourgrowinglevelsofgovernmentfunding,successfulrecruitmentoffirst-classyoungscientistsandacquisitionofournewresearchvesselMarcus G. Langsethareall tangiblesymbolsofour leadership—a leadership thatweareconfidentwillcontinuefarintothefuture.
Theprofoundtragediesofthelasttwoyearsdriveustofindwaystoaccelerateourprogress.
AS THE EARTH INSTITUTE ENTERS ITS SECOND DECADE, WE AREemboldened in our efforts to promote science-based solutions to sustainabledevelopment by the many outstanding successes at the Lamont-Doherty EarthObservatoryoverthepasttwoyears.Itisherethatthestrengthofrigorous,cross-disciplinary scientific study toaddressmanyof themostpressing issues facingsocietytrulyshinesthrough. NothingillustratesthatstrengthmoretomethanwhathappenedafteraconcernedbusinessmanandphilanthropistaskedhimselfwhyhewasabletosailthroughtheArcticOceanwithouttheaidofanicebreaker.Toanswerhisquestionsaboutglobalwarming, Gary Comer turned to Lamont-Doherty and Wally Broecker. From thatmeetingandeventualfriendshipgrewnotonlyoneman’seducationaboutclimatesciencebutalsoanenduringlegacyofsupportthatislikelytochangethenatureofwhatweknowaboutEarth’snaturalsystems. Certainly,Lamont-Doherty’sstrengthsdonotendwithitstraditionofexcellenceinclimatescience.YouwillreadinthisreportaboutfundamentalbreakthroughsmadebyObservatoryscientistsinourunderstandingofearthquakesandmantleformation,of changes in theocean’sbiological systemsandof theorigin of dust storms inChina.Thefactthatallofthesestudiesandmanymoregooninthesameplace,withscientistsfromsuchdiversebackgroundsinteractingonadailybasis,iscentraltotheObservatory’scontinuedsuccessandtotheprincipalsonwhichTheEarthInstitutewasfounded. Inadditiontolookingbackoverthepasttwoyears,thisreportremindsusofthemanygreatthingsthataresuretogrowoutofsuchoutstandingwork.Inthefall,webrokegroundontheGeochemistrybuildingmadepossibleinpartbythegenerosityandforesightofGaryComer.Sadly,Garypassedawayshortlyaftergroundbreaking,buthis legacywill liveonmostpowerfully inthediscoveriesthatarecertaintobemadetherefordecadestocome. In2006wealsosawthestartofrefitontheR/VMarcus G. Langseth,ashipthatwillopennewavenuesofdiscoveryandtakescientistsphysicallyandintellectuallytoplacestheyhaveyettoexplore. Finally,noaccountingofLamont-Doherty’sstrengthswouldbecompletewithoutacknowledgingthestrengthofleadershipthatMikePurdyhasshownovertheyears.Thatleadershipwasjustifiablyrecognizedrecentlywhenhewasawardedthe2006MauriceEwingAwardbytheAmericanGeophysicalUnion.WelookforwardtomanymoreyearswithMike’ssteady,insightfulguidanceandmanymorediscoveriesbyLamont-Dohertyscientiststhatwillpushtheboundariesofwhatweknowaboutourplanet.
Itisherethatthestrengthofrigorous,cross-disciplinaryscientificstudytoaddressmanyofthemostpressingissuesfacingsocietytrulyshinesthrough.
G. Michael PurdyDirector
Jeffrey D. SachsDirector,TheEarthInstituteatColumbiaUniversity
2 LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR OF LAMONT-DOHERTY 3LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR OF THE EARTH INSTITUTE2
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
CHASING SCIENCE TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH SomeofGreenland’sglaciers,aslargeasManhattanandasthickastheEmpireStateBuildingistall,canmove10metersinlessthanaminute,ajoltthatissufficienttogeneratemoderateseismicwaves.
4 FEATURE ARTICLE 5FEATURE ARTICLE
Thescientiststheorizethatsummermeltingcauseswatertoseeptothebaseofglaciers,whereitlubricatessuddenlurching.“SomeofGreenland’sglaciers,aslargeasManhattanandastallastheEmpireStateBuilding,canmove10metersinlessthanaminute,ajoltthatissufficienttogeneratemoderateseismicwaves,”saidEkström,whojoinedLamont-Dohertyin2006. Glaciersmayberespondingmorerapidlythanexpectedtochangingclimateconditions,Nettlessaid,sendingmoreiceandfreshwaterintotheoceans.That,inturn,couldamplifyclimatechangesevenfurtherandraiseglobalsealevels.EkströmandNettlesarecarryingoutfirst-of-its-kindworktomonitorforglacialearthquakesinnear-realtime.
Telltale Chemical CluesAtop the icesheetsofbothGreenlandandAntarctica,geochemistPierreBiscaye iscontinuinghisworkto identifydusttrapped in layersof ice.Thedust iscomposedofmicroscopicparticlesofsoilandground-uprockcarriedaroundtheglobebywinds.Telltalemineralandisotopicsignaturesgivescientiststheabilitytotracethedust’soriginsandpathwaysandtoreconstructatmosphericcirculationpatternstensofthousandsofyearsinthepast. “Therearefantasticrecordsofpastclimateconditionsintheicecores,”saidBiscaye.“Theyprovideinsightsintohowourclimatesystemworks,andtheyarethebestmeansoftestingtheaccuracyofthemodelsweusetoforecastfutureclimatechange.” GeochemistGiselaWincklerexploitedavastlydifferenttypeofdustforclimatestudies:“stardust.”Everyyear,40,000tonsofcosmicdustfallstoEarthfromouterspaceandbecomesembeddedinicesheets.Theseparticles,measuringafewthousandthsofamillimeterindiameter,containanisotopeofheliumthatisrareonEarthbutabundantinspace.AnalyzingAntarcticicecores,WincklerfoundthatinterplanetarydusthasfallentoEarthataconstantrate,thusofferinganew,high-resolutionclocktodateextremelyancientice. Meanwhile,Lamont-DohertygeochemistPeterSchlosserhastrackedchemicalcompoundsintheArcticOceanandtheNordicSeas.Thesechroniclecirculationchanges,perhapscausedbyclimatechanges,thatmayactasatriggerforfurtherchangesinEarth’sclimate(seepage15).
IN 1957, KEN HUNKINS, A YOUNG GRADUATE STUDENT THIRSTING TO EXPLORE EARTH’S geographicandscientificfrontiers,cametowhatisnowtheLamont-DohertyEarthObservatory.HewaspromptlydispatchedtoStationAlpha—aresearchcamponanicefloeintheArcticOcean. HisarrivalcoincidedwiththeInternationalGeophysicalYear(IGY),anextraordinary,coordinatedeffortinvolvingthousandsofscientistsfrommorethan60countriestofocustheirscientificeffortsonthepoorlyunderstoodpolesandexpandon twopreviousworldwide researchprograms toexploreEarth’spolarregions,theInternationalPolarYearsof1882–83and1923–33. “WeaccumulatedawealthofdataontheArcticOceanseafloor,currentsandmarinelife,aswellasthecomplexinteractionsamongtheocean,seaiceandatmosphere,”Hunkinssaid.“Wegavefourdimensionstoauniqueregionoftheplanetthatonmostmaps,andinmostpeople’sminds,wasafeaturelesswhiteexpanseoverablackhole.” Since then, theObservatory’s researchers, spanning the spectrumof earth sciencedisciplines,have never ceased exploring Earth’s poles. Between 2004 and 2006, they made fundamentaldiscoveriesandhaveplayedleadershiprolesinplanningtheupcomingInternationalPolarYear(IPY)thatbeginsinMarch2007.
Glacial JoltsWhileworkingatHarvard,Lamont-DohertyseismologistsGöranEkströmandMeredithNettlesidentifiedanewkindofseismiceventcausedbythesuddenmovementsofglaciers.Now,theyhavefoundthatthenumberofthese“glacialearthquakes”hasmorethandoubledinGreenlandsince2002,anindicationthattheglaciers,andtheicesheetsthatfeedthem,areslidingmorerapidlytowardthesea. Nettles andEkströmanalyzed recordedseismicwaves thatwere routinelyoverlookedbecausetheywerenotcausedbyearthquakes.Totheirsurprise,theyfoundabout200previouslyundetectedlong-periodseismiceventsintypicallyearthquake-freeGreenland.Theeventsalloccurredinthevalleysdrainingthetwo-mile-highGreenlandIceSheetandhappenedmoreofteninsummer.
[left]TopographicmapoftheicesurfaceaboveLakeVostok.Credit: Michael Studinger
[below]MilesaboveLakeVostokliesaflatexpanseoffeaturelessice.DuringfieldworkintheshortAntarcticsummer,temperaturesrangebetween-30ºCand-40ºC(-22ºFto-40ºF).In1983,thetemperatureatVostokdroppedto-89.2ºC(-128.6ºF),thecoldesttemperatureeverrecordedonEarth.Credit: Michael Studinger
[above]Scientistsexamineacrackintheseaicenear
StationAlphain1958thatwilleventuallyforcethe
stationtoberelocated.Credit: Ken Hunkins
[right]AsectionoftheEPICAicecoresampledbyresearcherstomeasuretheaccumulationofcosmicandterrestrialdust
particlesinAntarctica.Credit: Sepp Kipfstuhl, AWI
[above]LeighStearnsfromtheUniversityofMaineandAndreas
AhlstrømfromtheGeologicalSurveyofDenmarkandGreenland
installaGPSstationonHelheimGlacierinEastGreenlandaspart
ofMeredithNettles’recentworktomonitorglacialearthquakes.Credit: Gordon S. Hamilton
[right]TheU.S.nuclearsubmarineSkateatIceStationAlphain1958.
Credit: Ken Hunkins
[left]CosmicdustparticlesimilartothosefoundinAntarcticicecores.Credit: Scott Messenger, NASA
[right]TheRussianAntarcticresearchstationVostok.Credit: Michael Studinger
[below]MeredithNettlesPostdoctoralResearchScientistCredit: Leigh A. Stearns
A NEW HOME FOR GEOCHEMISTRY
ColumbiaUniversityreceivedan$18milliongiftfromGaryComerandtheComerScienceandEducationFoundationtosupportconstructionofanewGeochemistrybuildingatLamont-Doherty.
6 FEATURE ARTICLE 7FEATURE ARTICLE
FROM ITS BEGINNINGS IN CRAMPED QUARTERS AT LAMONT HALL, THE GEOCHEMISTRY DivisionhasbuiltaproudtraditionofleadershipthataddressesEarth’smanycomplexandinterconnectedsystems. In recentyears,however, theObservatory’ssprawlingGeochemistry laboratorybuilding,dedicatedintheearly1950s,begantoproveinadequateforthescientistswhostudyfundamentalquestionsaboutthestructureandfunctionoftheplanet,fromitscoretotheouteratmosphere. In2005,ColumbiaUniversityreceivedan$18milliongiftfromGaryComerandtheComerScienceand Education Foundation to support construction of a new geochemistry building at Lamont-Doherty—oneofthelargestdonationseverreceivedbytheObservatory.ThegiftreflectsthecommitmentofthefounderoftheLands’Endclothing-catalogcompanytoeffortsthatdeepenunderstandingoftheeffectofhumanactivityontheenvironment.SupportfortheprojecthasalsoincludedmajorgiftsfromColumbiaTrusteeGerryLenfestaswellasananonymousdonorandtheAmbroseMonellFoundation,andtheObservatory’shighestpriorityisraisingtheremaining$3.9millionneededtocompletefundingforwhatiscertaintobecomeacornerstoneforscientificresearchoncampus. Planscallforatwo-story,63,000-square-foot-buildingthatwillhouseLamont-Doherty’sGeochemistryDivision,whichiscurrentlyscatteredacrossthecampus.ItwillcontainlaboratoriesdesignedtomeetthebestpracticesdescribedintheEPA’sLabs21programaswellasprovidemuch-neededsupportandofficespace.Ribbon-cuttingisscheduledforNovember2007. Comer’s interest in the project grew from a 2001 trip hemadethroughtheNorthwestPassageonhisyachtTurmoil.Afterhewasabletocompletethetripwithouttheaidofanicebreaker,hebecameconcernedaboutglobalwarmingandheturnedtoLamont-Doherty geochemist Wally Broecker for insight. Infollowingyears,heaccompaniedscientistsfromLamont-Dohertyandotherinstitutionsintothefieldmanytimes. Sadly, Mr. Comer passed away in October 2006 shortlyaftergroundwasbroken.Hislegacywillremain,however,notonly intheformofthenewbuilding,but inthegenerationsofscientistsitwillhelptrainandthefundamentaldiscoveriesitwillundoubtedlyenable.
[aboveandleft]Whenthenewbuildingopens,itwillprovideahomefortheentireGeochemistryDivisionandactasahuboflaboratoryresearchfortheentireObservatory.Credit: Payette Associates, Inc.
Exploring Polar OceansTheseassurroundingAntarcticaplayacriticalroleinglobaloceancirculationandclimate.There,theinteractionsamongair,seaandiceformverycold,densewaterthatsinksandspreadsnorthward,chillingthelowertwokilometersoftheentireworld’socean.Thedescentoftheselarge,coldwatermassesdisplacesdeepwaterstowardthesurface.Bythisprocess,theocean“overturns,”withdensepolarsurfacewaterstakingupgreenhousegasesfromtheatmospherethatcanbeeffectivelystoredinthedeepocean. Antarctica’s remote, ice-choked waters have largely deterred investigation of this fundamentalphenomenon.In1992Lamont-DohertyphysicaloceanographersArnoldGordonandBruceHuberengagedinpioneeringmeasurementsintheWeddellSea,aspartofIceStationWeddell,toinvestigatethecomplexprocesses that form thedensebottomwater thateventuallyspreadsnorthward.TheybegantodeploymooringarraysintheWeddellSeafrom1999andintheRossSeafrom2003(bothremaininoperationtoday)tomonitortherate,variabilityandotherpropertiesofcoldbottomwaterasitdrainsawayfromformationsitesalongthemarginsofAntarcticaandintotheglobalocean. Somescientiststhinkthatrapidclimatechangecould,forexample,meltlargeamountsofseaice,exposingmoreoceansurfacetothesunandaddingfreshwatertothesystem.That,inturn,mayleavesurfacewaterstoolight(warmandfresh)tosinkandpropeloceanoverturning,whichcouldhaveawiderangeofpossibleclimateimpacts.
Lakes and Life Beneath the IceIn2005and2006,Lamont-DohertybiologicaloceanographerAndrewJuhlconductedfieldworknearBarrow,Alaska,tolearnhowlittle-knowncommunitiesofmarinealgaethriveintheundersideofseaiceandtostudytheircrucialroleinthepolarecosystem(seepage9).ExoticlifeformsmayalsobelivingintwolargelakesthathavebeensealedformillionsofyearsbeneathtwomilesofAntarcticice.In2006,geophysicistsRobinBellandMichaelStudinger,usingaerialgravitysurveysandsatellitelasermapping,describedforthefirsttimedetailsofthesubglaciallakes90°EandSovetskaya. Thescientistsbelievewater intheseandothersubglacial lakesontheflanksofthe ice-coveredGamburtsevMountainscouldlubricatetheflowofthemassiveEastAntarcticIceSheet,whichholdsenoughicetoraiseglobalsealevelsby50meters.Thedynamicsofthelakesandthetectonicoriginsofthemountainrange,whichareaslargeastheEuropeanAlpsandfosteredthegrowthofthemassiveicesheet35millionyearsago,remainunknown.
Lamont-Doherty LeadershipDuringtheIPY,BellandStudingerwillhelpleadpioneeringexpeditionstoexploretheGamburtsevMountains, the last unmapped mountains on Earth. Near the planet’s other pole, Schlosser willhelpleadexpeditionsdeployinginnovativetechnologytoinvestigateoceanconditionsinthe“ArcticSwitchyard,”an important regionnorthofGreenlandwhereArcticwatersdiverge toheadeastorwestaroundGreenland. SchlosserhasbeeninvolvedinplanningArcticresearchsincetheearly1990s,whenhefirstde-tected that large-scalecirculationchangeswereoccurring.Most recently,hewasamemberof thefirstsciencesteeringcommitteeforUnitedStates’multiagencyStudyofEnvironmentalArcticChange(SEARCH)programandhaschairedthatgroupsince2004.SchlosseralsohelpedplantheInterna-tionalStudyofArcticChangeprogramandpresentlyservesonitssciencesteeringcommittee.
Forherpart,BellchairedtheNationalResearchCouncil’sPolarResearchBoard,thenationalcoordinatingcommitteefortheIPY.She also co-chaired the International Council for Science (ISC)groupthatdevelopedthefirstmajorplanningdocument for thecurrentIPYandcontinuestoserveontheICS’splanninggroup. In testimonybeforeCongress in2006,Bell said, “Althoughwe’vemade tremendousprogress in all scienceover thepast100 years, the polar regions are still at the frontiers of humanknowledge.Themapsaren’tquiteasblank,butthefrontiersandunknownshaveactuallyincreased,andrangefromthemolecular,totheecological,tothecontinental.”
[top]U.S.CoastGuardCutterHealeyworkingitsway
throughArcticseaice.Credit: Henry Dick, National
Science Foundation
[bottomleft]RobinBell,DirectorofCenterforRivers
andEstuaries,DohertySeniorResearchScientist,Marine
GeologyandGeophysicsCredit: Bruce Gilbert
[bottomright]ScientistsatIceStationWeddelldriftedwiththeAntarcticseaicefornearlyfive
monthsin1992.Credit: Arnold Gordon
8 BIOLOGY AND PALEO ENVIRONMENT 9
Bystudyinglivingorganismsorfossilremains,B&PEscientistscanmakesenseofEarth’scurrentenvironment,howithaschangedthroughtimeandwhatmaybeexpectedinthefuture.
The Biology and Paleo Environ-ment Division (B&PE) is a diverse group of oceanographers, ge-
ologists, geochemists, biologists and environmental scientists who pursue research in two connected efforts. First, we use biology (usually looking at fossils) to uncover clues about Earth’s past environment. We also strive to understand how the modern environ-ment—through its oceans, atmosphere and land—affects present-day biology. All organisms record the environ-ment in which they exist. Ecosystems are shaped by such factors as tem-perature, water availability, nutrients, light and chemical or physical changes and, hence, shape the creatures that live in them. These organisms, in turn, exert an influence on their surrounding environment. By studying living organ-isms or fossil remains, B&PE scientists can make sense of Earth’s current en-vironment, how it has changed through time and what may be expected in the future as current trends play out.
B&PEscientiststurntoanumberofprimarysourcestoconduct researchonpastenvironments, includingdeep-sea sediment cores, samples from coral reefsandgrowth ringsof trees.Deep-sea sediment coresareliketaperecordingsofthepastthatallowscientiststo look atEarth’s history over the last severalmillionyears. In an example of such research (see page 9)Lamont-DohertyscientistPeterdeMenocalandformergraduate student Sarah Feakins examined leaf waxfromplantmaterialpreservedindeep-seacorestolinkmajorclimatechangeswith fundamentalevolutionaryeventsinhumanhistory.
Toextendrecordsofclimateandoceanconditionsbeyondpre-anthropogenictimes,scientistsstudycorals,bothlivingandfossilized,whosegrowthringspreservearecordofoceanconditionsinwhichtheygrew.Simi-larly,thewidthoftreerings,formedastreesgrowandlaydownwoodseasonally,canreflectthetemperatureand precipitation during each growing season. Bystudying trees several hundred years old, scientistscan establish an accurate record of the climate formany locations.EdCookandcolleagues inLamont-Doherty’s Tree-Ring Laboratory are in the midst of afive-yearprojecttoreconstructthehistoryoftheAsianmonsoon, whose rhythms pace and undergird thehealthandwelfareofbillionsofpeople(seepage10). Whilepaleoceanographersandgeologistssift theevidenceofEarth’spast,others inB&PEmonitor theconverse:Theylookatmoderneffectsoftheenviron-ment on marine plankton and trees, for example, tounderstand how these organisms are responding tochangingenvironmentalconditions.Biologicalocean-ographer Andrew Juhl recently joined colleagues inBarrow,Alaska,toexplorelittle-known,butecologicallyimportant,marinealgaethatliveinseaice(seepage9). Together,projectssuchasthesehelpB&PEbetterunderstand how Earth’s climate has changed in thepast—andwhatwemightbeabletoexpectinfutureclimateregimes.JohnMarra
DohertySeniorScholarAssociateDirector,BiologyandPaleoEnvironmentCredit: Bruce Gilbert
Did Climate Shifts Change The Course of Evolution?
In 1995, Lamont-Doherty paleoceanographer PeterdeMenocalfirstreportedintriguingevidencethatdramaticclimatechangesonEarthmayhavegovernedthecourseofhumanevolution.Hefoundthatthicker,moreabundantlayersof soilparticlesand tiny remnantsofgrasses—blownouttoseaduringdrierclimates—hadaccumulatedin ocean sediments off the African coast around 2.8millionandagainabout1.8millionyearsago. Those timescoincidedwith twomajor events inhumanevolutionrecordedbyfossils.About2.8millionyearsago,Australopithecus afarensis(“Lucy”)becameextinct and the human family tree diverged into twobranches. One million years later, humans’ most im-mediate ancestor, Homo erectus, first appeared.Together,theevidencestronglysuggestedthatshiftingenvironmentalconditionscontributedtotheextinctionofsomehumanancestorsandalsogaveotherspeciesopportunitiestoadaptandthrive. That interpretation remained open, however, be-causethethicker layersof terrigenousmaterial intheoceanscouldbeexplainedbystrongerwindsaswellasbydrierconditions.SodeMenocal,ColumbiagraduatestudentSarahFeakinsandTimEglinton,ageochemistat Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, sought anew approach to investigate how African vegetationchanged over the last four million years. They mea-suredplant leafwaxpreserved inseafloorsedimentsdrilledfromtheGulfofAden,wherewindsblowdustfromEthiopia,KenyaandTanzania—thesameregionsinwhichscientistshavediscoveredmanyhominidfossils. In particular, the team measured and analyzedisotopic carbon compositions of the remnant plantmaterial,allowingthemtodistinguishbetweenplantsthatusedifferent chemicalpathways in theirphoto-synthesis. To adapt to arid conditions, savannahgrasses use the so-called C-4 pathway, which letsthemusewatermoreefficiently.NearlyallothertreesandshrubsusetheC-3pathway. Feakins was lead author of a paper published in2005 in Geology that demonstrated northeast Africadidbecomemarkedlydrierabout3millionyearsagoandgrasslandvegetationbegantoreplacewoodlands.FossilrecordsofAfricanantelopesalsoshowthatthepopulationofthesesavannahgrassgrazersbegantoexpand about 3 million years ago, around the sametimethat“Lucy”andhercohortsbegantodecline.Thearidificationtrendappearstohavebeengradual,culmi-natinginthedriestconditionsaround1.6millionyearsago,whenHomo erectus emerged. Collectively,thegeochemicalandfossildataindicatethatmajoreventsinhumanevolutioncorrelatedwithanincreasinglyopenandmorearidAfricanlandscape.
Investigating Hidden but Ecologically Critical Species
ThevaststretchesofseaiceextendingovertheArcticOceanseemtotallydesolateandlifelessfromthesur-face,butinearlyspringtheundersideoftheicecomesalive. In 2005 and 2006, Lamont-Doherty biologicaloceanographerAndrewJuhlconductedfieldworknearBarrow,Alaska,tolearnhowlittle-understoodcommu-nitiesofmarinealgaeareabletothriveinsideseaiceandtostudytheircrucialroleinthepolarecosystem. “Sea ice is a hostile environment—it’s cold, andthesalinitycanbeveryhigh—butovertime,thealgaehave successfully adapted,” said Juhl. Among theiradaptationsistheabilitytogrowwithverylittlelight,perhaps one-tenth of that needed by other micro-scopicmarineplantslivinginliquidwater.Asaresult,icealgaebegintogrowassoonasthefirsttentativerays of sunlight break the long Arctic darkness andbeginpenetratingthroughseaice.Thatoccursinearlyspring—severalmonthsbeforeplantgrowthbeginsinopen-oceanregionsaftertheseaicehasmelted. Scientistsnowthinkthaticealgaegreatlyextendthe growing season in polar regions, providing asignificant source of food at the base of the foodchainatacriticaltimewhenotherplantlifeisinactive.Learning about ice algae has become more crucialnow,atatimewhenawarmingclimatethreatenstoreduce sea ice and otherwise disrupt the delicatelybalancedArcticecosystem. JuhlandChristopherKrembsoftheUniversityofWashington deployed instruments to monitor lightintensityandthegrowthoficealgae,alongwithothersensors to measure currents, water temperatures,chlorophyll andnutrient levels in thewaterbeneaththe ice. They have also taken cores of sea ice to
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
FormerDEESgraduatestudentSarahFeakinsintheFyeLabatWoods
HoleOceanographicInstitute.Credit: Robert Nelson, WHOI
BIOLOGY AND PALEO ENVIRONMENT
10 BIOLOGY AND PALEO ENVIRONMENT
samplethe icealgaeaswellasotherorganisms living inside the ice thatgrazeonthealgae. Largemassesoficealgaeappearto build up and are released into theoceaninperiodicpulses.Thescientistsare investigating whether these pulsesare correlated with strong currents orincreasesinlight.Onehypothesisisthatas thealgaecollect light forphotosyn-thesis,theymayactuallyabsorbenoughheattomeltthemselvesoutoftheice.
Beyondtheirecologicalimportance,icealgaecanalsohelpexpandourunderstandingofhoworganismsadapttoseeminglyharshenvironments,suchasthoseon other planets. Juhl and Krembs are examiningmucous-like substances produced by ice algae thatmayhelpthemsticktotheiceandmodifythestructureof internal channels within the ice. Cold-adaptedorganismssuchasicealgaemayalsoproduceunusualenzymesorotherbioproductsthatcouldproveusefulinindustrialorbiomedicalapplications.
Reconstructing the History of Asian Monsoons
Two-thirdsof theworld’spopulationdependson theseasonal rainfall brought by the Asian monsoon.Deviations inmonsoonbehaviorcancreatefloodsordroughts that affect billions of people from Arabiato Indonesia. The source of monsoon rains are theoceanssurroundingAsia.AsthevastTibetanPlateauabsorbssummerheat,theatmosphereaboveitwarmsand rises. Cool, moist air—drawn in from the IndianandPacificOceans—rushesinandreleasesitsmois-ture,sometimeswithdevastatingresults. In2004,theTree-RingLaboratory(TRL)embarkedonafive-yearproject,fundedbytheNationalScienceFoundation, to reconstruct thehistoryofAsianmon-soon climate dynamics. When completed, the studywillprovideanarchivalrecordthatwillhelpunravelthefactorsthatleadtomonsoonalshiftsandhelppredicthow the monsoons may change in an era of globalwarming(seepage11).
Overthe lasttwoyears,TRLresearchersEdwardCook, Gordon Jacoby, Rosanne D’Arrigo, BrendanBuckleyandWilliamWrighthaveroamedthroughAsia,identifyingandsamplinglong-livedtreeswhoseannualgrowth rings reflect temperature and precipitationconditionsintheyearsinwhichtheywereformed.Datafrom this network will allow them to knit together achronicleofmonsoonbehaviorthroughoutthecontinentoverthelastseveralhundredyears. The researchers must negotiate often confusingculturalandgovernmentalhurdlestoobtainnecessarycollectionpermits.“Itwouldbeeasytolettheimpedi-mentsbecomefrustrating,ifnotinfuriating,”saidWright.“Butwehavelearnedtheimportanceofpatienceandfindthatcrossingthebureaucraticquagmirecanbeaculturallyfascinatingexperience.” PartoftheTRL’smissionistoprovideformaltrainingin tree-ring techniques in each country where theyworkand,ifpossible,tosetuptree-ringlaboratories.TRLresearchershavebeenclosely involved indevel-oping the Laboratory of Tropical Dendrochronology(LTD)atKasetsartUniversityinBangkok,Thailand;theTree-RingLaboratoryatMongolianNationalUniversityin Ulan Baatar; and tree-ring facilities at the InstitutTeknologiBandung(ITB)inBandung,Java,Indonesia,and at the Renewable Natural Resources ResearchCenterinJakar,Bhutan.Theyarealsohelpingtodevelopnewtree-ringprogramsattheUniversityofthePhilip-pines,LosBaños,andattheUniversityofPeradeniyainKandy,SriLanka.TRLscientistsalsoheldathree-day workshop in Thailand on dendrochronology inassociation with the Laboratory of Tropical Dendro-chronology,whichincludedparticipantsfromThailand,Laos,Cambodia,Vietnam,Sabah,Sarawak,thePhil-ippines,SriLanka,IndiaandAustralia. Regionaltree-ringscientistsfromLanzhouUniversityin China; the Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany inLucknow, India; and the Indian Institute of TropicalMeteorologyinPune,India,haveactivelycollaboratedwithLamont-Doherty scientists,whosaid theirAsiancollaborators have taught them much about theirregion’s climateandenvironment.Regional scientistshavealsobeeninstrumentalinfacilitatingthecollectionoftree-ringsamplesandinsomecaseshavecollectedsamplesthemselves. Usingthisgrowingwealthoftree-ringdata,Lamont-Doherty researchers are investigating how climate-related changes in sea surface temperatures in thePacific and Indian Oceans and in land temperaturesover theTibetanPlateaumaybe linkedwithshifts inthestrengthoflife-givingseasonalprecipitationpatternsfortheentireregion.
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
AndrewJuhlholdsacoreoficeextractedfromthefrozen
ChuchiSeainApril2005.Thediscolorationinthebottomof
thecoreiscausedbyalgaelivinginsidechannelsand
poresintheice.Credit: Christopher Krembs
University of Washington
Lamont-Doherty Scientists Investigate the Asian MonsoonDefining the role of the tropics in driving or modulating notable climate changes over the past 500 years or more requires information from a network of sites and adequate time series. Tree rings are the only data source that provides the required geographic and temporal coverage. The choice of sampling locations is influenced by the location of, and interactions among, three primary features of Asian climate variability that have links to variability in the strength of the monsoon: Indian Ocean sea-surface temperatures (SSTs), tropical Pacific SSTs and land tem-peratures over the Tibetan Plateau and northern Eurasia [Figure 1]. Scientists from the Tree-Ring Laboratory chose study sites (both new and existing) where the tree growth is influenced by one or more of these features, and their efforts have begun to yield results—with sub-stantial increases in the tree-ring data network for the Asian monsoon region, particularly in the Asian tropics [Figure 2]. Analyses of these new data have already led to publications that have demonstrated links between several study sites and all three monsoon-related features. Other investigations are yielding new climate-sensitive records from Mongolia, the Philippines and Laos, and the results to date suggest bright prospects for the remainder of the research.
[Figure 1] The three primary dynamic environmental features that influence the strength of the Asian monsoon and location of sampling sites in the region.
[Figure 2] Map showing the expanding network of sampling sites throughout Asia. Red dots indicate sites that were available at the start of the project; yellow dots show the origin of data that have been contributed from various additional sources. Blue dots represent those new data and chronologies that have been developed over roughly the past two years of field work.
Beyondtheirecologicalimportance,icealgaecan
alsohelpexpandourunderstandingofhow
organismsadapttoseeminglyharshenvironments,suchas
thoseonotherplanets.
11BIOLOGY AND PALEO ENVIRONMENT
# GEOCHEMISTRY 13GEOCHEMISTRY12 GEOCHEMISTRY
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Geochemistshavebeenheavilyengagedduringthepastyearindesigningthenewbuilding,andwelookforwardtoreportingonthemovetothenewbuildinginthenextbiennialreport.
Scientists in Lamont-Doherty’s Geochemistry Division work on a broad spectrum of topics,
united by the shared philosophy that geochemical tracers can be exploited to unravel mysteries about the forma-tion of Earth and the operation of its systems. Some of the principal re-search themes in the Division include:• Solid-earth dynamics, including theexchange of material between Earth’score,mantleandcrust.•StructureandcompositionofEarth’slowercrustanduppermantle,withafocus on melt transport in the uppermantle,accretionofigneouslowercrustatspreading ridgesandarcsand thehydration and carbonation of mantle-derivedmaterial thathasbeen tectoni-callyexposedatEarth’ssurface.•TheformationofEarthanditsmoon,and the transformations that occurredduringtheearliestphasesoftheirhistories.• The oceans’ role in climate, tracingocean currents that transport heataround the globe and their variability
throughtime,andinvestigatingoceanprocessesthatregulate the concentration of carbon dioxide in theatmosphere, from microscale physics at the air-seainterface to the global-scale meridional overturningoceancirculation.•Causesandconsequencesofclimatechangeoverlongertimescales,rangingfromvariabilityovermanythousandsofyearspacedbysubtlechangesinEarth’sorbittoabruptchanges,sometimeswithinthespanofahumanlifetime,forcedbyas-yetunidentifiedmecha-nismsinternaltoEarth’sclimatesystem.• Sources and fates of contaminants in the environ-ment, transported both in air and water, with anemphasisontheNewYorkmetropolitanregionandtheHudsonRiver,butwithprojectsextendingworldwide.
Althoughmodelingconstitutesanimportantpartofourwork,thelion’sshareofthegeochemistryresearchportfolioismadeupofobservationalandexperimentalprojects.Consequently,thesuccessofouroperationsreliesonmaintainingstate-of-the-artanalyticalfacilities.ThesefacilitieshavecomeunderincreasingpressureinrecentyearsduetothedecliningstateofthebuildingthathousesmostoftheDivision. Consequently, geochemists were delighted toreceiveadonation fromGaryComerand theComerScienceandEducationFoundation (seepage7) thatformsthefinancialfoundationforamajornewlaboratorybuilding.Geochemistshavebeenheavilyengagedduringthepastyear indesigningthenewbuilding,andwelookforwardtoreportingonthemovetothenewbuildinginthenextbiennialreport.
RobertF.AndersonAssociateDirector,GeochemistryDivisionCredit: Bruce Gilbert
Cosmogenic “Clock” Dates the Waning of Glaciers and Ice AgesTheforcesthathavedrivenEarth’siceageshavesofarlargelyremainedamystery.Now,anewgeochemicaltool,calledsurfaceexposuredating(SED),isofferingatransformational breakthrough in scientists’ ability topreciselyanddirectlydatewhenglaciersanywhereintheworldbegantoretreat. Astheyadvance,glaciersactlikegiantearthmovers,scrapinguprocksandloosematerialtocreatedepositscalledmoraines. Long IslandandCapeCod, for ex-ample,were formedby thisprocess. Themoment aglacierstartsretreating,materialatthetopofamoraineis exposed to open sky and bombarded by cosmicrays,andacosmogenicclockstartsticking. Highlyenergeticneutronsinthecosmicraysinducereactions with oxygen and silicon atoms, which arereplaced in the crystalline structure of minerals byberyllium-10(10Be), an isotopebasically absentonEarth.Because the isotopeaccumulatesataknownrateandmoderndetectionmethodscanmeasureevenminute amounts of 10Be, scientists have a powerfulgeochronometerfordeterminingwhentherocksurfacebecameexposed. Joerg Schaefer, head of the cosmogenic datingresearchgroupatLamont-Doherty,ledarecentstudyusing10BeSEDtodateglacialmorainesintheNorthernand Southern Hemispheres. His work sought to ex-ploreavexingquestion:Wastheendofthelasticeageaglobalphenomenon,ordidchangesoccurasynchro-nouslyindifferenthemispheres? The question arises because data from Antarcticice cores shows that temperatures there began tosteadilyrise17,500yearsago,concurrentwithariseinatmosphericcarbondioxidelevels.Thatpatternmakesrisinggreenhousegasesaprimesuspect forcausingtheendofthelasticeageworldwide.
Paleoclimaterecordsinthenorth,however,tellaverydifferentstory. IcecoresfromGreenland indicatethattemperaturesshotupdramatically14,700yearsago—2,800yearsafterwarmingbeganinthesouth.RecordsfromseafloorsedimentsalsoshowthatNorthAtlanticOcean temperatureswerecoolbetween17,500and14,700 years ago, another indication that ice-ageconditionscontinuedaroundGreenland. Schaefer and colleagues sampledthe top surfaces of large boulders onmorainesintheSierraNevadaMountainsinNorthAmericaandtheSouthernAlpsof New Zealand and used the SEDmethod to timeglacial retreatsatmid-latitudesinbothhemispheres.CombiningtheirstudieswithSEDstudiesbyotherresearchersofsix other mid-latitude moraines (three in each hemi-sphere),theyfoundthat—despitevariousgeographic,geological,glaciologicalandhemisphericdifferences—the timing of glacial retreat in mid-latitudes wasremarkablysynchronousataround17,500yearago. Thisresultprovidesstrongevidencethattheendoftheiceagewasaglobalphenomenoninnear-synchronywith rising atmospheric carbon dioxide levels andtemperaturesoverAntarctica. SohowtoexplaintheGreenlandrecord? Schaefer and colleagues offer this hypothesis:Risingglobalsummertemperatures17,500yearsagoinitiatedtheretreatofmid-latitudeglaciersandalsode-stabilizedgreatNorthernHemisphericicesheets.ThiscausedtheflowoficetowardtheseatoincreaseandlaunchedarmadasoficebergsintotheNorthAtlantic.Theinfluxofsuchalargevolumeoffreshwaterchangedtheocean’scirculation,almostshuttingdownasystemofcurrentsthattransportsheatfromthetropicstotheNorthAtlantic.Asaresult,seaicespreadandhyper-coldwintersensuedinthearctic,whichoffsetfornearly3,000yearsthewarmingthatwasoccurringintherestoftheworld.
ViewoftheLakePukakibasinwithnearly30differentlateralandterminalmoraineridgesvisiblearoundthelake.Credit: Joerg Schaefer
LocationsaroundLakePukakiinNewZealandwhereresearchershavecarriedoutsurfaceexposuredatingstudiestoexaminethetimingoftheendofthelasticeageworldwide.Courtesy of Joerg Schaefer
Sample Sites Geomorphology
Thatpatternmakesrisinggreenhousegasesaprimesuspectforcausingtheendofthelasticeageworldwide.
# GEOCHEMISTRY 15GEOCHEMISTRY14 GEOCHEMISTRY
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Do Coastal Waters Absorb CO2, or Add It to the Atmosphere?
Inthiseraofglobalwarming,akeyquestionthatmustbeansweredishowmuchcarbondioxidetheoceanscanabsorbtooffsetthebuildupofatmosphericgreen-housegases.Toanswerthis,scientistshaveroamedthe world’s oceans over the last decade, measuringgasexchangesbetweenairandsea.However,criticalcluesmaylieclosertohomeincoastalwaters,whereblooms of photosynthetic marine plants use carbondioxidedissolved in theoceananddrawdownmorefromtheatmosphere. Some research suggests that the thin sliver ofocean around continents may absorb as much as
1 billion tons of atmospheric carbondioxide per year, roughly half theknownuptakeof the restof theopenocean.ButLamont-DohertygeochemistWade McGillis thinks that estimate isoversimplified. Waves,weather,riverinputs,nutrientsupplies, tides, currents, marine lifepopulationsandotherfactorsvaryfromonecoastalregiontoanotherandfromseason to season. These complex,interactingfactorsaffectthegradientofcarbon dioxide in the air and oceansand, consequently, the exchange be-tweenthem.Theyalsoaffecttheamount
of carbon dioxide that is exchanged between thecoastalandopenoceans.Insomeplacesandatcertaintimes, temperatureand respiringmarineanimals thateatmarineplantsmayactuallyproducemorecarbondioxidethantheplantstakeup,makingtheareaanetsource,ratherthana“sink,”ofcarbon. Fewcoastalareashavebeenobservedcontinuouslytosortoutwhatisreallyhappening,however.Toremedythissituation,McGillisandcollaborators launchedaneffort to make long-term observations of coastaldynamics. They deployed manually operated andautonomous instruments, designed and built atLamont-Doherty, to measure air-sea carbon dioxidefluxes at a series of observatories along the EastCoast: the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System,theMartha’sVineyardCoastalObservatory, theU.S.ArmyCorpsofEngineersFieldResearchFacility inNorth Carolina, the South Atlantic Bight OceanObservingNetworkoffeasternFloridaandonthewestcoastofFlorida. “ThroughcontinuousmonitoringofCO2andrelateddynamicsinthecoastalocean,wecanbegintounder-standwhichprocessesgoverntherateandmagnitudeofair-seaCO2fluxes,”saidMcGillis. Byexpandingthesepioneeringstudiestocoastalregionsworldwide,scientistswillbeabletodeterminewhich areas contribute toor offset increasinggreen-housegaslevelsintheatmosphereandwillgainimportantinsightstobetterassessglobalwarmingissues.
Fresher Oceans Increase Potential for Climate Change
In 1991, Peter Schlosser first reported evidence ofdramatic changes in the Greenland Sea that hadpotentially far-reaching consequences for the world’sclimate;watersthathistoricallysinkthereaspartoftheoceans’globalcirculationnearlystoppedinthe1980s.ThesearchtofindoutwhytookSchlosserandcollabo-rators into the Arctic Ocean where they have beenworkingsincethelate1980s. Coldwinters in theNordicseascool theoceanwaters, making them dense enough to sink to theabyss. That helps drive a huge mass of southward-flowingdeepwateranddrawswarmsurfacecurrentsnorthwardfromthetropicstoreplacethem.Whenthewarmer waters reach high latitudes, they release alarge amount of heat to the atmosphere, temperingwintersintheNorthAtlanticregion. Polarwatershadremainedlargelyunderstudiedinthe late 1980s, when Schlosser began to trace thepenetration of natural and anthropogenic chemicalcompounds from theocean surfacedownward. Todeterminetherateofsinking intheGreenlandSea,he and his colleagues tracked tritium from nuclearweaponstestsinthe1960s,togetherwithitsradioactivedecayproduct,helium-3,aswellaschlorofluorocarbons(orCFCs,thenow-bannedchemicalsformerlyusedinaerosols). Working with postdoctoral scientists fromLamont-Doherty and in close collaboration with col-leagues from other U.S. and European institutions,SchlosserfoundthattherateofsinkingintheGreen-land, Norwegian and Iceland Seas (known as theNordicSeas)hasdecreasedsubstantially. Onesuspectedcauseistheincreaseoffreshwaterflowing into high-latitude seas. Fresh water is morebuoyantthansaltwaterand“floats”aboveit—actingasacap thatblocksheatexchangebetweenoceanandatmosphereandreducesthesinkingofsurfacewaters. Other researchers found that freshwater levels intheLabradorand IrmingerSeas,southof theNordicSeas,have increasedsignificantly in recentdecades.Schlosserandhiscolleagues,amongthemBillSmethiefromLamont-Doherty,headedupstreamoftheGreen-land Sea into the Arctic Ocean, a region they foundwas also undergoing ocean circulation changes of amagnitude that had not been seen before humansbegangatheringdatathere. Researchers in Lamont-Doherty’s EnvironmentalTracerGroupcollectedwater samplesduringseveralcruisesintothedeep,ice-coveredArcticOceanincludingavoyageacrosstheentireArcticOceanontheSwedishicebreakerOdenin2005.Inthefirstdetailedsurveyofthe interiorof theCanadianBasin, theyareanalyzingtritium,helium-3isotopesandCFCstostudychanges
inupperwaterlayers,aswellassalinityandnutrientstodeterminethesourcesofArcticfreshwater. DaleChayes,GuyMathieuandRichardPerryjoinedexpeditionsin2004and2005onapilotprojecttoinves-tigatefreshwaterflowinthe“ArcticSwitchyard,”northofGreenland—so named because Arctic waters divergethere toheadaround thewest coastofGreenlandoraroundtheeastcoastintotheGreenlandSea.There-searchers sampled waters at several locations fromEllesmereIslandnorthusingathrough-iceCTDrosette,anewinstrumenttomeasuresalinity,temperatureanddepththatwasdesignedandbuiltatLamont-Doherty. Theresearchwillhelpanswerwhetherpolarseas—perhaps fed by melting sea ice or glaciers and byincreased precipitation associated with greenhousewarming—are becoming fresh enough to threatenchangesinoceancirculationandclimate.
Byexpandingthesepioneeringstudiestocoastalregionsworldwide,scientists
willbeabletodeterminewhichareascontributetooroffsetincreasinggreenhousegaslevelsintheatmosphere
andwillgainimportantinsightstobetterassess
globalwarmingissues.
Oceanmarginsareapotentiallyimportant
contributortotheglobalcarboncycle,although
littleisknownaboutthespatialandtemporalvariabilityofCO2intheseareas.Themajorphysical
andbiogeochemicalprocessescontrollingCO2incoastalwaters
arephotosynthesis,respiration,heatand
gasexchangeandthemixingofestuarineandmarinewaters.
Credit: Wade McGillis
BobWilliams[left]fromtheScrippsInstitutionofOceanographyandRichardPerry[right]fromtheLamont-DohertyEarthObservatoryInstrumentLabdeployatracegastightthinholewatersamplerthroughtheArcticseaice.Watersamplestakenwiththeinstrument,whichwasdevelopedattheLamont-DohertyInstrumentLab,willhelpimproveunder-standingofoceancirculationintheArcticSwitchyard.Credit: Dale Chayes
16 MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS 17MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS
The primary mission of scientists in the Marine Geology and Geophysics Division (MG&G) is
to advance understanding of the nature and evolution of Earth’s ocean basins and continental margins. Nevertheless, the past two years have seen signifi-cant growth at the intersection of marine geoscience and disciplines such as biology, climate studies, natural hazards and the social sciences. When the giant Sumatran earth-quake and Indian Ocean tsunami occurred on December 26, 2004, Lamont-Doherty scientists were among the first to respond: in the media with informed commentary; on the Internet with text and graphics describing both the earthquake and the tsunami devastation; and, less than two months later, as part of an NSF-supported rapid-response re-search team to survey the rupture zone aboard the Japanese research vessel Natsushima. To enhance our research mission,
wearetakingadvantageofseveralinitiativesinNSF’sMajorResearchEquipmentandFacilitiesConstruction(MREFC)program.ThefirstinvolvesNSF’sdecisiontoretiretheD/VJOIDES Resolution aftermorethan20yearsof scientificoceandrillingandmove toanew,riserless drilling vessel with improved science capabili-ties.OurBoreholeResearchGroup receivedamajorcontract to assist in thedesignof a newvessel andequipment. A second MREFC project, NSF’s Ocean
ObservatoriesInitiative(OOI),willincludethreeprimarycomponents to make long-term marine observationsandinvestigateoceanicprocessesatavarietyoftime-scales:global-scalemooredbuoysystems,aregional-scale seafloor fiber-optic cable system and coastalobservatories.Lamont-DohertyinvestigatorsintheRidge2000programstudyingmid-oceanridgeprocesses,inparticular,standtobenefitfromtheOOIinitiative. With our strong NSF award base for managinggeophysicalandgeochemicaldata,MG&Gexpectstokeep Lamont-Doherty in the vanguard of the NSF’sCyberinfrastructure Initiative—a program that willstreamlinethewayscientificinformationisdisseminatedamong individuals, scientific communities and thegeneral public. To this end, the Marine GeoscienceData System group at the Observatory, with majorgrantsoverthepasttwoyears,wasrecentlyprovided10terabytesoffreestorageontheSanDiegoSuper-computerCenter(SDSC)DataCentralsystem. Also on the instrumentation front, investigatorsMichaelStudingerandRobinBell recently receivedaMajorResearch Instrumentation (MRI)grant from theNSF tooutfitaski-equippedairplanewith the latestgravity,magnetics,ice-penetratingradarandlaseraltim-etersensorstobeusedforstudyingthepolaricesheetsandlithosphereduringtheInternationalPolarYear. Ontheresearchvesselfront,after15yearsinservice,R/VMaurice Ewingcompleteditslastresearchexpedi-tion for Lamont-Doherty, arriving at Quonset Point,RhodeIsland,onMarch9,2005.Thereshejoinedthe
M/VWestern Legend,recentlypurchasedfromWestern-Geco,whichwasjuststartingitsconversiontotheR/VMarcus G. LangsethastheEwing’sreplacement.TheLangseth, named after one of Lamont’s preeminentgeophysicists,willhavesuperiorcapabilitiesformarinegeophysical surveys, includinga1°-by-1°deepwatermultibeam system and the ability to tow up to fourmulti-channelhydrophonearrays,aswellastwoinde-pendentlyfiredseismicsources,eachcomprisingtwolinearsubarrays.Theshipisalsobeingequippedwiththebestavailablemarinemammalobservationalcapa-bilitiesandbroadbandcommunications. SpacedoesnotallowacomprehensivediscussionofthescholarlyachievementsmadebyMG&Gscientistsoverthepasttwoyears.Instead,afewnotableexampleshavebeenchosentohighlightthedepth,breadthanddiversityofresearchundertakenwithinthedivision.
Seeking the Source of China’s Growing Dust Pollution Problem
Severespringduststormsareanunpleasantfactoflifeandagrowinghealthhazard formillionsofpeople innorthern China and neighboring countries. With thesummer Olympics scheduled for Beijing in 2008,officials have turned their attention to understandingand mitigating the dust problem for the capital andnearby regions.OnbehalfofChineseauthoritiesandwith funding from the Italian government, Lamont-Doherty scientists Chris Small, Colin Stark, AndreaTaramelliandJeffreyWeissel,alongwithPh.D.studentsDaliaBachandJonBarbour,havebegunusingLandsatsatellitedatatoidentifypotentialsourcesofdust. Landsat measures reflected energy across theelectromagneticspectrum,includinginfraredradiation,whichisinvisibletohumaneyes.Differentmaterialsontheplanet’ssurface,fromsoiltoplantstowater,reflectdifferent electromagnetic wavelength ranges—veg-etation,forexample,reflectsmoreinthenear-infraredthanvisiblewavelengths.Thisgivesscientiststheabilitytomap landcoveroverbroad regions. TheLamont-
Doherty teamusedLandsat images to identify areasthat might be sources for windblown dust. To verifytheirinterpretations,SmallandTaramelli,togetherwithChinese colleagues, collected dust samples in 2005from possible source areas across the Alashan andGobiDesertsofnorthernChina. Preliminary results from the study suggest thatchanging climate and human impacts both havecontributedtoshiftingpatternsofdustsourcesacrossnorthernChina.Quarriesandgravelpitsinthehinter-land, the result of mining for much-needed buildingmaterials, are among several culprits producing thefinedustthatplaguestheBeijingregioneachyear. Asaresultoftheresearch,potentialsourcere-gionsintheremoteGobiDesertthatwereidentifiedandmappedwithsatelliteimageryarecurrentlybeingmonitoredfordustemissions.MeteorologistsattheUniversity of Florence are also incorporating thestudy’sfindingsintocomputermodelsofatmosphericdust transport that will provide forecasts for the2008Olympics.
Thepasttwoyearshaveseenmajorgrowthattheintersectionofmarinegeoscienceanddisciplinessuchasbiology,climatestudies,naturalhazardsandthesocialsciences.
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Adjunctassociateresearch
scientistAndreaTaramellicollectssamplesandfieldphotographsofapotentialdustsourceinthe
westernGobiDesertneartheMongolia-Chinaborder.
Credit: Chris Small
False-colorLandsatimageofanalluvialfanintheGobiDesertneartheChina/Mon-goliaborder.Formerlakeareas,whicharethoughttobedustemissionhotspots,arelight-colored.Lightstreakstrendinginthedirectionoftheprevailingwindsmarkwind-erodedlakesedimentstransporteddownwindasdust.Credit: Chris Small
JeffreyWeisselDohertySeniorScholar,AssociateDirector,MarineGeologyandGeophysicsDivisionCredit: Bruce Gilbert
# MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS 19MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS
Underwater Listening Devices Record Tsunami-causing Quake
Two Lamont-Doherty scientists recently used datafromthenetworkofunderwatermicrophonessetuptomonitornuclearweaponsteststoprovideanaccuratemeasureofthetimingandlengthoftheseafloorearth-quake rupture that spawned the devastating 2004IndianOceantsunami. Maya Tolstoy and Del Bohnenstiehl analyzedacoustic energy (called tertiary waves or T waves)generated by the magnitude-9.3 earthquake on theseaflooroffSumatra,Indonesia.ThewavespropagatedthroughtheoceanandwererecordedonhydrophonesnearDiegoGarciaatollintheIndianOcean,morethan1,700milesfromtheepicenter.Thehydrophonesaredeployed in the ocean’s SOund Fixing And Ranging(SOFAR) channel—a layer in the ocean that propa-gatessoundenergyefficientlyovervastdistances. The scientists’ study revealed that the seafloorruptured in at least two phases: a fast event at thesouthern extent of the rupture that slowed markedlyandsuddenlyasitmovednorth.Theyalsoshowedthetotalrupturelengthmeasurednearly750miles. Because hydroacoustic listening stations like theoneatDiegoGarciaoperatearoundtheclockandtheir
dataisavailableinrealtime,TolstoyandBohnenstiehlbelieve theycouldpotentiallyprovidea rapidandaccurate source of information on the duration andlengthofunderwaterearthquakes.Suchinformationiscriticalindeterminingtsunamirisksandwheretosendemergencyreliefinthefirsthoursofadisaster.
New Subseafloor Images Show How the Ocean Crust Is Formed
AteamledbyLamont-Dohertygeophysicistsrecentlyproducedsomeofthehighestqualityimagesevertakendeepbeneaththeseafloor,revealingthatEarth’supperandloweroceaniccrustseemtoformintwodistinctways.Thenewimagesgoalongwaytowardresolvingadecade-longdebateoverwhethertheoceancrustisformedentirelybymagmathataccumulatesinasingle,largepool inthemiddleofthecrustorwhethercrustisalsocreatedfromseveralsmallermagmasourcesatdifferentlevels. MladenNedimovicandSuzanneCarbotte,togetherwith colleagues from Woods Hole OceanographicInstitution and Scripps Institution of Oceanographyanalyzedsoundwavesreflectedoffstructuresseveral
kilometers beneath the seafloor. The subseafloorimagestheycreatedarethefirstevertodetectsolidifiedlenses and sills (narrow, lateral intrusions of magma)embeddedintheboundarybetweenthemantleandthe overlying crust, a region known as the Mohotransitionzone. Thefindings,publishedintheAugust25,2005,issueofNature, provideevidence thatmagmahelpsformthebaseofoceaniccrust.Itfavorstheemergingview that volcanoes at Earth’s mid-ocean ridges—wheremagmarisesfromdeepwithinEarthandsolidi-fies to become new crust—have complex plumbingsystems consisting of many interconnected sills andmagmaconduits.
Investigating Seafloor Methane as a Potential Risk and Resource
Methaneisapotentiallysignificantsourceoffuel.Itisalsoagreenhousegasmorepotentthancarbondioxidethatcouldexacerbateglobalwarmingand,undersomeconditions,cancausesubmarine landslidesand tsu-namis. Lamont-Doherty scientists have been heavilyinvolved inmapping thedistributionof this importantgasbeneaththeseafloor. In 2004, Lamont-Doherty scientistsMarie-HeleneCormier and Jeffrey Weissel, together with graduatestudentKoriNewman,joinedcolleaguesfromScrippsInstitutionofOceanographyandWoodsHoleOcean-ographic Institution aboard the R/V Cape Hatteras. TheystudiedsitesalongthecontinentalshelfedgeoffVirginia andNorthCarolinawherenaturally occurringmethanehasdischargedthroughtheseafloor,formingcrater-like features several kilometers longandup to50metersdeep. The team measured dissolved methane and otherchemicalsneartheseafloorusinganautonomousunder-water vehicleand inseafloorsedimentsusingcoresamples.Theyfoundthatmethanegas,mainlyproducedbymicrobesdecomposingorganicmatter,isventingtodaythroughthecraterwallsintotheoceans,perhapsactingasasourceofatmosphericgreenhousegases. Thehighpressureandcoldtemperaturesinsedi-mentsbeneath theseaflooralso turnmethane intoasolid lockedwithin a cageof ice crystals.Known asmethaneclathrateormethanehydrates,thesedepositsareapotentiallysignificantenergy resource. In2005,Gilles Guerin, Alberto Malinverno and Greg Myers ofLamont-Doherty’s Borehole Research Group (BRG)participatedinanoceandrillingexpeditionoffCanada’sVancouverIslandtolearnwhereandhowgashydratesform.Theyloweredelectricalandacousticinstruments,includingonesthatdetectgashydrates,intodrillholes
tomeasureavarietyofpropertiesofseafloorrocksandsediments.Laterin2005,theBRGprovideddownholeloggingservices ina jointprojectbetweentheU.S.Department of Energy and industry groups todrill intheGulfofMexicoandassessthecommercialviabilityofmarinegashydrates. In2006,Malinverno,GuerinandLamont-Dohertygeophysicist Jim Cochran sailed aboard the D/VJOIDES Resolution to participate in a three-monthexpeditionexploringtheresourcepotentialofgashy-dratesaroundthecontinentalmarginofIndia.Theproject,fundedentirelybytheGovernmentofIndia,ispartofacoop-erativeeffort involvingLamont-Doherty,the U.S. Geological Survey and thecommercialoperatorsofthedrillship. In 2005, Cochran and Malinvernoconvened a workshop at Lamont-Doherty that focused on the potentialthreat posed by continued global warming meltinggashydrates in theArcticpermafrostandalong themarginsoftheArcticOcean.Whentemperaturesriseorpressureisreduced,methanehydratescanturnbackintoagasandrelease intotheenvironment.Scientiststheorize thatsudden,massiveoutburstsofmethanein the past sent large amounts of the heat-trappinggas back into the atmosphere and dramaticallywarmedtheplanet’sclimate.Theworkshopprovidedan opportunity for scientists from Lamont-Dohertyand other research institutions to identify importantscientific issues related to gas hydrates along theBeaufortSeamarginandtoplanfurthermarinegeo-logicalandgeophysicalexploration.
Lamont-Dohertyscientistshavebeenheavilyinvolvedinmappingthedistributionofthisintriguinggasbeneaththeseafloor.
18 MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
MayaTolstoyandDelWayneBohnenstiehlusedacoustic
datafromhydrophonesatDiegoGarciatostudytheprogressionoftheGreatSumatranEarthquakeof
2004alongtheSumatra-AndamanFault.Whitestar
indicatestheepicenteroftheearthquakedeterminedfromshortperiodseismicwaves.
Credit: Maya Tolstoy and Del Bohnenstiehl
Oceansediments,theigneouscrustandtheMohodiscontinuityareclearlyvisibleintheseseismicreflectionimagestakenneartheJuandeFucaRidge.MladenNedimovicandhiscolleaguesidentifiedthethickMohotransitionzonestructuresatthecrust/mantleboundary(visibleinb)assolidifiedmagmalenses.Thisoffersevidencethatthelowercrustmaybegeneratedbymorethanonemagmasource. Credit: Mladen Nedimovic
Understanding the natural variability of Earth’s climate is complicated enough, but more
than ever, human activities are intro-ducing powerful stresses on Earth’s delicately balanced climate system. Changes in Earth’s climate—whether abrupt or gradual, global or regional—have been going on throughout the planet’s long historyand will continue. These changes are governed by complex interactions involving the atmosphere, the oceans, planetary volcanism, the cryosphere (ice), the biosphere (living things) and external forces such as variability of solar radiation and even the occa-sional asteroid impact. Overrecentdecades,itisbecomingincreasinglyapparentthatourclimateisrapidly changing. The air is warming,moresoathigh latitudes; iceandper-mafrostaremelting;sealevelisrisingaswarmerseawaterexpandsandiceandglacial melt water reach the ocean;changingpatternsofprecipitationand
evaporation are stressing agricultural and water re-sources; and droughts and floods seem to be moreintense.Increasingly,theserecentclimatechangesareattributedtohumanactivities. If we can understand our climate system, wecanpreparereliableprojectionsoffutureglobalandregional climate trends. This will enable informedmanagement of a sustainable society and helpsafeguardhumankind’sfutureaswellastheplanet’swell-being.
Scientists in the Division of Ocean and ClimatePhysics(OCP)contributetothatmission.TheydelveintothemysteriesofEarth’sclimate,strivingtounderstandtheforcesandprocessesthatgovernclimatechangeson timescales ranging from years to centuries. Theyexplorewaysinwhichanthropogenicfactorsaltertheclimate system, and they seek to understand themechanismsunderlyingclimatefluctuationsofthelastcenturiesandmillenniainordertopredictfutureclimate. Toachievethesegoals,OCPclimatologistsinvesti-gatepatternsofclimatechangesthatoccurovertimeandacrossgeography,employingdataobtainedfrommeteorological instrument records of roughly the last160yearsandfromEarth-orbitingsatellites.Theystudyatmosphericdynamicsandalsouseclimate-simulationmodels,testingthemodels’validityagainstdirectob-servationsandproxyrecordsofpastclimatespreservedintreerings,deep-seasedimentsorglacialicecores. OCP oceanographers examine the role of theoceanintheclimatesystemthroughseagoingexpedi-tions,sensorsdeployedonmooringsandfromremotedata obtained from satellites. Their regional studiesrangefromlocalwaters,suchastheHudsonRiverandtheU.S.EastCoast, to the remote, frozenSouthernOceanandthebalmytropicalseasofIndonesia;fromtheoceansurfacetothedeepestoceanlayers.Scientistsinthedivisionareincreasinglyinvolvedinestablishinglong-termmonitoringstrategies todetectchanges insensitivepointsoftheclimate-oceansystem. Theobservationalistsandmodelers,theoceanog-raphersandclimatologistsallcloselycollaboratewitheachotherandwithscientists fromotherdivisionsoftheObservatory.ThishallmarkofOCPhasledtosig-nificantadvancementsinthefieldofoceanandclimatescience. The three projects that follow highlight thediversityofourresearch.
ChangesinEarth’sclimate—whetherabruptorgradual,globalorregional—havebeengoingonthroughouttheplanet’slonghistoryandwillcontinue.
ArnoldL.GordonProfessorofEarthandEnvironmentalSciences,AssociateDirector,OceanandClimatePhysicsDivisionCredit: Bruce Gilbert
Past and Future Dust Bowls Across the Western U.S.Evidencehasmountedoverthelastseveralyearsthataseriesof“megadroughts”devastatedthefaunaandNative American societies in the American West be-tween 800 and 1400 A.D. Using a computer modelthatsimulatesthedynamicsofEarth’sclimatesystemandanewatlasoftree-ringdatathat indicateswhenand where past droughts occurred, Richard Seagerhasexploredwhatcausedthemedievalmegadroughts.HeisalsoassessingtherisksthataridityinthewesternUnitedStateswillreturntomedievallevelsinthemodern,warmingworld. In2003,theLamont-DohertyTree-RingLaboratorypublishedtheNorth American Drought Atlas,consistingofhundredsofrecordsoftheannualgrowthringsoflong-livedtreesthroughoutthecontinent.Byanalyzingthewidthandothercharacteristicsoftreerings,scientistscanreconstructwhenthetreesexperienceddroughtsandhowseverethedroughtswere.Theatlasisgriddedintomapsofsummerdroughtlast2,000years;fromabout800A.D.,themapscontaintree-ringdatathatandspanstheentirecontinent. Seager’sanalysisofthedroughtatlasrevealedthat,over the last 1,200 years, the same areas that haveexperienceddroughtinmoderntimes—essentiallytheUnited States west of the Mississippi, the CanadianprairiesandnorthernMexico—alsoexperiencedmega-droughtscomparabletotheDustBowlyears. Whatmarkedmegadroughtsduringmedievaltimes,however, was their persistence—they lasted not foryears,butfordecadesonend.Together,theevidencesuggeststhatthesameconditionscausedbothmedievalandmoderndroughts,buttheconditionspersistedforanunusuallylongdurationinmedievaltimes. Seagers’s climate modeling research indicatesthat megadroughts occur when water temperaturesare colder in the eastern tropical Pacific Ocean (aconditionknownasLaNiña)and,toasecondarydegree,when subtropical North Atlantic Ocean waters arewarmer. Such conditions appear to have prevailedduringmedievaltimes.
Toexaminetheissuemoreclosely,Seagercomparedglobal climate conditions that spawned droughts inbothmedievalandmoderntimes.Fromdryconditionsin mid-latitude South America coupled with wetconditions in northernSouthAmerica topersistentlygoodNileRiverfloodsatthesametimethatdrycon-ditions prevailed in East Africa to a strong Indianmonsoon, the ocean and atmospheric conditionsthat accompanied medieval and modern droughtsappearedremarkablysimilar. SowhatcausedthetropicalPacificOceanconditionsthat spawned medieval megadroughts? Seager’sresearchwithmodelsofthetropicalPacificatmosphere-ocean system suggests that La Niña-like conditionsaroseasaresponsetoincreasedradiationenteringtheocean surface—from both high solar irradiance andweakvolcanism—duringmedievaltimes. Risinggreenhousegasesalsoincreasetheradiationentering the ocean surface, a condition that couldincreasetheriskofreturningtomedievallevelsofaridityandmegadroughtsinthecomingyearsanddecades.
20 OCEAN AND CLIMATE PHYSICS 21OCEAN AND CLIMATE PHYSICS
[above]RuinsleftbytheAnasazipeopleinthesouthwesternUnitedStatesmaysupportideasthataprolonged“megadrought”contributedtothesociety’scollapse.
[bottom]RichardSeager,DohertySeniorResearchScientist,OceanandClimatePhysicsDivisionCredit: Bruce Gilbert
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Scientist Finds a Way to Detect Invisible ‘Microbreaking’ Waves
Foreverywhitecaponthecrestofawave,abarrierisbeing broken. Waves breach the 1-millimeter-thickboundary between two fluid media—air and water—mixingthetwotocreatewhite,foamybubbles.Atthesametime,heat,momentumandgreenhousegases,suchascarbondioxideandwatervapor,arealsoex-changedbetweentheoceanandatmosphere. Countless exchanges like this make the ocean-atmospheresystemgoaround,muchthewaycountless$100 transactions help drive a country’s economy.
However, measuring the subtle com-plexitiesofair-seainteractionsisdifficult,often impeding scientists’ ability tounderstand the mechanics of funda-mental processes that drive ocean,atmosphereandclimatedynamics. The problem seems even moreintractablewhenoneconsidersthatforeverywhitecap in theocean, therearemany smaller waves, centimeters inheight, that create what are called
“microbreakers.”Theyoccurevenwhenstrongwindsarenotcreatingwhitecapsand,likemany$100trans-actionsthatadduptobillionsofdollars,probablymakeasignificantcontribution tocriticalair-seaexchanges
worldwide.However,therehasbeennowaytoobservethiselusivebutfundamentalphenomenon—untilnow. Lamont-Doherty scientist Chris Zappa recentlydemonstratedthatmicrobreakersdisturb theocean’scool“skin”layerattheair-seainterface,leavingbehinda small patch of the sea surface ever so slightlywarmer—perhaps0.5degreesCelsius—duetomixingfrombelow.Zappausedaninfrared imagertodetectthe temperaturedifferenceand indicatewhere,whenandhowmicrobreakingoccurs. In2005,Zappadeployedan8-meterboom fromtheendofthe560-meterpierattheU.S.ArmyCorpsof Engineers’ Field Research Facility in Duck, NorthCarolina. The boom carried an infrared imager, aradiometer to measure sea surface temperatures, avideocamera,analtimetertomeasurewaveheights,ananemometertomeasurewindspeed,andadevicetomeasurecarbondioxideandwatervapor.Together,the instruments captured high-resolution data thatmadeapreviouslyinvisibleprocessvisibleonmultiplelevels(seefigurefarrightbottom). Zappafoundthatthesemicrobreakerswerecom-parabletowhitecapsinpromotingexchangebetweenthe ocean and atmosphere. The groundbreakingresultsfromZappa’sstudywillimprovescientists’abilityto understand marine storms, ocean waves, upperoceancirculationand,ultimately,climatechange.
22 OCEAN AND CLIMATE PHYSICS 23OCEAN AND CLIMATE PHYSICS
Closing the Loop on the Ocean’s Global Circulation
Theworld’soceanscirculatelikeaconveyorbelt,withwaterssinkingandspreadingacrosstheoceandepthsandeventuallyreturningtothesurface.Scientistsknowwhereandwhywaterssink—they loseheatathighlatitudesandbecomecolderanddenser.Oneof themostbasicquestionsremainsunanswered,however:Where and how do the waters eventually surface tocompletetheloop? Understanding the fundamental mechanics ofoceancirculationhasimportantimplicationsforunder-standingclimate change. Theoceansact as aplan-etaryheatingandventilationsystem,transportinglargeamountsofwarmequatorialwaterstowardthepoles,wheretheytransfertheirheattotheatmospherebeforesinkingandflowingbacktolowerlatitudes. Thishasbeenincorporatedintomanyofthecom-putersimulationsthatscientistsusetounderstandandforecast changes in Earth’s climate. The models arelimited,however,becausetheydonotcontaindetailedinformation about how deep waters regain heat andupwelltoshallowerdepths. In1996, scientistsobservedstrongmixing in thedeepwatersoverthewesternflankof theMid-AtlanticRidge in the South Atlantic—the ridge that is part ofthe contiguous volcanic mountain chain extendingthroughouttheworld’soceans.Atfirst,scientiststheo-rized that the mixing was caused by tides forcingwatersacrosssubmarinetopography. Lamont-DohertyphysicaloceanographerAndreasThurnherrrecentlyreanalyzedthedataandfoundthatstrongcurrentsflowalongthethousandsofsubmarinecanyonsontheflanksofthemid-oceanridgeandthatmostofthemixingtakesplaceswithinthesecanyons.Thurnherrbelievesthatsillsfoundeveryfewtensofkilometersinthecanyonscausedeeperwaterstomixwithwarmeroverlyingwatersandbegintheirreturntotheupperocean. To test the theory, Thurnherr joined a researchcruiseaboardtheFrenchresearchvesselL’AtalanteinAugust2006.Heandcolleaguesdeployedinstrumentstomeasurewater temperature, salinity andcurrentvelocities,aswellassmall-scalefluctuationscausedbymixingthroughoutacanyonontheMid-AtlanticRidge.Theyhopetoobtainthefirstdetailedmeasurementsofhowwatersflowandmixindeepsubmarinecanyons,seekingevidencethatdeepwaters’ return journey tothesurfacestartsthere.
Thegroundbreakingresultswillimprovescientists’ability
tounderstandandforecastmarinestorms,oceanwaves,upperoceancirculationand,
ultimately,climatechange.
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Infrared(top)andsurfaceslope(bottom)imagesrevealingthetemperatureandstructureofmicrobreakingwaves. Credit: Chris Zappa
Thousandsofsubmarinecanyonsaroundtheworld,likethoseflankingtheMid-AtlanticRidge,contributetomixingbetweensurfaceandbottomwatersandthat,inturn,helpsdriveglobaloceancirculation.Credit: Andreas Thurnherr
24 SEISMOLOGY, GEOLOGY AND TECTONOPHYSICS 25SEISMOLOGY, GEOLOGY AND TECTONOPHYSICS
The past two years have seen remarkable advances in the Seismology, Geology and Tec-
tonophysics (SG&T) Division that have consolidated our strengths in obser-vational and theoretical seismology with new directions in the study of crust and mantle deformation. We are seeing greater interac-tions between our experimental seis-mologists, who develop plans for deployments of portable seismometers to illuminate specific tectonic targets, and our tectonophysicists, who study a range of deformation phenomena from brittle fracture to mantle flow and magma transport. The confluence of these investigations is a natural outcome of the need to validate de-formation models with seismological and kinematic observations. As a result, we are seeing new interdisci-plinary approaches to understanding basic tectonic processes. In a data-driven science such asours, this combined approach offers
opportunities to generate new insights from regionalstudiesandapply them toglobal tectonics.Oneofourgoalsinthenextfewyearsistocapitalizeonourprogress by building more expertise in global andregionalgeodynamics.
TheSG&TDivisionalsohoststheLamontOceanBottom Seismometer Lab, part of the national OBSInstrument Pool, which supplies the national andinternationalscientificcommunitywithuniquebroad-band ocean bottom seismometers capable of verylongdeploymentsatsea.DesignedbySpahrWebbandmanagedbynewlyhiredlabchiefAndrewBarclay,the latest versions of these instruments are nowundergoingfinaltestingbeforenewdeploymentsearlyin2007.Inadditiontotheirseagoingduties,Barclay,Webb and others are thinking about new ways ofimproving instrument performance and adding newkindsoftransducers. Inthelasttwoyears,LynnSykes,oneofthefoundersofseismotectonicsandaleadingforceinobservationalseismologyandplatetectonicsformorethan40years,officiallyretiredfromourdivision.Havingearnedawell-deserved respite from day-to-day duties, Sykes ismovingontootherscientificprojects,includinganewlookatseismicityinthenortheasternUnitedStates. Weareveryproudofourtraditionoflinkingexperi-mental and observational work with modeling andtheory.ThetraditionestablishedbySykesandotherswillonlybestrengthenedincomingyears.
Agoalinthenextfewyearsistocapitalizeonourprogressbybuildingmoreexpertiseinglobalandregionalgeodynamics.
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
ArtLerner-LamDohertySeniorScientist,AssociateDirector,Seismology,GeologyandTectonophysicsDivisionCredit: Bruce Gilbert
Exploring Mantle Dynamics From Planetary and Atomic Perspectives
Two Lamont-Doherty scientists, working from verydifferent perspectives, have joined together to learnhowgreatriftsoccur. Theriftsinquestionarecontinentalinnature—suchastheonesthatseparateArabiafromAfricatocreatetheRedSea,orBajaCaliforniafromtherestofMexicotoformtheGulfofCalifornia.Thescientists’focusisonthemantle,whereintenseheatandtectonicstressescandeformrockcrystalsslowlyandcauserockstoflow. BenHoltzmanworksfromtheatomicscaleupward,conductinglaboratoryexperimentsonsamplesofrocktypesfoundinthemantle.Hestudiestheirfundamentalphysical propertieswhen subjected to heat, pressureandstressandinvestigateshowsmallamountsofmeltmaterialorganizeintomicroscopicbranchingandcon-nectingnetworksthatinfluencehowtherocksdeform. JimGahertyandhiscollaboratorstakeabig-picture,field-basedapproach,deployinginstrumentstorecordearthquake-generated seismic waves that travelthroughmantlerock inriftzones.MuchtheywayCTscansimageinternalstructuresinthebody,theseismicwaves allow Gaherty to image the crystal “fabric” ofmantle rocks 30 to 250 kilometers deep. This offersinsightsintothedistributionofmeltinthemantleandthedirectionofmantleflowunderlyingtheriftzones. Whencrystalsalignduring large-scaledeformation,thatregionofthemantleactslikeaseismicpolarizingfilter,causingwavesthatvibrateindifferentdirectionsrelativetotherock’s“fabric”totravelatdifferentspeeds.Thecommonassumption is thatcrystalsalign in thedirectionofthemantleflow,butHoltzman’sexperimentsindicatethatinsomesituationstherockfabricmaybemodifiedprofoundlybythewaythemeltisdistributed. Holtzmanputsveryfinepowdersofrocksamplesin an apparatus that applies pressure equivalent toabout 10 kilometers below the ocean floor andtemperaturesashighas1,250degreesCelsius.Themachinesimulatesconditionsatwhichrocksdeformin
the mantle, but speeds up to about five hours aprocess that takes many thousands of years in theEarth.Thesamplesarethenquenchedtopreservetheorientationsofthecrystalsandthedistributionpatternsofthemeltedmaterial,whichcanthenbeviewedwithopticalandelectronmicroscopes. Theexperimentsprovideamoredetailedandun-expectedpictureofdeformationprocessesinpartiallymoltenmantlerock.Holtzmanfoundthatnetworksofmelt-richbands“anastomose”aroundlensesofmelt-depleted material. On a microscale, the melt-richbands are weaker than the lenses, so the networksconcentratestrainanddeformationintothem.Theyacttoweaken the rockas awhole,Holtzman theorizes,andonaplanetaryscale,thisprocesslubricatesmantleflow.Holtzmanisstudyingthesedynamicsincollabo-ration with Marc Spiegelman and Richard Katz atLamont-Doherty. To test whether this melt-enhanced deformationcanbedetectedinEarth,Gaherty’sfieldworkhasfocusedon areas where partial melt is likely to exist. He andcolleagues are analyzing data from temporary, land-basedseismicarraysdeployedbycolleaguesinEthiopiaandMexico,andin2005theydeployed15ocean-bottomseismometersintheGulfofCalifornia.
Fast-spreadingridges(A)haveahigh,peakedaxisandminimaloff-axisfaulting.Slow-spreadingridges(B)haveaxialvalleysandoff-axisfaulting.StudiesbyJimGahertyandhiscolleaguesrevealedthatseismicP-waveanisotropy(direction-dependentvelocity)intheAtlanticisapproximatelyone-halfthatinthefaster-spreadingPacific.Thissuggeststhatcoolingbeneathslow-spreadingcentersincreasesbrittledeformationinthemantle,limitingviscousdeformation.Credit: Jim Gaherty
LynnSykesHigginsProfessorEmeritusofEarthandEnvironmentalSciencesCredit: Bruce Gilbert
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2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
[lefttoright]Won-YoungKim,DohertySeniorResearchScientist,andMitchellGold,StaffAssociate,LamontCooperativeSeismicNetworkCredit: Bruce Gilbert
Lamont Seismologists Reach Out and Span Bridges
The seismological pioneers who founded Lamont-Doherty relentlessly sought out places to install themodernseismographstheyweredevelopinginthelate1940s.Theyputtheir instrumentsfirst inahollowed-out space beneath a trapdoor in the SchermerhornBuildingontheColumbiacampus,then intheemptyswimmingpooloftheLamontestateandlaterinazincmineinOdgensburg,NewJersey. Overtime,theObservatoryaddedmoresitesandbegantopartnerwithotherinstitutionstoestablishtheLamontCooperativeSeismographicNetwork(LCSN).This network monitors seismicity in the northeasternUnitedStatestounderstandthecausesofearthquakesandidentifyareasofhighseismichazardintheregion.Italsogathersdatafromearthquakesworldwide. EarthquakesoccurmorefrequentlyinthewesternUnitedStates,wheretheedgesoftectonicplatescollide.Still, large, so-called intraplate earthquakes, whosesources and causes are less well delineated andunderstood, haveoccurred in recent centuries alongthe East Coast. The region’s potential seismic risklooms large because of its population density andaging infrastructure,muchofwhichwasbuiltwithoutconsideringthepotentialforearthquakes. UnderthedirectionofWon-YoungKim,theLCSNexpanded between 2004 and 2006 to include eightnew broadband stations and six new partners. Thenetwork now consists of 25 cooperating partners,operating21broadbandseismographicstations,and
an additional 21 short-period stations in New York,New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Delaware,MarylandandVermont. Partners includecolleges,universities,communitycolleges, research institutions, secondary schools,museums, a state geological survey, conservationorganizationssuchastheCentralParkConservancyinManhattan, and one tourist attraction—the HoweCaverns in Cobleskill, New York. The LCSN offerseducational opportunities to students and valuableprofessional development opportunities to stationoperators. It is also an integral component of theAdvancedNationalSeismicSystem(ANSS)ledbytheU.S.GeologicalSurvey. Inanefforttoexplaintheimportanceofcontinuingearthquake monitoring and the information productsoffered by the LCSN and the ANSS, Kim has alsoreachedouttonewemergencymanagementpartners,especiallyinNewYorkCity.Duringthe2004NewYorkCity Marathon, Lamont-Doherty seismologists andgeodecist Misha Kogan deployed digital accelero-graphsandglobalpositioningsystem(GPS)receiverson theVerrazano-NarrowsBridge inauniqueexperi-ment to measure the bridge’s dynamic response toloadingconditionscausedby37,000runners. Seismicrecordingduringthemarathonshowedaprominent spectral peak at 2.8 Hertz, which maycorrespondtothebeatingofrunnersatnearlyregularintervals.Atthesametime,theGPSreceiversrecordedvertical deflection of the bridge of more than 30centimeters. The measurements provide importantconstraintsonthestructuralintegrityofthisimportantNewYorkCitylifeline.
New Methods Precisely Locate Earthquakes
Three months after the great Sumatra earthquakethat triggered thedevastating IndianOcean tsunami,asmallerearthquake in thesame regionkilled1,300people,mostlyontheIndonesianislandofNias.Werethesetwoearthquakeslinked? The tsunami-generating earthquake in December2004releasedcenturiesofpent-upstrainalongtheAndaman-SundaTrench,wheretheIndianandAustraliantectonicplatesaregrindingagainstanddivingbeneaththe Eurasian Plate. However, stress alleviated in oneregioncanshifttoneighboringareasandincreasethepotentialforearthquake-producingruptureselsewherealongthe55,000-kilometer-longtrench. Thecascadeofaftershocksset inmotionby the2004 earthquake—thousands ranging over time,spaceandmagnitude—offersanopportunity to trackhowstressistransferredalongfaultsbygreatquakes.Thetrailwouldbehardertofollow,however,ifscientistsdidnotknowexactlywheretheearthquakesstarted. Over the past several years, Felix Waldhauser hasbeenleadinganefforttoapplynewmethodsthatcanpre-ciselypinpointthelocationsofseismicevents.Traditionally,seismologistshaveestimatedthelocationsofearthquakesorundergroundexplosionsoneatatimebymeasuringthearrivaltimeatseismographicrecordingstationsofselectedseismicwavesgeneratedbyanevent. Incontrast,thenewmethodinvolvesjointlyanalyzingnumerous neighboring events recorded by severalcommonstations—reducingbothmeasurementandmodelingerrorandincreasinglocationprecision.Theresulting cross-correlated, high-resolution locations
give scientists a clearer picture of the seismogenicstructures and geophysical dynamics associatedwithearthquakes. Inastudypublishedin2006,WaldhauserandfellowLamont-Doherty seismologists Paul Richards, DavidSchaffandWon-YoungKimpresentedanoverviewofrecent work to relocate earthquakes using cross-correlationmethodsfromfourregions—California,thecentral United States, Eastern Canada and China—representingdifferenttectonicenvironmentsandseis-micnetworks.Aftercumulativelyanalyzingmorethan240,000eventsrecordedbymorethan1,100stations,they confirmed that the cross-correlation techniquesresult in locations that are 10 to 100 times moreprecisethantraditionalmethods. Since the1970s, thecombinationofenormousimprovements in thequantityofseismicstationsandthequalityofseismograms,improvedcomputingpowerandcommunicationlinks,andfewerpoliticalbarriersinmanycountries(whichonceimpededtheflowofseis-mological information) have created a much larger,more accessible archive of digital seismograms thatcan be analyzed using cross-correlation methods tolocateseismiceventsinmostplaces.Thenewmethodsenhance seismologists’ ability to understand thenature of earthquakes and to analyze associatedseismic hazards in places ranging from the SanAndreasFaulttotheAndaman-SundaTrench.
GPSantennainstalledbyMikhailKoganandhiscolleaguesontheVerrazano-NarrowsBridgetostudythemotionsimpartedonthebridgebymorethan37,000runnersintheNewYorkCityMarathon. Credit: Mikhail Kogan
DavidSchaffappliedhiscross-correlationtechniquestoapproximately14,000seismiceventsinandnearChinabetween1985and2000andfound1,301earthquakesthatweresimilar(cross-correlationcoefficientsgreaterthanorequalto0.8)toatleastoneothereventduringthesameperiod.Credit: David Schaff
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Lamont-Doherty’s research vessel operations saw tremendous activity and great change be-
tween 2004 and 2006. In spring 2005, R/V Maurice Ewing completed a distinguished career of more than 15 years as the seismic vessel of choice and de facto national facility for marine seismic research in the U.S. academic community. Ewing’s last scientific cruise was an important and highly successful survey of the Chixculub meteor impact structure, an estimated 180 kilometer-wide, sub-merged, multi-ringed crater centered on the northern coast of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. Manybelievethecraterwascreatedbyameteorsome10to20kilometersindiameterthatcollidedwithEarthandthat was responsible for the mass ex-tinctionsthatincludedthedemiseofthedinosaurs at the Cretaceous-Tertiary,or K/T, boundary. The resulting craterisnowcompletelyburied,anditsexactsize and the total energy transmitted
duringtheimpactareunknownandwillremainsountiltheEwingdataarefullyanalyzed. Atthesametime,preparationsforEwing’sreplace-ment were under way. After extensive negotiationsamongLamont-Doherty,theNationalScienceFoundation(NSF)andWestern-Geco/Schlumberger,M/VWestern Legend,a235-foot,formerpetroleumexplorationvessel,waspurchasedanddelivered to theUnitedStates inOctober2004.Furthernegotiationsandthefundingofa$23millionproposalbyNSFallowedtheconversionof the Legend into what will soon be a powerful,multipurpose, world-rangingoceanographic research
vessel,whosestrongsuitwillbethecapability tocarryoutmarinegeologyandgeophysicssurveys,including3-Dseismicprofilingwithmultiplesourceandreceivingarrays,aswellasmarinemammalresearch. The new ship will be rechristened Marcus G. Langseth, inhonorofoneof theObservatory’smostfamousgeophysicists,whodied in1997.Langsethdevelopedoneofthefirstinstrumentstomeasureheatflux from Earth’s interior into the deep ocean basinsandcompiledthefirstglobalmapofheatflowthatwasinstrumentalinestablishingtheemergingparadigmsofplatetectonicsandseafloorspreading.HeearnedhisPh.D.fromColumbiaUniversityin1964,andfrom1966to 1975 he led NASA’s lunar heat flow experiment,whichprovedthatthemoonhadlostmuchofitsinter-nal heat long ago and lacked the dynamic Earth’smechanismsforcreatingnewheat. Langseth alsoactivelyservedontheFleetImprove-ment Committee of the University-National Oceano-graphic Laboratory System (UNOLS) from 1985 to1994,whichwas instrumental in thedevelopmentofour modern national fleet of research vessels. In the1990s,hespearheadedthefirstunclassifiedscientificmissionsaboardU.S.Navynuclear-poweredsubma-rinesoperatingbeneaththeArcticicecap,whichhelpedrevolutionizeunderstandingoftheArcticOcean. InpreparationforthedemandsofoperatingLangsethastheU.S.nationalfacilityforacademicseismicsurveys,Lamont-Doherty’sOfficeofMarineAffairswasreorga-nized to streamline the management structure andchain of command within the office, which was re-named the Office of Marine Operations in January2005.Anewposition,marineengineerandtechnicalcoordinator,wascreatedandfilledbyAlbertWalsh. R/V Langseth will complete outfitting in early2007 and is expected to begin science operationslaterintheyear.
28 OFFICE OF MARINE AFFAIRS 29OFFICE OF MARINE AFFAIRS
Exploring New Depths
Scientists on the Langseth will see tremendous improvements in four areas: much larger laboratory spaces; a high-resolution, deep-water, multibeam bathymetric swath mapping system; the ability to tow up to four separated hydrophone arrays; and sophis-ticated seismic source arrays that can be deployed in many different configurations. When four hydrophone arrays are towed 100 meters abreast of one another and two source arrays, towed 50 meters apart, are alternately triggered, the ship will be able to simulta-neously acquire eight reflection seismic profiles separated by 25 meters. This eightfold increase in productivity generates the vast amount of data required for 3-D imaging in a reasonably short time.
MarcusLangsethdevelopedoneofthefirstinstrumentstomeasureheatfluxfromEarth’sinteriorintothedeepoceanbasinsandcompiledthefirstglobalheatflowmap.
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
John DieboldChief Scientist
Marine OperationsCredit: Bruce Gilbert
PaulLjunggrenSeniorStaffAssociate,MarineSuperintendentCredit: Bruce Gilbert
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30 OFFICE OF MARINE AFFAIRS 31OFFICE OF MARINE AFFAIRS
MARCUS G. LANGSETH
MARCUS G. LANGSETH SPECIFICATIONSBuilt:1991UlsteinNorwayLength(LOA):71.5m(235ft)Beam(molded):17.0m(56ft)Draft(max):5.9m(19.5ft)Grosstonnage:2925
CAPACITYShip’screw:20Scientificpersonnel:35Fuelcapacity:1340m3
Range:13,500nauticalmilesSpeedworking:0–11knotsSpeedcruising:11knots
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2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
R/V EWING CRUISE SCHEDULE (2004–2005)
CRUISE 2004 PORTS AREA PURPOSE PIS
EW0402 20Feb–1Mar Norfolk-Mobile WestAtlantic Transit
EW0403 7Apr–14Apr Mobile-SanJuan Caribbean Transit
EW0404 18Apr–3Jun SanJuan-Tampa SECaribbean MCS-OBS Levander,Rice
EW0405 6Jun–11Jun SanJuan-Tampa GOM Transit
12Jun–21Jun Tampa Rudderrepair
EW0406 22Jun–10Jul Tampa-SanDiego Transit
11Jul–12Aug SanDiego Outofservice
EW0407 6Aug–17Aug SanDiego-Newport SBChannel Multibeamsurvey USGS
EW0408 21Aug–23Sep Newport-Kodiak SEAlaska MCS-JPC Mix-Jaeger/OSU-UF
EW0409 28Sep–16Oct Kodiak-Astoria G.ofAlaska FOCI Stabeno/PMEL/NOAA
EW0410 20Oct–4Nov Astoria-SanDiego BlancoFZ MCS-OBS Christeson,UTIG
EW0411 7Nov–17Nov SanDiego-PuertoCaldera Transit
EW0412 21Nov–22Dec PuertoCaldera-Panama SandinoBasin MCS Fulthorpe,UTIG
EW0413 25Dec–31Dec Panama-TBN Transit
2005
EW0501 7Jan–20Feb Panama-Progreso Yucatanplatform ChixculubCratersurvey Gulick[UTIG]Barton[Cambridge]
EW0502 01Mar–04Mar Progreso-Jacksonville Transitanddemobilization
EW0503 06Mar–09Mar Jacksonville-QuonsetPoint Transitanddemobilization DieboldLDEO
32 DEPARTMENT OF EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 33DEPARTMENT OF EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory was born out of Columbia University’s Geology Department in 1949, and today’s Department
of Earth and Environmental Sciences (DEES) has experienced numerous changes over the decades that parallel the evolution of the Observatory. The years 2004 to 2006 represent the end and beginning of significant chapters in departmental history, with the retirements of Professors James Hays (December 2004) and Lynn Sykes (June 2005)—the first faculty retirements in more than 20 years—and the arrival of petrologist Peter Kelemen from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution as Arthur D. Storke Memorial Professor and seismologist Göran Ekström from Harvard University. Haysisarenownedpaleoclimatologistandmicro-paleontologistandisbestknownforhisseminalworkstesting the astronomical theory of climate change,whichdemonstratedtheroleoforbitalforcinginpacingthetimingoficeages.Anexpertonthehistoryofthepolaroceans,healsopioneereddeep-seacorestudiesinthemostremoteseas.Asthedepartment’sdirectorof undergraduate studies for many years, Hays was
instrumental in the development of our major andconcentrationinenvironmentalscience. Sykes was the Higgins Professor of Earth andEnvironmental Sciences until his retirement and heplayed a leading role in the development of platetectonicsinthe1960swithparticularreferencetoseis-micityatplateboundaries.Hehasalsobeeninfluentialinthefieldofearthquakepredictionandintheseismo-logicalverificationofundergroundnucleartestbans. Of thenewcomers,Kelemenconducts interdisci-plinaryresearchonmeltingandmelttransportinEarth’smantleandthedevelopmentofEarth’scrust.Ekströmworks in global earthquake seismology, focusing onthe details of individual earthquake ruptures and theseismologicalrecordoflarge-scaletectonicdeformation.He was also the lead author on a 2003 paper inScience that first identified a new class of seismicsignals that were linked back to the movement ofglaciersinGreenland,afindingthatmayhelpmonitortheeffectsofglobalwarmingontheicesheet. Ourchallengelookingforwardwillbetocontinuetorecruitoutstandingindividuals,particularlyatthejuniorlevel—tofilltheshoesofthoseresponsibleforbuildingourinstitutionalreputation,toinvestinemergingareasofresearchandscholarshipandtoworktowardgreaterdiversificationwithrespecttobothraceandgender.InJanuary2007,paleoclimatologistBärbelHönisch,whocompleted her Ph.D. in 2002 at the Alfred WegenerInstitute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremer-haven,Germany,willbejoiningtheDEESfacultyasanassistantprofessor. Threeadjunctprofessorshavebeenappointed inthe past two years. Vertebrate paleontologists JohnFlynn and Mark Norell are based at the AmericanMuseum of Natural History. Flynn is a specialist inmammalianpaleontologyandpaleomagnetism.Norell’sresearchisboththeoreticalandfield-basedandfocusesontheevolutionofdinosaurs.DorothyPeteet,basedatthe NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, is aworld-renowned palynologist and paleoclimatologistwhomaintainsalabatLamont-Dohertyandteachesapopularalternate-yearcourseonwetlands.
DEEScontinuestoinvestinundergraduateeducationat the level of majors and concentrators and, morebroadly, instudentsseekingtofulfillColumbia’ssciencerequirement.Overthepastdecade,wehaveannuallygraduatedanaverageofninemajorsandconcentratorsin Environmental Science and Earth Science, doubletherateofthepreviousdecade,andwelooktocontinueonthatupwardtrend. Particularlyimportanttothateffortisoursummerintern program, expanded in 2003 as a three-yearexperimentwith institutional resources topermit theinvolvement of many more Columbia and Barnardstudents than was possible with the long-runningResearch Experience for Undergraduates programalone.Thelatterisdirectedprimarilytowardstudentsatotherinstitutions. The annual geological excursion to Death Valleytookplaceforafifthtimeinthespringof2006.Ithasproventobeimmenselypopularwithfirst-andsecond-yearundergraduatesandhighlightsthe importanceoffield-based experiences to our program in Earth andEnvironmentalSciences.Focusingonvignettesdrawnfromboththecontemporaryenvironmentandthegeo-logicalrecord,thecourseemphasizesthedevelopmentofinterpretationsfromthestudents’ownobservations. FrontiersofScience,launchedin2004asColumbia’slatestadditiontoitsfamedCoreCurriculum,hascom-pleteditssecondfullyear,withDEEScontinuingtotakeresponsibilityforthe25percentofthecoursedealingwithglobalclimatechangeandaccounting forby farthelargestcontingentofinstructorsofanydepartment. The course’s objective is to communicate thephilosophy and intellectual habits of science in thecontextofselectedtopicsattheforefrontofresearch.Thetopicschangefromonetermtoanother,dependinginpartontheexpertiseoftheleadfacultyinvolved,andtheyrepresentvehiclesforconveyingtheessenceof scientific inquiry rather than specific content tobelearned.
In addition to the DEES segments on climatechange,spearheadedbyWallyBroecker,theNewberryProfessorofEarthandEnvironmentalSciences,andbyAssociate Professor Peter deMenocal, topics haveincludedextrasolarplanets,astrophysics,humanlan-guage,braindynamics,biophysics,thenanoworldandbiodiversity. The challenge of communicating suchdiversethemestotheheterogeneousColumbiaCollegeaudience is balanced by the shared commitment ofthose responsible for lectures and sections of thecoursetotheimportanceofscienceinabroadeducation.Foradepartmentsomedistancefromthe intellectualcenterofgravityofColumbia’sfirst-yearundergraduates,Frontiers of Science is also an opportunity to drawattentiontoboththeexcitementandsocietalrelevanceofearthandenvironmentalscience.
New Master’s Program Links Climate Research to Society
Thepastfewyearshavebroughtdamaginghurricanes,harsh droughts, severe floods, lethal and energy-consumingheatwavesandclimate-related infectiousdiseaseoutbreaksthroughouttheglobe—allofwhichhavedisplacedpopulationsandtriggeredtheneedforinternationalassistance. In recentdecades,however,new knowledge of Earth’s climate system has alsorevolutionized our ability to understand and predictclimatechange. “This new scientific knowledge can offer betterways to respond to the problems and opportunitiescreated by our varying climate, especially as humanactivityaltersit,”saidMarkCane,theG.UngerVetlesenProfessorofEarthandClimateSciencesatColumbia.“Butdecision-makersmustunderstandhowtomakeeffectiveuseofthisnewknowledgeandfactorclimateresearchintopolicydecisionsandeconomicstrategies.” ThatneedisthedrivingmotivationbehindthenewClimate and Society master of arts degree program,launchedin2004anddirectedbyCane.Theinnovative,12-month program brings together students from allovertheworldtolearntheworkingsofEarth’sclimatesystem,assessitssocioeconomicimpactsandmakeclimateinformationusableforpolicy-makers.ThestudentsstudywithColumbiafacultyfromallacrosstheUniversity,
Overthepastdecade,wehaveannuallygraduatedanaverageofninemajorsandconcentratorsinEnvironmentalScienceandEarthScience,doubletherateofthepreviousdecade,andwelooktocontinueonthatupwardtrend.
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
NicholasChristie-BlickProfessorandChair,EarthandEnvironmentalSciencesDepartmentCredit: Bruce Gilbert
MarkA.CaneG.UngerVetlesenProfessorofEarthandClimateSciences,EarthandEnvironmentalSciencesDepartmentAssociateChair,EarthandEnvironmentalSciencesDepartmentCredit: Bruce Gilbert
TheDepartmentofEarthandEnvironmentalSciencesadministrativestaff[lefttoright]:MissyPinckert,AdministrativeAide;CarolMountain,ProgramCoordinator;BreeBurns,AdministrativeAssistant;andMiaLeo,DepartmentAdministratorCredit: Bruce Gilbert
RobinaEstherSimpsonSeniorLabTechnician5,EarthandEnvironmentalSciencesDepartmentCredit: Bruce Gilbert
34 DEPARTMENT OF EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 35DEPARTMENT OF EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
aswellasresearchersatEarthInstituteunits,includingthe International Research Institute for Climate andSociety(IRI)andtheNASAGoddardInstituteforSpaceStudies (GISS). The rigorous program emphasizesproblems of developing countries, where climatehazardsoftensetbackthedevelopmentprocess. Theprogram’sfirstgraduatingclassof18studentsin2005 includedAsefawGetachew from theMalariaand Vector-borne Diseases Control Department inEthiopia; Kareff May Rafisura, a disaster mitigationprofessionalfromthePhilippines;andDanielDalmat,amiddleschoolscienceteacherinStamford,Connecticut,whosaidtheClimateandSocietyprogramalsoinformshisclassroom.“By illustratingthe interconnectednessofscienceandsocietytomystudents,”hesaid,“theyunderstand the subjects better, and they have moreenthusiasmforlearning.”
Investigating How Life on Earth Rebounds from Catastrophes
Bythetimeshewas16,JessicaWhitesidehadlivedin19states,mostlyinthesouthwesternUnitedStates.“Ispenta lotof time inthebackseatofmyparents’stationwagon, lookingatall thesegreatgeologicalfeatures,”shesaid.Andreading,andthinking. Swept along by her father’s career as a NASAengineerandherparents’ religiousbeliefs,Whiteside
saidshe“developedafascinationforpowerfulforces.”Duringthoselongcartrips,shewrestledwithreconcilingtheBiblicalstoryofGenesiswithHopicreationmythsandtheBigBang. Thenshewasintroducedtofossils“andIrealizedthatfossilstoldstoriessimilartomyths,”shesaid.“Buttheycouldbeverified.”Allthesepowerfulforcesinherchildhood coalesced in Whiteside deciding to workwithColumbiapaleontologistPaulOlsen.Inthe1990sOlsenco-ledanambitiousprojectwithLamont-DohertypaleomagneticistDennisKenttosampleanddatetheNewarkSupergroup,aseriesofrockformationsalongtheEastCoastthataretheremnantsofancientlake-bedsformedbetween220millionand180millionyearsago at the seams where the supercontinent PangeabegantosplitintowhatisnowNorthAmerica,EuropeandAfrica.TherocksintheNewarkSupergroupcontaintens of millions of years of climate records and alsospantheTriassic-Jurassicboundary,whenanunknownevent wiped out more than half of the life on Earth.Whitesidedecidedtofocusherresearchonthat. “I’mespeciallyinterestedinhowlifereboundsfromcatastrophic events, how ecological systems rebuildfrom massive insults, such as mass extinctions andabrupt climate change, and reassemble themselvesover time through the advent of key evolutionaryadaptations,”shesaid. Toexplorethesequestions,Whitesideinvestigatedgeological sites in North America, Morocco, EuropeandEnglandusingavarietyoftechniques.Shestudiedmicrofossils, fish fossils and fossilized pollen from
ancient lakebeds to chronicle how and when lifechangedduringthiscataclysmicera.Shealsoanalyzedcarbonisotopesdepositedinsedimentsthatindicatedbig-leafedplantspeciesdidnotsurvivepasttheTriassic-Jurassicboundary,whilesmaller-leafedplantssuchasfernsandconifersdid. Together,Whiteside’sresearchsuggeststhatanex-ternalsource—anasteroidcollidingwithEarth,perhaps,or massive volcanic outgassing associated with thebreakupofPangea—createdasuper-greenhouseeffectwith an initial massive extinction in less than 10,000yearsandamassivedisruptionofEarth’scarboncycle. Whitesidesaidsheenjoyedthefreedomtopursuerigorous scientific questions and took advantage ofLamont-Doherty’s continuing smorgasbord of semi-nars, its “kaleidoscopic toolkit” (ranging from massspectrometers to cryogenic magnetometers andstate-of-the-art microscopes), and its connectionswithotherinstitutions(includingtheAmericanMuseumofNaturalHistoryandWoodsHoleOceanographicInstitution).UponearningherPh.D.degree,WhitesidebecameassistantprofessorofterrestrialenvironmentsatBrownUniversity.
Inspired Student Becomes Inspiring Teacher
BethKatzgrewupinLosAngelesbutdecidedtotryanewsideofthecountrywhenshechoseacollege.TheCoreCurriculumatColumbiapersuadedher tocometoNewYork,andshearrivedfullofcuriositybutundecidedaboutwhatshewantedtostudy. Theninherfirstyear,shesignedupforanelectivecoursecalled“ScienceandSociety,”inwhichfacultymembersfromavarietyofdisciplinesteachthescienceunderlyingabroadrangeoftheworld’senvironmentalproblems.Globalwarming,thedestructionofwetlandsand energy consumption demanded more attentionthan itseemedsocietywaswillingtogive,shesaid,soshedecidedtogivethemherattentionandmajorinenvironmentalsciences. Herclasses“weresmall,challengingandextremelyrelevant,”saidKatz.“AtColumbia,Iwasalwaysengagedandquiteofteninspired. “In addition to a rigorous classroom education,Columbiaalsoprovidedmewithoutstandingopportu-nitiestoengageinresearch.Ispentthesummeraftermy sophomore year at Lamont-Doherty researchingarseniclevelsintreeringsfromacontaminatedsiteinNewJersey.Asanintern,Iwentintothefieldtocoretrees,preparedandanalyzedmysamples inthe labandgeneratedmyownresultsundertheguidanceofmyadvisor,ZhongqiCheng.InDecemberof2004,
IpresentedmyresearchattheAmericanGeophysicalUnion’sannualconferenceinSanFrancisco.” Forhersenior thesis,Katzconductedaseriesofexperiments to evaluate different household waterfilters,whoseuseinNewYorkCityhasbecomepopularbutwhoseeffectivenessonwaterqualityhadsofarnotbeen tested. “I had to learn a variety of analyticaltechniques,”shesaid.“Thekitcheninmydormroomstartedtolooklikealab,”ashundredsofsamplingsyringes and bottles, pH and conductivity metersandstripstotestchlorinelevelsviedforspacewithdishes and utensils. Under the guidance of geo-chemistsMartinStuteatBarnardandGisela Winckler at Lamont-Doherty,shealsoused ionchromatographytodetectdissolvedanionconcentrationsand an inductively coupled plasmamass spectrometer to investigatetracemetallevels. UpongraduationinMay2006,KatzjoinedtheTeachforAmericaProgram.During an intensive summer trainingprogram in Los Angeles, she got herfirsttasteofteachingothersaboutenvi-ronmentalsciences.“Itwasinspiringtoseemystudentsstarttotackleproblemsrangingfromglobal warming to water quality,” said Katz. “TheyremindedmeabouthowcuriousIwaswhenIstartedatColumbia.” In the fall of 2006,Katzbegan teachingenviron-mental sciences at the Environmental Charter HighSchoolinLawndale,California.
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
AtColumbia,Iwasalwaysengagedandquiteofteninspired.Inadditiontoarigorousclassroomeducation,Columbiaalsoprovidedmewithoutstandingopportunitiestoengageinresearch.
BethKatzonafieldtripwithherclassattheBallonaWetlandsnearLosAngeles.
HansvonStorch,directoroftheInstituteofCoastalResearchinGeesthacht,Germany,andprofessorattheMeteorologicalInstituteoftheUniversityofHamburg,presentstostudentsinthemaster’sprogram.Credit: Bruce Gilbert
36 FOCUSED INITIATIVES 37FOCUSED INITIATIVES
In1937,MauriceEwingsankaparcelofTNT to thebottomof theocean tosee if he could record the explosiveenergyasitreflectedofflayersofrocksbeneaththeseafloor.Lamont-Doherty’sfounding director wanted to illuminatethe underlying ocean crust withsound—similar to the way physicianstodayuseultrasound. Eversince,Lamont-Dohertyscien-tistshaveledthewayinthefieldofmarineseismology. They continually advancedtechnology and techniques on everyone of the Observatory’s researchships,whichbecametheflagshipvesselsin the U.S. academic fleet for marineseismicexploration. Between2004and2006,Lamont-Doherty marine seismologists Suzanne
Carbotte and Mladen Nedimovic, together with theircolleagues, broke new ground with exceptionallyclear,deepseismicimagesthatrevealedintricaciesofseafloorandsub-seafloorstructures.Theirimagesbringintobetterfocusthegeologicalprocessesthatcontribute to the formation and evolution of Earth’scrustandthatcontributetolargeearthquakes. CarbotteledanexpeditionaboardtheR/VMauriceEwing to conduct the first detailed seismic reflectionstudyoftheJuandeFucaRidge,avolcanicunderwatermountain chain where magma erupts to create newseafloor off the U.S. Pacific Northwest coast. Thestudy,publishedMarch2006 in the journalGeology,helped resolve a long-standing debate about themechanismsthatproducesuchawidevarietyofdifferentridgestructuresandshapes. Previously,scientiststheorizedthatdifferentshapesrepresenteddifferentphasesinanalternatingcycleofgrowth,inwhichmagmarisesfromachambertocreatenewoceancrustandthenthechamberdissipatesandmagmatismwanes.Duringthenon-magmaticepisode,the seafloor accommodates the stretching of theoceanplateby tectonic forces:Thestretchedcrustformscracks,orfaults,andslabsofcrustslidealongthesefaultsandspreadoutwardlikefallingdominoes,formingadepression. But thenewseismic imagesshowed for the firsttime that magma chambers exist beneath eachsegmentof theJuandeFucaRidge, includingthose
previouslyassumed tobe inanon-magmaticphase.Thefindinghasledtoanewtheoryonhowcontinual,ratherthanepisodic,magmadeliverycangeneratethediversityofridgeshapesseenontheseafloor. In another studybasedon thesesamedataandpublishedinAugust2005inNature,Nedimovic,Carbotteandcolleaguesdetected for thefirst timecrystallizedlensesofmagmaembeddedintheMoho,theboundarybetweenthemantleandtheoverlyingoceancrust.Thefindingshednewlightonhowoceancrustiscreated(seepage18). Newseismicimagesarealsoleadingtodiscoveriesat the other end of the Juan de Fuca Plate—whereoceanic crust, created at the ridge millions of yearsago, isgrindingagainst theNorthAmericaPlateandbendingintoadeepsubmarinetrenchoffthecoastofOregonandWashington.Avarietyof forcesconspiretogeneratepowerfulearthquakesinsuchsubductionzones,whichextendacrossmostoftheedgesofcon-tinentsthatborderthePacificOcean. Onecriticalearthquake-generatingfactoriswater,which is carried intoEarthwith the subductingplateand promotes brittle failure that generates intraslabearthquakes, a typeof seismiceventunique to sub-duction zones. Another is the role of overlying sedi-ments.TheJuandeFucaPlateisnotoriousforhavinglarge blankets of sediments on top of it. Nedimovic,Carbotte and former Lamont-Doherty colleagueDelWayne Bohnenstiehl were able to obtain seismicimagesoffaultsthatextendnotonlythroughthesedi-mentarylayers,butallthewaythroughthecrustdowntotheMoho,aswell. “This has never been done before,” Nedimovicsaid. “Often, seismic images can be blurry, so youhavetoguessorinterpretfaultstructuresinthem.Butthesearesharp,likeaknife.Wedon’thavetoguessor interpret. We can clearly see faults extending fardownintothecrust.” In the Cascadia subduction zone, located at theeastendof theJuandeFucaPlatenearmany largePacific Northwest population centers, the Lamont-DohertyteamfoundthatthesefaultscontinuedowntotheMoho,but—critically—nofarther.Thismeansthatseawater,whichpenetratesalongthefaults,isstoppingat theMohoandnotgettingdeeper into themantle,whichiscomposedofperidotiterocksthatcanabsorbmuchmorewaterthancrustalrocks.
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
SuzanneM.CarbotteDohertyResearchScientist,MarineGeologyandGeophysicsCredit: Bruce Gilbert
SeismicimagesneartheJuandeFucaRidgeshowingfaultsthatextendthroughsedimentsandmuchofthecrusttotheMoho.
Seeing Through the Sea and Seafloor Marine seismologists push the envelope to get revealing new images of the ocean crust
The plumbing system revealed by the Lamont-Dohertyseismologistslikelyexplainswhyfewerintraslabearthquakesoccur in theCascadiasubductionzone,compared to other subduction zones. The limitedvolumeofwaterthatgetsembeddedandlaterreleasedinthedowngoingCascadiaslabresultsinfewerintraslabearthquakesandthelimiteddepththatwaterreachesvia faultsmay limit themagnitudesofearthquakes inthispopulousregiontoabout7. The clearer and more detailed seismic images,NedimovicandCarbottesay,wereduetoadvancesintechnology and practices aboard the Ewing, whichwasretiredin2006.Overtheyears,theEwing’slongerreceiving arrays and optimized sound-energy sourcewere used to image structures with increasingly finedetail.Thosetechnologieswillbeupgradedtoprovidethree-dimensionalseismicimageswhentheObserva-tory’s newest ship,R/V Marcus G. Langseth, beginsoperatingin2007,carryingonLamont-Doherty’stradi-tionalleadershipinmarineseismology.
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[left]Cross-axisprofilesshowingthewidevarietyridgestructureatadjacentsegmentsoftheJuandeFucaRidgeproducedbycontinualmagmatism.Credit: Suzanne M. Carbotte
[right]RegionalbathymetryoftheJuandeFucaRidgewithseismicsurveytracksshown.Credit: Suzanne M. Carbotte
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anearthquake-proneareaisapotentialdoubledisaster.HotspotshashadaverypositiveanddirectimpactonWorld Bank and United Nations development policybecause we have been able to quantify the naturalhazardriskandprovideevidencetosupportparticulardevelopmentprograms.”
Thereportalsoprovidesmotivationtodevoteresourcestopreparefordisastersandtopreventlosses,headded.Amongthereport’skeyfindingsare:
•About19percentofEarth’slandareaand3.4billionpeople (more than half the world’s population) haverelativelyhighlyriskofexposuretoatleastonehazard.
• One hundred sixty countries have more than one-quarteroftheirpopulationinareasofhighmortalityriskfromoneormorehazards.
•More thanone-thirdof theU.S.population lives inhazard-proneareas.
•Morethan90percentofthepopulationsofBangla-desh,Nepal, theDominicanRepublic,Burundi,Haiti,Taiwan,ElSalvadorandHondurasliveinareasofhighrelativeriskofdeathfromtwoormorehazards.
•Poorer countries in thedevelopingworld aremorelikely to have difficulty absorbing repeated disaster-relatedlossesandcostsassociatedwithdisasterrelief,recoveryandreconstruction.
Among the longer-term benefits of the HotspotsProject,saidLerner-Lam,was tomotivatesocialandgeophysical scientists to begin talking to each otherandtalkingeachother’slanguage. “We showed that you can link basic geophysicalknowledgewithdisasterassessmentsthateconomists,political scientists, social scientists, agronomists andothers face every day. Now we see more of thesescientistsatmeetings,andwehavedeeperconversationswith them.There’sahunger for information frombothsides.Peopledidn’tknowwhattheydidn’tknow.It’snolongerasituationwherewegeophysicistswritescientificpapersandhopescientistsinotherfieldsorpractitionersreadthem;nowwewritepaperstogether.Ourresearchis connecting in ways it hadn’t before and there’s ashorterleapbetweenresearchanditsapplications.” TheHotspotsProjectalsofosteredcollaborationswithscientistsworldwide,whichshouldcontinueandgrowasLamont-Dohertyscientiststakeglobaldisasterriskassessmentresearchtothenextlevels. “Lamont has always attracted an internationalcastofcharacters,whichisthebestwaytostudytheEarth,” said Lerner-Lam. “We have a long history ofidentifyingandbuildingcollaborationswith in-countrypartners around theworld andworkingwith them incountry-specificways.Abusinessmanwouldcall itcapacitybuilding.Wecallitbusinessasusual.”
38 FOCUSED INITIATIVES 39FOCUSED INITIATIVES
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
NewOrleansintheaftermathofHurricaneKatrina,showingInterstate10atWestEndBoulevard,lookingtowardLakePontchartrain. Credit: U.S. Coast Guard, Petty Officer 2nd Class Kyle Niemi
Totaleconomiclossriskhotspotsandthetop20recipientsofWorldBank
emergencylendingandloanreallocation
(1980–2003).Credit: Dilley et al. (2005)
TheHotspotsProjectreportisatooltoinformstrategiesonwhereandhowtoencourageandtargetinvestmentsindevelopingcountries.
Every so often, a piece of scientific research comesalongthatopenseyes,breaksbarriersandhelpsshiftpolicystrategies.OnesuchprojectbyLamont-DohertyseismologistArtLerner-Lam isnotonlychanging theway world development and aid organizations viewtheworld, it is changing theway theydobusiness.Ultimately, it could help save thousands of lives andmillionsofdollars. Lerner-Lam, director of the recently establishedCenterforHazardsandRiskResearch(CHRR),co-authored an ambitious effort to systematically andscientificallyassess theexposureof regions throughouttheglobetoearthquakes,floods,droughts,volcanoes,landslidesandcyclones.CommissionedbyTheWorldBank,the“HotspotsProject”identifiedareasthatweremoreexposedtonaturalhazardsandatgreaterrisktohighratesofmortalityandeconomicloss. “When you look at all of the spots together, youseeaphenomenallylargeexposuretodisasters,”saidLerner-Lam.“Itgaveusrealinsightabouthowmuchoftheglobalpopulationandhowmucheconomicdevel-opmentisaffectedbynaturaldisasters.” Perhaps the greater impact of the study was indemonstratingthatmanagingdisasterrisksisnotonlyahumanitarianissue,butonethatshouldbeanintegralpart of development planning, as well. “Hunger, dis-easeandpovertyhavebeentopprioritiesinthedevel-opingworld,but theabilityofsocietiestoberesilient
and withstand natural environmental stresses is animportantcomponent,too,”saidLerner-Lam.“Naturaldisasterscanbeadragondevelopment.” The study, officially called Natural Disaster Hot-spots: A Global Risk Analysis,wasco-authoredbyBobChenoftheCenterforInternationalEarthScienceInfor-mationNetwork(CIESIN)atColumbiaandMaxxDilley,formerlyofColumbia’sInternationalResearchInstituteforClimateandSociety(IRI),andincludedresearchersfromtheWorldBank’sHazardManagementUnit;theNorwegianGeotechnicalInstitute;threeUNprograms(Development,EnvironmentandWorldFood);aswellasothergroups. Lamont-Doherty’s role, said Lerner-Lam, was “tobringbestavailablescientificknowledge tobearandcoordinate the geophysical studies of the regions.”Thiscontinuestobeanareaofongoingresearch. Theresearcherscombinedhazardoccurrencewithpopulationandgrossdomesticproductperunitareatoassesseachregion’spotentialexposuretohumanandeconomic losses.Theyapplied thisapproach toamapof theworld thatwasgridded intosmallcellsandcalculatedrelativerisksforindividualregionswithincountriestomultiple,interrelateddisasters. “The Hotspots Project report is a tool to informstrategiesonwhereandhowtoencourageandtargetinvestmentsindevelopingcountries,”saidLerner-Lam.“Buildingschoolsthatcannotwithstandearthquakesin
Globaldistributionofeconomiclosshotspotsforallhazards
(cyclone,drought,flood,earthquake,volcanoandlandslide)isassessedin
Natural Disaster Hotspots.
Hitting All the Hotspots A global study of natural disasters shifts development and aid strategies
40 FOCUSED INITIATIVES 41FOCUSED INITIATIVES
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Credit: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
[left]WallaceBroecker,NewberryProfessorofEarthandEnvironmentalScience,atthecarboncaptureandsequestration(CCS)fieldstudysiteinIceland.Credit: Juerg Matter
Overthenextseveralyears,Lamont-Dohertyscientistswillparticipateinexperimentstoinject3,000tonsofcarbondioxide3,500feetunderground.
AtatestsiteintheHengillregionofsouthwesternIceland,Lamont-DohertyresearchersarestudyingthefeasibilityofstoringCO2safelyandpermanentlyinbasalticformations.Credit: Juerg Matter
Inthegrandgeologicalschemeofthings,Earthhasabalancedcarbonbudget.Overtensofmillionsofyears,carbondioxidetrappeddeepwithintherockybowelsoftheplanetwasventedintotheatmospherebyvolca-noes. Over time, that carbon dioxide either reactedchemicallywithrocksonEarth’ssurfaceandconvertedintocarbonaterocksorthecarbondioxidewastakenupbyphotosyntheticplantsandanimalsthatatethem,bothofwhichsubsequentlydecomposed intohydro-carbonsthatgotburiedintheEarth. Since the IndustrialRevolution,however,humansbegantoremovecarbonfromtheplanetmuchfasterthannaturalsystemscouldrestore it. Inashorttime,we have extracted huge quantities of hydrocarbons,in the formofoilandgas,andburned themfor fuel,pouringanexcessofheat-trappingcarbondioxideintotheairintheprocess.Theresultistheglobalwarmingscenariowenowface. “Theworldcurrentlyemits25gigatons[billionsoftons]ofCO2peryear;theU.S.approximately6gigatons,”saidLamont-DohertyscientistJuergMatter.“Wecan’texpectthatwewillstopusingfossilfuel.That’swhywehavetotakeaction.”
MatterandtwoLamont-Dohertycolleagues,DavidGoldberg and Taro Takahashi, have proposed an in-novativesolution for themanmadeproblem:Put largequantities of carbon dioxide back into the Earth fromwhenceitcame.Tokeepitthere,theyaimtoconvertthecarbon-containinggasintocarbon-containingrock. Fordecades,theoilandgasindustryhasinjectedcarbon dioxide into oil wells to push out every lastdropofoilandleftthegasunderground.Thathasledto the idea of putting excess carbon dioxide intounderground traps—beneath impermeable cap rockformations or in the spidery pore spaces betweenrocks—andstoringitthere. Despitetheappearanceofgeologicpermanence,therearepotential leaks. “No trapsareperfect,”saidGoldberg.“Carbondioxidecanmigrateuptowardthesurfaceandleakbackintotheatmosphere.PartoftheCO2willdissolvewithresidualwaterintocarbonicacidthatmayhelpcreatenewpathwaystothesurface.” Certain typesof rocks,however, reactdifferentlywithcarbonicacidandwater.Rocks rich incalciumand magnesium form limestone—hard rock that,onceformed,staysput.WithfundingfromTheEarth
InstituteatColumbiaUniversity,Matter,GoldbergandTakahashibeganexperimentstodeterminethefeasi-bilityofsuchacarbonsequestrationprogram.Thetriocombinedanarrayofrequiredexpertise:Takahashiisa geochemist renowned for his research on carbondioxide;Matterisahydrologistwhostudiesfluidflowinrock;Goldberg,directorofLamont-Doherty’sBore-holeResearchGroup,hasa longhistoryofwork inmeasuringrockpropertiesinundergroundandunder-searockformations. In laboratory experiments, they studied chemicalreactions involving carbon dioxide and different rocktypes under various conditions. In a test well on theLamont-Doherty campus, they monitored chemicalreactionsinundergroundrocks. “Thekeyquestion is:How fastwill thechemistryhappen?”saidGoldberg. “Thereactionshouldnotbetoofastsothatthegasturnstorockinstantlyandclogsthereservoirbeforeallthegascangetin,”Matteradded.“Butitmustbefastenoughsothatthegasdoesn’tpersist longenoughtoleakout.” The research demonstrated that the long-termcarbon sequestration concept is viable, and in 2005Lamont-DohertyjoinedtheBigSkyPartnership,acol-laboration involving the U.S. Department of Energy(DOE) and several national laboratories, universitiesand other government agencies to explore carbonsequestrationonalargescale. IntheBigSkystatesofMontana,Idaho,Washington,Wyoming and South Dakota, there are an estimated53,000squaremilesofbasaltrockdepositsthatfloodedoverthelandscapeinthedistantpast.Thesevolcanicformations offer a sufficiently deep, drillable, porousreservoirofrockswiththerightchemicalcompositionforcarbonsequestration.TheDOEhasalreadydrilledholes near the site in a relatively uninhabited area,whichhasbeenwell-studiedandmaybeapossiblelong-termcarbonrepository. Over thenext several years, theLamont-Dohertyscientistswillparticipate inexperiments to inject3,000tonsofcarbondioxide3,500feetunderground.Thesci-entistswillstudythereactivityandmineralizationofthebasaltrocktoseehowfastitisconvertedintolimestone.
“Ifonly3percentofthebasalt issuitableforCO2
sequestration,itcouldsequester100gigatonsofCO2,”saidMatter. According to Goldberg, if carbon sequestrationworks,therearemanyotherplacesaroundtheworldwiththerighttypeofpotentialrockreservoirs,suchasthevastDeccanTrapsfloodbasaltsinIndia.Takingtheconcept a step further, Goldberg, who has long ac-companiedseagoingdrillingexpeditions,pointedoutthat theworld’soceansare full ofpermeablebasaltdepositscoveredbyacapofthousandsofmetersofwaterandsediments.“Theyarefarfromeveryoneandhaveahugestoragecapacity,”hesaid. Indeed,GoldberghasadvancedaproposaltotheIntegrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) to explorepotential basalt reservoir sites off the U.S. PacificNorthwestcoast,whicharenearshore,havea largesediment cover and are already well-studied. Heenvisions the possibility of a carbon sequestrationindustryonthescaleoftheoilexplorationindustry,orthelattertransformingintotheformer. “Carbon sequestration won’t provide the entiresolutiontoourgreenhousewarmingproblem,”Goldbergsaid,“butitcouldbeaviablepiece.”
What to Do With CO2? Lamont-Doherty scientists test new method to lock excess greenhouse gas underground
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
42 FOCUSED INITIATIVES 43FOCUSED INITIATIVES
ADVANCE ProgramWhen Marie Tharp first suggested that her interpretations of the ocean floor supported the then-revolutionary idea of plate tectonics, her findings were dismissed as “girl talk.” This was during the 1950s, a time when a woman scientist was an anomaly at the Lamont-Doherty and in science. Lamont-Doherty has come a long way since then. In 2004 the Observatory became host of The Earth Institute ADVANCE program, a five-year, $4.2 million NSF-funded initiative led by Robin Bell to increase recruitment, retention and advancement of women scientists at Columbia. Women now make up nearly 20 percent of the research staff and over half of the graduate students at Lamont-Doherty. This number decreases, however, the higher one looks among the scientific ranks. In an effort to attract more emerging and established leaders, ADVANCE created the Marie Tharp Fellowship, which enables women scientists to come to Lamont-Doherty for up to three months with a $30,000 stipend. This also provides Observatory scientists the opportunity to work with such emerging leaders as Lisa Curran, a 2006 Fellow who was recently awarded a five-year MacArthur “genius grant” for her work to mitigate deforestation and enhance conserva-tion in the tropics. A 2005 ADVANCE survey found women at Lamont-Doherty were less likely than men to travel to professional meetings or spend time in the field due in part to the cost of child care. As a result, ADVANCE developed a program to help women defray these costs and encourage professional travel. ADVANCE is also exploring the growing body of social and behavioral research linked to diversity. In 2005, the program launched “The Science of Diversity” lecture series, which has already attracted such leaders in the field as Valerie Purdue-Vaughns, a psychologist from Yale University, and Harriet Zuckerman, a widely recognized sociologist from the Mellon Foundation. In 2007 ADVANCE will be evaluated to measure the effectiveness of its initiatives and to help the principal investigators develop a plan to institutionalize successful programs. By creating an inclusive environment, Lamont-Doherty will not only improve the work environ-ment for all its employees, but it will also become a more competitive research institution. Marie Tharp would be proud.
Robin BellADVANCE Co-PI Credit: Bruce Gilbert
John C. MutterADVANCE Co-PICredit: Bruce Gilbert
Mark CaneADVANCE Co-PI
Credit: Bruce Gilbert
Roberta BalstadADVANCE Co-PICredit: Bruce Gilbert
Jennifer Laird Assistant Director
Stephanie PfirmanADVANCE Co-PICredit: Bruce Gilbert
Patricia Culligan ADVANCE Co-PI
Natalie MahowaldMarie Tharp Fellow
ThemissionoftheEarthInstituteADVANCEprogramistoincreasetherecruitment,retentionandadvancementofwomenscientistsandengineersatColumbiaUniversity.
ADVANCE Co-PIs, Fellows and Staff
TheCooperativeInstituteforClimateApplicationsandResearch(CICAR)wasestablishedinNovember2003asaresearchpartnershipbetweentheNationalOceanicandAtmosphericAdministrationandColumbiaUniversity.TheInstitute’sresearchplanisguidedbythreeclimate-centeredthemes:Earthsystemmodeling,modernandpaleoclimate observations and climate variability andchangeapplicationsresearch. The NOAA-funded research portfolio at Lamont-Dohertygrewoutofaclearstrategicvisionthatoceanobservationsandcoupledocean-atmospheremodelingare fundamental to understanding long-term climatevariabilityandchangeandtodevelopingclimatepre-diction capabilities. It also emphasizes paleoclimateresearchasprovidingclimatescenariosbroaderincontextthan those revealed in the short instrumental record,thushelpingtoexpandourviewofEarth’sclimatesystempropertiesandvariabilityandchallengeourconceptualand modeling capability. Columbia scientists workedwithNOAAtoformprogramsandsetresearchdirectionsthatbuildonthisvisionandhistoryofsuccess. The collaboration between Lamont-Doherty andtwoofNOAA’sotherclimate-orientedorganizations,theClimate Program Office (CPO) and the GeophysicalFluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL) lie at the core ofCICAR’s activities. CICAR’s climate research agendacomplementsthegoalsofboththeseorganizations.Aspartofitsmission,CICARalsofostersclimate-educationinitiativestoenhanceclimateeducationandoutreach. The CICAR research portfolio includes the multi-faceted Abrupt Climate Change Studies (ARCHES)research initiative, which combines paleoclimate re-search with modern ocean circulation observations
and the study of abrupt change climate dynamicsthroughtheuseofnumericalmodels.Alsoincludedareindividual, principal investigator–driven initiatives thatspan several Observatory divisions as well as otherunitsofTheEarthInstituteatColumbiaUniversity. Since CICAR’s founding, a deliberate planningprocesshasdevelopednewresearchactivitiestosupportthe NOAA goal to “understand and describe climatevariability and change to enhance society’s ability toplanandrespond.”ThishasleadtothedevelopmentoftheLamont-Doherty/GFDLprojecttoinvestigatetheclimateofthelastmillennium,inwhichgraduatestudentsandpostdoctoral scientists, under thementorshipofseniorinvestigatorsfrombothinstitutions,haveconductedresearchwiththecommongoalofunderstandingandsimulatingclimatevariabilityoverthepast1,000yearsandoflookingintothegreenhousefuture.Inaddition,CICARlaunchedaUniversity-wideefforttoidentifyanddevelop applications research to create effectivedecision-making tools to address North Americanhydroclimatevariability. In fall 2006, CICAR underwent a comprehensiveprogramreviewbyNOAA.ThegoalofthereviewwastoevaluatetheCICARresearchandeducationprogramsand itssciencemanagement.Thedraft reportof theScienceReviewCommitteeconcludedthatCICARisavaluablememberofNOAA’sCooperativeInstitutecom-munityandassignedanoverallratingof“outstanding.”Encouraged by this support, CICAR will continue togrowandconductworld-classresearchtoimprovethenation’scapabilitiestounderstandandpredictclimatevariabilityandchange.
WatermassesthatformatthecontinentalmarginsofAntarcticafilltheworld’sdeepoceans.TheARCHESSouthernOceanModernObservationsprogrammain-tainsinstrumentedmooringsneartheSouthOrkneyPlateauintheNorthwestWeddellSeatomonitoramajorsourceofAntarcticdeepandbottomwaters.Thesix-yearrecordfrommooringM3,placedat4,550meters,hasshownsignificantseasonalandlonger-periodvariabilityinthetemperatureoftheWeddellSeabottomwaterexitingthegyre.
Cooperative Institute for Climate Applications and Research
44 SPECIAL EVENTS AND AWARDS 45SPECIAL EVENTS AND AWARDS
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Open House 2004
October 9, 2004
Restless Earth
September 18, 2004
Columbia’s 250th Celebration Community Day
2004 Awards
November 9, 2004
Vetlesen AwardProfessorW.RichardPeltierandProfessorSirNicholasShackleton
November 2004
The Ford Award to Taro Takahashi TheFordMotorCompanyhonorsacarboncyclepioneerbypresentingtheFordAwardto Taro Takahashi “in recognition of [his]contributiontounderstandingwhathappenstoindustrialcarbondioxide.”
December 2004
Peter Kelemen received the Bowen Medal fromtheVolcanology,GeochemistryandPe-trologySectionoftheAmericanGeophysicalUnionatitsannualmeetinginSanFrancisco.
Jardetzky Lecture
May 12, 2005
Recent Insights Into the Anthropogenic Perturbation of the Global Carbon Cycle NicholasGruber,UniversityofCalifornia,LosAngeles
TheJardetzky lecture ingeophysicshonorsthelateWenceslasS.Jardetzky,arenownedresearcher and educator whose flourishingscientific career in Europe was halted byWorldWarIIandrevivedafterheimmigratedto the United States. From 1949 until hisdeathin1962,hewasaresearchassociateat Lamont-Doherty, where he collaboratedwithFrankPress,wholaterbecamepresidentof the National Academy of Sciences, andMaurice Ewing, Lamont-Doherty’s foundingdirector, on a well-known and widely usedscientific book, Elastic Waves in Layered Media.TheJardetzkylecturewasestablishedin1992byJardetzky’ssonOleg.
Spring 2005 Public Lectures
April 17, 2005
The Science Behind Aliens of the DeepMayaTolstoy,DohertyResearchScientist
May 1, 2005
A Natural History of the PalisadesProfessorMarkAndersandNeilPederson,Tree-RingLaboratory
May 15, 2005
Deep Time: The History of Our Planet RevealedP.JeffreyFox,DirectorofScienceServices,IntegratedOceanDrillingProgram
This talk sponsored by the Lamont-Doherty Alumni Association.
May 22, 2005
Blindsided: How Science Can Help the Developing World Avoid Another Tsunami TragedyArtLerner-Lam,Director,CenterforHazardsandRiskResearch
Open House 2005
October 1, 2005
Secret Earth
2005 Awards
Lamont-Doherty Excellence in Mentoring Award, Marc Spiegelman, Seismology,GeologyandTectonophysics
TheLamont-DohertyExcellenceinMentoringAward recognizes the importance of qualitymentoring,whichbenefitstheinstitutionasawhole,itsjuniormembers(includinggraduatestudents,postdoctoralfellowsandassociateresearch scientists) and the mentors them-selves. The award recipient receives a$2,000 cash prize and a certificate. Therecipient’snameisengravedonaplaquethatisdisplayedattheObservatory.
Glenn A. Goodfriend Award, Sarah FeakinsTheprizeisgivenannuallybyLDEOandtheDepartment of Earth and EnvironmentalSciences foranoutstandingstudentpaperin paleoclimatology. Florentin Maurrasse(PhD ’73) established the prize in 2003 inmemoryofhisfriendandcolleagueGlennA.Goodfriend.
SarahFeakinsandG.MichaelPurdyCredit: Doug Brusa
September 2005
Bob Anderson awarded the Huntsman Foundation’s Award onthe25thanniversaryofthefoundingoftheawardattheceremoniesinHalifax,NovaScotia.
December 2005
Arnold Gordon awarded an honorary D.Sc. bytheUniversityofCapeTown.
December 2005
Dennis V. Kent recognized by the Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, France, with its highest honorary degree, becomingoneofitsfewDoctorsHonorisCausa.
Spring 2006 Public Lectures
March 26, 2006
Is the Earth’s Core Leaking?DavidWalker,Professor,EarthandEnviron-mentalSciences
April 9, 2006
Climate Change Problem: A Permanent Underground Carbon Storage Solution? JuergMatter,DohertyAssociateResearchScientist
April 30, 2006
The 100th Anniversary of the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906: What Have We Learned Since Then About the Earthquake Process and Prospects for Earthquake Prediction? LynnSykes,HigginsProfessorEmeritus
May 21, 2006
The Katrina Disaster: A Poor World Tragedy in a Rich Country JohnMutter,ProfessorofEarthandEnviron-mentalSciencesDepartment;DeputyDirector/AssociateViceProvost,TheEarthInstituteatColumbiaUniversity
Open House 2006
October 7, 2006
Oceans of Discovery
2006 Awards
Storke Doherty Lectureship AwardTina van de Flierdt, GeochemistryThisfour-yeartermawardwillbemadetoanindividual selected from among the pool ofeligiblecandidatesonthebasisofoutstandingscientific merit and potential. The award ismade jointly with the Department of EarthandEnvironmentalSciences.
January 2006
Paul Richards awarded the 2006 Leo Szilard Lectureship Award bytheAmericanPhysicalSociety“forworkapplyinghisexper-tise in geophysics to seismic detection ofnuclearexplosions.”
April 2006
Dennis V. Kent received the Petrus Peregrinus Medal bytheEuropeanGeo-sciences Union for outstanding scientificcontributionsinthefieldofmagnetism.
April 2006
G. Michael Purdy named to receive the W. Maurice Ewing Medal attheAmericanGeophysicalUnion’sfallmeeting.
May 2006
Robin Bell receives an Honorary Doctor of Science degree from Middlebury College.
June 2006
Gordon Jacoby received a Life Achieve-ment Award and Ed Cook an Outstand-ing Service Award at the7th International
Tree-RingConferenceinBeijing.
0405
06
LAMONT-DOHERTY EARTH OBSERVATORYT H E E A R T H I N S T I T U T E A T C O L U M B I A U N I V E R S I T Y
EVENT SPONSOR
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OCEANS OF DISCOVERY
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SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2006, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
OPEN HOUSEPALISADES, NEW YORKwww.ldeo.columbia.edu
LAMONT-DOHERTY EARTH OBSERVATORY
T H E E A R T H I N S T I T U T E A T C O L U M B I A U N I V E R S I T Y
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9TH, 2004, 10:00 AM-4:00 PMOPEN HOUSER E S T L E S S E A R T H
Location: Rt. 9W, Palisades, NY a
t the NY-NJ Stateline (Exit 4, P
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Parking: IBM Exec. Conf. Center, 1.4 M
iles North of Lamo nt on Rt.
9W
For more information call 845-359-2900.
www.ldeo.columbia.edu/OH2004
1
2
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[toptobottom]1.OpenHouse2005. Credit: Bruce Gilbert2.AGU2006AwardCeremony.Credit: Doug Brusa3.DavidWalkeratthePublicLeturesSpring2006 Credit: Ronnie Anderson4.OpenHouse2006. Credit: Bruce Gilbert
46 DEVELOPMENT 47DEVELOPMENT
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Development Office
In2005and2006charitablegiftsfromindividualsandfoundationstotaled$5.1million,withanadditional$21millioningiftsandpledgesforthenewGeochemistrylaboratorybuildingand forLamont-Doherty’sendow-ment.Thislatterfigureincludesan$18-milliongift—oneofthelargesteverreceivedbytheObservatory—fromGary Comer and the Comer Science and EducationFoundationforthenewlaboratorybuilding(seepage7).ColumbiaTrusteeGerryLenfestalsogave$2milliontosupporttheprojectaswellasanadditional$750,000topurchaseanewmassspectrometer.Averygener-ous anonymous donor contributed $500,000 towardconstruction,andwewerealsograteful to receiveagiftof$100,000fromtheAmbroseMonellFoundationfortheproject. AnothermilestoneforLamont-Dohertyin2005wastheestablishmentof theJeromeM.Paros–PalisadesGeophysical InstituteFundforEngineering InnovationinGeoscienceResearch.Thefund,whichwasmadepossible by a $550,000 gift from Jerome M. ParosmatchinganearliergiftfromthePalisadesGeophysicalInstitute,supportsthedevelopmentofnewtechnologiesand the application of existing technologies to aidLamont-DohertyresearchersintheirstudiesofEarth. In both 2005 and 2006, Lamont was awardedgrantsfromtheBrinsonFoundationtofundtheworkofpostdoctoral fellows in the Seismology, Geology andTectonophysics Division and to establish the EarthMicrobiologyLaboratoryatLamont-Doherty.
WecontinuetobenefitfromthethoughtfulgenerosityoftheG.UngerVetlesenFoundation.TheFoundationprovides critical unrestricted support, which in 2005and2006allowedDirectorMikePurdytheflexibilitytofund priority projects across a range of disciplines.Funding from the Vetlesen Foundation also supportsLamont-Doherty’sclimatecenterprogramsandmakespossible a large part of the Observatory’s extensiveandgrowingclimateresearchactivities. In2005,torecognizetheleadershipsupportofourlongtime friends and supporters, the Observatoryestablished the Founders’ Circle and was delighted towelcomeGeorgeRoweoftheVetlesenFoundationandWalterBrownoftheHenryL.andGraceDohertyFoun-dation as inaugural members. Membership in theFounders’CircleisarecognitionreservedforourmostgenerousbenefactorswhosecontributionshavemadeatransformingimpactontheObservatory. ItisalsoourpleasuretoacknowledgeinthisreporttheimpactofournewlyreconstitutedAdvisoryBoard.SinceitsinauguralmeetinginJanuary2005,theBoardhas grown to 17 members and is thriving under theleadershipofitschair,QuentinKennedy.TheAdvisoryBoardischargedwithpromotingthebestinterestsandmissionofLamont-Doherty,advisingthedirectoronabroadrangeofissuesandsupportingtheObservatorythroughpersonalfinancialdonationsaswellasbypro-vidingcontactsandcontributingtime,talentandeffort. Lastly,wewouldliketothankeachperson,founda-tionandcorporationwhochosetomakeagifttoLamont-Doherty.YourcontributionshelpensureLamont-Doherty’scontinued traditionofexcellence in research,educationandoutreach.
DennisM.AdlerandRobinAronow
CharlesAmendola
AmericanChemicalSociety
AmericanGeophysicalUnion
Anonymous(2)
Aquanautix
WilliamandJeannemarieBaker
BlackRockForestConsortium
DavidG.BlackJr.
Bonshow,Inc.
TheBrinsonFoundation
RichardE.Byrd
ChevronTexaco
KennethW.Ciriacks
MillardF.Coffin
ComerScienceandEducationFoundation
ConsolidatedEdisonCompanyofNewYork,Inc.
RichardA.Cook
EstateofEstherC.Dauch
DellUSALP
JishuDeng
TheHenryL.&GraceDohertyCharitableFoundation
H.JamesandSallyW.Dorman
BarbaraEngel
TheErgonomicGroup
PeterQ.Eschweiler
EvolvingEarthFoundation
W.ArnoldFinck
ThomasJelstrupFitch
FordMotorCompany
PaulJeffreyFox
FrankStrickFoundation
AlanM.Freedman
JeffreyStuartGould
FrankJ.Gumper
JohnK.Hall
TheHeimboldFoundation
LeifChristianHeimbold
DanielHerron
M.Ki-itiHorai
GeHu
HudsonRiverFoundationforScience
InternationalUnionfortheSci-entificStudyofPopulation
JMAServices,Inc.
MarcandJudyJoseph
JulianandMurielKane
HelmutKatz
KongsbergUnderwaterTechnology,Inc.
DavidR.Lammlein
LeoF.Laporte
GerryLenfest
RobertJohnLifgren
DonaldW.Lovejoy
JoanK.Lubowe
WilliamJ.Ludwig
MarketResourcesPartnersLLC
StephenMarshak
WilliamS.Marshall
FlorentinJ-M.R.Maurrasse
MicrosoftCorporation
PeterH.Molnar
AmbroseMonellFoundation
TheAmyKletteNewmanFoundation
TheGeorgeW.&AmyNewmanFoundation
VirginiaMcConnOversby
JeromeM.Paros
EdwardE.Potter
RubyK.Rickard
JamesH.Robertson
TheRockefellerFoundation
FrancisJohnRodriguez
WilliamB.F.Ryan
NicholasL.Seaver
JasonA.Setchen
DannJackSpariosu
SunMicrosystems,Inc.
TheNewYorkCommunityTrust
LeonA.Thomsen
MaryTremblay
HarryS.VanSantford,Jr.
VerizonFoundation
TheG.UngerVetlesenFoundation
TheWallaceMaritalTrust
Mr.RichardandMrs.JoyceO’DowdWallace
XuejinWang
JillC.Weinberg
CharlesC.Windisch
Friends of Lamont-Doherty
Friends of Lamont-Doherty (FOLD) recognizes donors who contribute annual gifts of $500 or more to Lamont-Doherty, including unrestricted gifts that give the director unparalleled ability to direct support to research areas most in need or to fund special projects. In addition to the knowledge that their leadership gifts enable the continued advancement of research by Lamont-Doherty scientists and students, members of FOLD receive special invitations to Observatory events, trips and tours.
Torrey Cliff Society
For many donors, carefully planned gifts can offer significant estate and income tax benefits, while at the same time allowing individuals or families to make a much larger impact than would be otherwise possible. The Torrey Cliff Society is composed of people who have included the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in their estate plans or who have life income gift arrangements with Columbia University. The Society is named for the estate on which Lamont-Doherty is located, which was donated to Columbia in 1948 and which had been named by its original owners, Thomas and Florence Lamont, for America’s famed, 19th century botanist, John Torrey. The Society enables Lamont-Doherty to recognize its members, who are inducted each fall just before Open House, in a way that relates their generosity to the Observatory’s proud history of scientific advancement. Becoming a member of the Torrey Cliff Society also confers membership in Columbia’s 1754 Society, the honorary society for alumni and friends who have included the University in their estate plans. Membership has no dues, obligations or solicitations, but it provides a way for Lamont-Doherty and the University to extend their gratitude.
TORREY CLIFF SOCIETY MEMBERS AS OF JUNE 30, 2006
Nestor C.L. Granelli
Helmut Katz
John Maguire
Rudi Markl
Andrew and Barbara McIntyre
Marie Tharp*
*Deceased
YourcontributionshelpensureLamont-Doherty’scontinuedtraditionofexcellenceinresearch,educationandoutreach.
$250 + DonorsJULY 1, 2004 THROUGH JUNE 30, 2006
[lefttoright]SarahHuard,StaceyVassallo,RonnieAnderson,DougBrusa
48 DEVELOPMENT 49LAMONT-DOHERTY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
LDEO ADVISORY BOARD
QuentinKennedy,Chair
DennisM.Adler
WilliamF.Baker
WalterR.Brown
BarbaraEngel
JeffreyStuartGould
FrankGumper
CarolynHansard
LawrenceLynn,ActingCo-Chair
FlorentinMaurasse
W.BarnabusMcHenry
NeilOpdyke
Samuel(George)Philander
FrankPress
IanStrecker
SeymourTopping
LeonA.Thomsen
Ex Officio
G.MichaelPurdy,Director
P.JeffreyFox,President,AlumniAssociation
LAMONT-DOHERTY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2005–2006
President
P.JeffreyFox
Directors
StevenCande
MaryAnnBrueckner
H.JamesDorman
StephenEittreim
Emma(Christa)Farmer
W.ArnoldFinck
ArthurMcGarr
JoyceO’DowdWallace
MichaelRawson
WilliamRyan
Alumni Association
Itisimpossibletoknowpreciselyhowmanymembersthereare,butthousandsofpeoplearepartofacertainextended family. Itsmembers studiedat,workedator, in some cases, were briefly a part of Lamont-Doherty.What theyshare isa respectandaffectionfortheplaceanditslegacy,and,nomatterhowmanyyears removed from the campus, they still considerthemselves“Lamonters.” Lamont-Dohertyalumniarenotoftenonestostandon ceremony or establish highly structured bureaucra-cies.Informalreunionsandgrapevinecommunicationshad been going on for decades without any formalalumni associationuntil, on theObservatory’s 50thanniversary in 1999, a slightly more formal alumnigroup was founded in order to assure steady andcontinuingalumniactivity.TheLamont-DohertyAlumniAssociationhasbeenactiveandthrivingeversince. Under the leadership of founding president TerryEdgarandhissuccessorJeffFox,anAlumniAssocia-tion Board was formed that works with Observatorystaff on all matters relating to alumni. The board iscomposedofbothacademicandstaffalumni,and itsponsors three reunions each year: two at Lamont-
Doherty(AlumniPublicLectureDayinthespringandOpen House in the fall) as well as an internationalreunion at the December meeting of the AmericanGeophysicalUnioninSanFrancisco. AlthoughmanyLamont-DohertyalumnichoosetosupporttheObservatoryand itsalumniactivitieswithfinancialcontributions,thereisnospecificfeeformem-bershipintheassociation.Allthosewhoself-identifyasalumniareencouragedto jointhemailing [email protected].
THE PURPOSE OF LAMONT-DOHERTY ALUMNI ASSOCIATION
ThepurposeoftheLamont-DohertyAlumniAssociationistoadvancetheinterestandpromotethewelfareoftheObservatoryaswellas to fostercommunicationsand interactionsamong itsalumni.Themembershipincludes past Lamont-Doherty graduate students,postdoctoral fellows, scientists, visiting scholars andformeremployees.
OpenHouse2006AlumniAssociationMeeting:[clockwisefromtop]Emma(Christa)Farmer,W.ArnoldFinck,P.JeffreyFox,MikePurdy,H.JamesDorman,JoyceO’DowdWallace,MaryAnnBrueckner,WilliamRyan,MichaelRawson(notpictured:StevenCande,StephenEittreim,ArthurMcGarr)Credit: Bruce Gilbert
[topleft]QuentinKennedy,ChairofAdvisoryBoard[topright]P.JeffreyFox,PresidentofAlumniAssociation[bottom]LamontAGUReception.Credit: Doug Brusa
50 ADMINISTRATION 51ADMINISTRATION
Central Administration
TheprimaryresponsibilityoftheLamont-DohertyEarthObservatory’sadministration is toensurecompliancewiththetermsandconditionsofourfundingwhilealsofacilitatingtheday-to-dayworkofourresearchscientists.To achieve this goal, Lamont-Doherty has created amulti-tieredadministrativemanagementstructurethatprovidesthechecksandbalancesnecessarytoensureappropriate stewardship of sponsored projects,endowments,giftsandother institutional funding.AlthoughformallyanextensionofColumbiaUniversity’scentraloperations,theObservatory’sadministrationoffersdirect,on-siteservicestotheresearchcommunityontheLamontCampus. Lamont-Doherty’s central administrative depart-ments are responsible for a core set of activitiesincludinggrantsandcontractsmanagement, financeandaccounting,purchasing,humanresources,facilitiesmanagement and engineering, shipping and traffic,and campus safety and security. Administrators alsomanagearangeofancillaryservicesincludingacopycenter,foodservicesandcampushousingoperations.Inadditiontothesecentraldepartmentsandactivities,eachof thefiveresearchdivisionsandEarth Instituteprograms located on the Lamont Campus has anadministratorandanadministrativeassistantwhoprovideday-to-daysupporttoscientists. Becauseof thecomplexityofourprogramsandthestrengthofourstaffLamont-DohertyAdministrationis routinelyusedbyColumbiaasa testsite fornewprograms and initiatives. We are proud to providequalityservicestotheObservatory’sscientificcommunityand to be regarded as administrative leaders withintheUniversity.
LamontadministrationisroutinelyusedbyColumbiaasatestsitefornewprogramsandinitiativesduetothecomplexityofourprogramsandthestrengthofourstaff.
STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES (in 1,000s)
Sources of Revenue 2004–05 2005–06
NationalScienceFoundation 27,291 17,698 (1)
NationalOceanicandAtmosphericAdministration 6,196 6,877
NationalAeronauticsandSpaceAdministraiton 2,555 2,704
NationionalInstituteofEnviromentalHealthandSafety 919 1,016
OfficeofNavalResearch 548 555
U.S.GeologicSurvey 351 666
DepartmentofEnergy 317 152
DepartmentofDefense 218 58
DepartmentofState 165 13
DepartmentoftheAirForce 163 177
NewYorkState 142 228
GovernmentFundsviaSubcontractswithOtherInstitutions 8,457 8,621
MiscellaneousFederalFunds 12 99
Total Government Grants 47,335 38,864
PrivateGrants 1,459 1,046
Gifts 1,074 1,525
EndowmentIncome 3,987 4,217
Miscellenaeous 120 1,546
IndirectSources 657 515
Total Sources 54,633 47,713
Uses of Revenue
ResearchExpenses 27,878 27,490
InstructionandResearchSupport 3,838 3,257
GeneralandFinancialAdministration 3,346 3,503
OperationandMaintenanceofPlant 3,329 3,903
Equipment 6,542 1275
OtherInstruction-related 1,788 (1,313) (2)
InformationTechnology 818 614
ExternalAffairsandFundraising 681 710
DebtService 382 389
IndirectUses 4,374 5,506
Total Government Grants 52,976 44,884
Net Operating Gain/(Loss) 1,657 2,829
CapitalExpenses (590) (635)
TransfersfromEndowment 48 77
Subtotal Non-Operating Expenses (542) (558)
Beginning Fund Balance 6,665 7,727 (3)
Ending Fund Balance 7,780 9,998
NOTES:
(1)FY05NSFrevenuesinclude$5.4MforthepurchaseoftheLangsethand$4.5MshipoperationscoststhatarenotintheFY06amountduetotheconversionandreflaggingproject.SincetheconversionoftheLangsethisnotanoperatingactivitytheFY06costof$9.37MisnotincludedinthisStatementofActivities.(2)OtherInstruction-related—recoveriesforFY05cruisesarereflectedinFY06.Inaddition,acreditof$1.4MfromthesaleofseismicequipmentfromtheEwingisincludedintheFY06amount.(3)Anaccountwithabalanceof$53KwasincorrectlyincludedintheFY05endingfundbalances,andtheaccountwasmovedtoIRI.ThiscorrectionreducedtheFY06beginningfundbalancebyanequalamount.
1stRow[lefttoright]EdithMiller,VictoriaNazario,MaribelRespoandKarenHoffer2ndRow[lefttoright]RaymondLong,ThomasEberhard,PatrickO’ReillyandRichardGrecoCredit: Bruce Gilbert
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
52 STAFF LISTING 53STAFF LISTING
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Director’s Office
Purdy,G.Michael DirectorLehnert,KerstinA. AdministrativeDirectorforResearchWuerfel,Beverly CoordinatorTheurer,Janine AdministrativeAssistantTomsa,Violeta AdministrativeAssistant
Biology and Paleo Environment
Marra,JohnF. AssociateDirectorTiwari,Sandra DivisionAdministrator
SENIOR SCIENTIFIC STAFF
Cook,EdwardR. DohertySeniorScholarD’Arrigo,RosanneD. DohertySeniorResearchScientistdeMenocal,PeterB. AssociateProfessorEisenberger,Peter ProfessorFairbanks,RichardG. ProfessorGriffin,KevinL. AssociateProfessorHays,JamesD. ProfessorLiepert,BeateG. DohertyResearchScientistLouchouarn,Patrick AssociateProfessorMarra,JohnF. DohertySeniorScholarOlsen,PaulE. ArthurD.StorkeMemorialProfessorSambrotto,RaymondN. DohertyResearchScientistVanGeen,AlexanderF. DohertySeniorResearchScientist
JUNIOR SCIENTIFIC STAFF
Boelman,Natalie DohertyAssociateResearchScientistBuckley,BrendanM. DohertyAssociateResearchScientistJuhl,Andrew DohertyAssociateResearchScientistSubramaniam,Ajit DohertyAssociateResearchScientistVaillancourt,RobertD. DohertyAssociateResearchScientistWright,WilliamE. DohertyAssociateResearchScientist
POSTDOCTORAL STAFF
Hendy,EricaJ. PostDoctoralResearchScientistO’Mullan,Gregory PostDoctoralResearchScientist
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Arbuszewski,JenniferAlmasi,PeterF.Aziz,ZahidCao,LiDueker,EliGiallombardo,AndresHwang,SunnyH.Jones,MiriamC.Kirkwood,Gemma
Ksepka,DanielT.Levy,JenniferLi,JinbaoLiu,JunNesbitt,SterlingPederson,NeilSritrairat,SanpisaShapiro,JosslynTeneva,LidaWhiteside,Jessica
SPECIAL RESEARCH SCIENTIST
Hunkins,KennethL.Jacoby,GordonC.,Jr.Kukla,George
LDEO ADJUNCTS
Anderson,O.Roger AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistBarker,Stephen AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistBurckle,LloydH. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistCheng,Zhongqi AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistCherubini,Paolo AdjunctResearchScientistGastrich,MaryD. AdjunctResearchScientistKent,DennisV. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistKoutavas,Athanasios AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistLangdon,Christopher AdjunctResearchScientistLeTourneau,PeterM. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistLinsley,Braddock AdjunctResearchScientistLynch-Stieglitz,Jean AdjunctResearchScientistNachin,Baatarbileg AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistPeteet,DorothyM. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistRainforth,Emma AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistRose,Jerome AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistRousseau,Denis-Didier AdjunctResearchScientistSchuster,WilliamS.F. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistTissue,DavidT. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistTurnbull,MatthewH. AdjunctResearchScientistVillalba,Ricardo AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistWiles,GregoryC. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientist
STAFF OFFICERS OF RESEARCH
Gavin,JoyceE. StaffAssociateLotti,Ramona StaffAssociateMortlock,RichardA. SeniorStaffAssociate
SYSTEMS ANALYSTS / PROGRAMMERS
Ho,Cheng-Chuan SystemsAnalyst/ProgrammerPistolesi,LindaI. WebSpecialist
SUPPORT STAFF
Anest,NicholeA. SeniorResearchStaffAssistantBaker,LindaD. ResearchStaffAssistantButler,Sarah SeniorResearchStaffAssistantCurtis,AshleyE. ResearchStaffAssistantGriffith,HeatherE. ResearchStaffAssistantGuilfoyle,CarolannR. AdministrativeAssistantKrusic,PaulJ. ResearchStaffAssistantLozefski,George ResearchStaffAssistantMason,CedricW. ResearchStaffAssistantMayernik,AndreaN. ResearchStaffAssistantMones,KatherineC. AdministrativeAssistantPeters,Kenneth SeniorResearchStaffAssistantRees,Martha SeniorResearchStaffAssistantSaaby,Diana CasualSakulich,John SeniorResearchStaffAssistant
Geochemistry
Anderson,RobertF. AssociateDirectorTozer,Catherine DivisionAdministrator
SENIOR SCIENTIFIC STAFF
Anderson,RobertF. DohertySeniorScholar,Adjunct ProfessorBroecker,WallaceS. NewberryProfessorChillrud,StevenN. DohertyResearchScientistGoldstein,StevenL. ProfessorHemming,SidneyR. AssociateProfessorHoenisch,Barbel AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistKelemen,Peter ArthurD.StorkeMemorialProfessorLonghi,John DohertySeniorResearchScientistMcGillis,WadeR. DohertyResearchScientistSchlosser,Peter ProfessorSimpson,HarryJ.,Jr ProfessorSmethie,WilliamM.,Jr. DohertySeniorResearchScientistTakahashi,Taro DohertySeniorScholar AdjunctProfessorWalker,David Professor
JUNIOR SCIENTIFIC STAFF
Class,Cornelia DohertyAssociateResearchScientistHo,DavidT. DohertyAssociateResearchScientistKenna,Timothy DohertyAssociateResearchScientistMatter,JuergM. DohertyAssociateResearchScientistNewton,Robert AssociateResearchScientistSchaefer,JoergM. DohertyAssociateResearchScientistSorensen-Hanghoj,Karen AssociateResearchScientistStraub,SusanneM. AssociateResearchScientistVandeFlierdt,Christina-Maria DohertyAssociateResearchScientistWinckler,Gisela DohertyAssociateResearchScientist
POSTDOCTORAL STAFF
Chiu,Tzu-Chien PostdoctoralResearchScientistCole,Jennifer PostdoctoralResearchFellowDonnelly,KathleenE. PostdoctoralResearchScientistKaplan,Michael PostdoctoralResearchScientistKeimowitz,AlisonR. PostdoctoralResearchScientistKelly,MeredithA. PostdoctoralResearchFellowMachlus,Malka PostdoctoralResearchScientistPahnke,Katherina PostdoctoralResearchFellowTaber,Hersum PostdocotoralResearchFellowZimmerman,SusanR.H. PostdoctoralResearchScientist
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Ali,ShahlaBradtmiller,LouisaI.Buono,AntonioCai,YueCipriani,AnnaDowning,GregE.Du,WeiFranzese,AllisonM.Jones,KevinM.Loose,BriceSantella,NicholasSchmieder,PaulJ.Simons,KylaSpieler,AbigailR.VanTongeren,JillWall,AnnaWheeler,KevinT.Wovkulich,KarenZylberberg,David
SPECIAL RESEARCH SCIENTIST
Biscaye,PierreE.Bonatti,Enrico
LDEO ADJUNCTS
Bopp,RichardF. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistBory,AloysJ. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistBrueckner,HannesK. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistChaky,Damon PostdoctoralResearchScientistDenton,GeorgeH. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientist
Ebel,DentonS. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistGrousset,FrancisE. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistHales,BurkeR. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistHarlow,GeorgeE. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistHemming,N.Gary AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistHenderson,GideonM. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistHohmann,Roland AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistKavner,Abby AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistLangmuir,CharlesH. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistLiu,Tanzhuo AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistMandeville,CharlesW. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistMathez,EdmondA. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistRinterknecht,Vincent AdjunvtAssociateResearchScientistRutberg,RandyeL. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistShepherd,JohnG. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistStute,Martin AdjunctResearchScientistSweeney,Colm AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistTomascak,PaulB. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistTorgersen,ThomasL. AdjunctResearchScientistTurk,Daniella AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistWebster,JamesD. AdjunctResearchScientistZellmer,Georg AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistZheng,Yan AdjunctResearchScientist
STAFF OFFICERS OF RESEARCH
Fleisher,MartinQ. SeniorStaffAssociateNewberger,Timothy StaffAssociate-EngineerRoss,JamesM. StaffAssociateSchwartz,Roseanne StaffAssociate
SYSTEMS ANALYSTS / PROGRAMMERS
Lee,Hoyle SystemsAnalyst/ ProgrammerIntermediateSUPPORT STAFF
Baker,Linda ResearchStaffAssistantBenedetto,Karen AdministrativeAssistantBent,Jonathan ResearchStaffAssistantCatanzaro,PatriciaH. DraftsmanClark,ElizabethH. SeniorResearchStaffAssistantCriscione,DeborahC. AdministrativeAssistantCriscitiello,Alison LaboratoryTechnicianDachille,Anthony SeniorResearchStaffAssistantGorman,EugeneP. SeniorResearchStaffAssistantMalone,PatP/T SeniorResearchStaffAssistantMcNally,CharlesW. SeniorLabTechnicianMendelson,Mieczyslawa SeniorResearchStaffAssistantProtus,ThomasJ. SeniorElectronicTechnicianRollins,Nathan ResearchStaffAssistantSt.Clair,Moanna AdministrativeAssistantSutherland,StewartC. ResearchStaffScientist
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54 STAFF LISTING 55STAFF LISTING
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Marine Geology and GeophysicsWeissel,JeffreyK. AssociateDirectorOdland,SarahK. DivisionAdministrator
SENIOR SCIENTIFIC STAFF
Anderson,RogerN. DohertySeniorScholar, AdjunctProfessorBell,RobinE. DohertySeniorResearchScientistBuck,W.Roger DohertySeniorResearchScientist, AdjunctProfessorCarbotte,SuzanneM. DohertyResearchScientistCochran,JamesR. DohertySeniorResearchScientistGoldberg,DavidS. DohertySeniorResearchScientistHayes,DennisE. ProfessorKarner,Garry DohertySeniorResearchScientistKastens,KimA. DohertySeniorResearchScientist, AdjunctProfessorMalinverno,Alberto SeniorResearchScientistMutter,JohnC. ProfessorRyan,WilliamB.F. DohertySeniorScholar,Adjunct ProfessorSmall,Christopher DohertyResearchScientistSteckler,MichaelS. DohertySeniorResearchScientistTolstoy,Maria DohertyResearchScientistWeissel,JeffreyK. DohertySeniorScholar
JUNIOR SCIENTIFIC STAFF
Bohnenstiehl,DelWayneR. DohertyAssociateResearchScientistGoodwillie,Andrew AssociateResearchScientistGuerin,Gilles AssociateResearchScientistHiggins,Sean AssociateResearchScientistIshikawa,Toru AssociateResearchScientistIturrino,GerardoJ. AssociateResearchScientistNedimovic,Mladen DohertyAssociateResearchScientistNitsche,FrankO. DohertyAssociateResearchScientistStark,ColinP. DohertyAssociateResearchScientistStudinger,Michael DohertyAssociateResearchScientistWilliams,Trevor AssociateResearchScientist
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Baran,JanetM.Barbour,JonathanR.Bialis,RobCharles,JacobaCheng,ZhiguoCook,AnnGentry,RebeccaHolmes,ChadwickKumar,MohanaR.Leonard,KatherineNobel,JustinOpar,AlisaPatel,SamirQin,RanSlagle,AngelaL.Smith,AdrienneStroup,DanielleSzeto,KimmyTischer,Michael
SPECIAL RESEARCH SCIENTIST
Pitman,WalterC. AdjunctProfessorStoll,RobertD.
LDEO ADJUNCTS
Abbott,Dallas AdjunctResearchScientistClarke,GarryK.C. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistCormier,Marie-Helene AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistBlumberg,Daniel AdjunctResearchScientist
Driscoll,NealW. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistFlood,RogerD. AdjunctResearchScientistFloyd,Jackie AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistGaillot,Phillipe AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistHovius,Niels AdjunctResearchScientistKane,KimberleeS. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistMart,Joseph AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistMcHugh,CeciliaM. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistMello,UlissesT. AdjunctResearchScientistMountain,GregoryS. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistNagel,Thorsten AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistO’Connell,SuzanneB. AdjunctResearchScientistPfirman,StephanieL. AdjunctResearchScientistRobinson,Stuart AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistSorlien,ChristopherC. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistTaramelli,Andrea AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistWu,Chun-Chieh AdjunctResearchScientist
STAFF OFFICERS OF RESEARCH
Baker,TedN. SeniorStaffAssociateBrenner,Carl SeniorStaffAssociateBroglia-Malinverno,Cristina SeniorStaffAssociateChayes,DaleN. SeniorStaffAssociate-Lamont ResearchEngineerHolzman,Neil StaffAssociateKeogh,WilliamM. StaffAssociateMrozewski,Stephen StaffAssociate-EngineerMyers,GregoryJ. SeniorStaffAssociate-Senior EngineerIPerry,RichardS. StaffAssociateQuoidbach,DanielL. SeniorStaffAssociateReagan,MaryT. SeniorStaffAssociateSarker,GolamM. SeniorStaffAssociateWeekly,Robert StaffAssociate
SYSTEMS ANALYSTS / PROGRAMMERS
Alsop,JoyceM. SeniorSystemsAnalyst/ProgrammerArko,RobertA. LeadSystemsAnalyst/ProgrammerFishman,ArtemV. Systems&NetworkAnalyst/ ProgrammerMelkonian,Andrew SystemsAnalystO’Hara,SuzanneE. SeniorSystemsAnalyst/Programmer
SUPPORT STAFF
Anderson,Ronnie AdministrativeAssistantBarone,Deanna ResearchStaffAssistantMasterson,WalterA. JuniorMarineDevelopmentTechnicianMeyer,MarshaE. SecretaryMurray,JamesT. SeniorResearchStaffAssistantNagao,Kazuko DraftsmanPeragine,Regina AdministrativeAssistantTaylor,Felicia AdministrativeAssistantWeissel,RoseAnne SeniorResearchStaffAssistant
OFFICER OF ADMINISTRATION
Turrin,MargaretJ. EducationCoordinator
Ocean and Climate PhysicsGordon,ArnoldL. AssociateDirectorSobin-Smith,GilbertA. DivisionAdministrator
SENIOR SCIENTIFIC STAFF
Cane,MarkA. VetlesenProfessorofEarthand ClimateScienceChen,Dake DohertySeniorResearchScientistGordon,ArnoldL. ProfessorJacobs,StanleyS. DohertySeniorResearchScientistKaplan,Aleksey DohertyResearchScientistKushnir,Yochanan DohertySeniorResearchScientistMartinson,DouglasG. DohertySeniorResearchScientist, AdjunctProfessorOu,HsienWang DohertySeniorResearchScientist, AdjunctProfessorSeager,Richard DohertySeniorResearchScientistTing,Mingfang DohertySeniorResearchScientistYuan,Xiaojun DohertyResearchScientist
JUNIOR SCIENTIFIC STAFF
Curchitser,EnriqueN. DohertyAssociateResearchScientistHuang,Huei-Ping DohertyAssociateResearchScientistKhatiwala,SamarP. DohertyAssociateResearchScientistNaik,NaomiH. ResearchScientistRobertson,Robin DohertyAssociateResearchScientistThurnherr,AndreasM. DohertyAssociateResearchScientistTremblay,Bruno DohertyAssociateResearchScientistZappa,ChristopherJ. DohertyAssociateResearchScientist
POSTDOCTORAL STAFF
Biasutti,Michela PostdoctoralResearchScientistCullather,Richard PostdoctoralResearchFellowSmerdon,Jason PostdoctoralResearchFellow
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Boelman,NatalieT.Cherry,JessicaE.DeLosRios,NatashaEmile-Geay,JulienB.Gorodetskaya,IrinaV.Grass,DavidS.Guan,XiaoruiHerweijer,CelineIhara,ChieOrton,PhilipPujiana,KandagaStammerjohn,SharonE.Swann,AbigailTillinger,DebraWang,Daiwei
LDEO ADJUNCTS
Banner,MichaelL. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistClement,AmyC. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistDery,StephenJ. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistEvans,MichaelN. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistFfield,AmyL. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistGarzoli,SilviaL. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistGildor,Hezi AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistHall,AlexanderD. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistHellmer,HartmutH. AdjunctResearchScientistJenkins,Adrian AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistKamenkovich,VladimirM. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistReverdin,GillesP. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistStieglitz,Marc AdjunctResearchScientist
Tourre,YvesM. AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistVisbeck,Martin AdjunctSeniorResearchScientistWitter,DonnaL. AdjunctResearchScientistYou,JohnYuzhu AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistZambianchi,Enrico AdjunctResearchScientistZheng,Quanan AdjunctSeniorResearchScientist
STAFF OFFICERS OF RESEARCH
Giulivi,ClaudiaF. SeniorStaffAssociateHoughton,RobertW. SeniorStaffAssociateHuber,BruceA. SeniorStaffAssociateSusanto,R.Dwi SeniorStaffAssociateVelez,Jennifer StaffAssociateWang,Zhiren StaffAssociate
SYSTEMS ANALYSTS / PROGRAMMERS
Correa,GustavoP. LeadSystemsAnalyst/ProgrammerIannuzzi,RichardA. SystemsAnalyst/Programmer IntermediateLi,Cuihua SystemsAnalyst/ProgrammerMele,PhilipA. SeniorSystemsAnalyst/ProgrammerRosen,LawrenceS. SeniorSystemsAnalyst/Programmer
SUPPORT STAFF
Barry-Biss,LauraR. OutreachandGrantsCoordinatorDiBlasi-Morris,VirginiaM. SeniorSecretaryLichtblau,Laura AdministrativeAssistantManandhar,Deepa ResearchStaffAssistantTubiana,FelixA. ResearchStaffAssistant
Seismology, Geology and TectonophysicsLerner-Lam,ArthurL. AssociateDirectorBonkowski,BonnieJ. DivisionAdministrator
SENIOR SCIENTIFIC STAFF
Anders,MarkH. AssociateProfessorChristie-Blick,Nicholas ProfessorEkstrom,Goran ProfessorGaherty,JamesB. DohertyResearchScientistKim,Won-Young DohertySeniorResearchScientistKogan,MikhailG. DohertyResearchScientistLerner-Lam,ArthurL. DohertySeniorResearchScientist, AdjunctProfessor
[Bottomright]TrafficDepartment:(left-
right)Standing:PatAblesandJonathanChazen
Sitting:CarlBaez,ThomasEberhard,RobertDalyand
AntonioDeloatchNotPictured:MauriceMack
andJuanTorresCredit: Bruce Gilbert
LibrarySpecialists[lefttoright]WeiXiaoyue,ElizabethFish,MiriamColwellCredit: Bruce Gilbert
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2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Menke,WilliamH. ProfessorRichards,PaulG. MellonProfessorofNaturalScienceScholz,ChristopherH. ProfessorSeeber,Leonardo DohertySeniorResearchScientistShaw,BruceE. DohertyResearchScientistSpiegelman,MarcW. AssociateProfessorSykes,LynnR. HigginsProfessorEmeritusofEarth andEnvironmentalScienceWaldhauser,Felix DohertyResearchScientistWebb,SpahrC. PalisadesGeophysicalInstitute SeniorResearchScientist, AdjunctProfessorXie,Jiakang DohertyResearchScientist
JUNIOR SCIENTIFIC STAFF
Barclay,Andrew AssociateResearchScientistSchaff,DavidP. DohertyAssociateResearchScientist
POSTDOCTORAL STAFF
Ando,Ryosuke PostdoctoralResearchFellow- ExternallyFundedCommins,Deirdre PostdoctoralResearchFellowHelmstetter,Agnes PostdoctoralResearchFellowHoltzman,Ben PostdoctoralResearchFellowHong,Tae-Kyung PostdoctoralResearchScientistKlose,Christian PostdoctoralResearchFellow- ExternallyFundedMilsch,Harold PostdoctoralResearchFellow- ExternallyFundedNettles,Meredith PostdoctoralResearchScientistNooner,Scott PostdoctoralResearchScientistPersaud,Patricia PostdoctoralResearchFellowWilson,Charles PostdoctoralResearchScientist
GRADUATE STUDENTS
Abend,HannahBach,DaliaCollier,MartinKarcz,ZviKostov,VeselinMadof,AndrewNewman,KoriRenik,ByrdieWalker,ChristopherD.Zhang,Jiang
SPECIAL RESEARCH SCIENTIST
Jacob,KlausH.
LDEO ADJUNCTS
Aharonov,Einat AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistCormier,Marie-Helene AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistLevin,VadimL. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistPassow,MichaelJ. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistPekar,StephenF. AdjunctAssociateResearchScientistSteblov,Grigory AdjunctResearchScientist
STAFF OFFICERS OF RESEARCH
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Kakascik,Robert TechnicalCoordinatorVitelli,Michael TechnicalCoordinator
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FrontRow[lefttoright]:GerardCarroll,EricSoto,MonicaCalungcaginandRickTrubirohaBackRow[lefttoright]:CharlesJones,KevinSullivan,BruceBaez,DickGrecoandLennySullivan(notpictured:JoeCasilli,HerbMuench,JackieMurray,RaySlavinandDougYano)Credit: Bruce Gilbert
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Overthepasttwoyears,ourcommunitylostthreeofitsgiants:GerardBond,MarieTharpandWilliamHaxby.
EVERY SO OFTEN SCIENTISTS COME ALONG WHO VIEW THE WORLDwith a fresh, creative perspective and, by doing so, fundamentally change ourviewof theworld.Lamont-Dohertyseemstoattractmorethan itsshareofsci-entistslikethat.Overthepasttwoyears,ourcommunitylostthreesuchintellectualgiants:GerardBond,MarieTharpandWilliamHaxby. Bond,whodiedinJune2005,wastrainedasaclassicgeologistandspentthe first half of his career studying continental rock formations, tectonics andgeologichistory.Inthelate1980s,seekinganewwaytostudybandingpatternsincontinentalrocks,hetestedgeologictechniquesonadeep-seasedimentcoreintheLamont-DohertyDeep-SeaSampleRepository.Thetestrevealeddistinct,narrowbandsthatseemedtomatchacyclicrecordofabruptchangesinpastairtemperaturescalledDansgaard/Oeschgercycles. “IhadneverheardofDansgaard/Oeschgercycles,butbytheearly1990s,Ihadshiftedmyresearchfromrockstodeep-seamud,”saidBond.“Fortunately,inNorthAtlanticdeep-seacores…Isawsomethingfamiliar.” Whathefoundweretiny,iron-stainedquartzgrainsthathekneworiginatedfromrock formations ineasternCanada.Theyhadbeen frozen intomovingglaciersandfloatedouttoseawithvastarmadasoficebergs.Astheicebergsmelted,thegrainsfelltotheseafloor. Bondshowedthatthetimingoftheseicebergarmadascoincidedwithrapidlywarmingandcoolingclimatefluctuationsthatoccurredevery1,400to1,500years.He painstakingly traced these cycles forward from 100,000 years ago throughEarth’smostrecent iceageandfoundthattheyalsopunctuatedthepast10,000years,when icesheetsno longercovered theplanet.ThesefluctuationsarenowknownasBondcycles. Bondandhiscolleaguesthenanalyzedtheeffectofcosmicraysondeep-seacores. Their research turned up evidence for a theory—still being explored—thatsmall changes in thesun’ssunspotactivityand radiationoutputcouldbedrivingthesedramaticandabrupt1,500-yearcyclesofclimatechange. “Gerard brought his expertise into a entirely new field and changed the waypeoplethoughtaboutthatfield”saidJerryMcManus,Bond’sformergraduatestudentwhoisnowapaleoceanographeratWoodsHoleOceanographicInstitution.
Few people changed the field of earth sciences or our understanding of ourplanetasdramaticallyasMarieTharp,whodied inAugust2006.Sheblazedtwotrailsintounexploredterritories:Asascientist,shecreatedthefirstmapsthatrevealedthepreviouslyhiddenandunknownseafloor;asawoman,shealsoprovidedapioneeringrolemodelforwomenintheearthsciences. TharpjoinedtheColumbiastaffin1948,ayearbeforeLamontwasfoundedbyMauriceEwing,whohiredhermoreforherdraftingabilitiesthanhermaster’sdegreesingeologyandmath.Forthenextseveralyears,sheandhercolleagueBruce Heezen systematically and meticulously plotted seafloor sounding data,pointbypoint,tocreateseafloormapsofunprecedenteddetailandaccuracy.
5 8 IN MEMORIAM
Gerard Bond(1940–2005). Credit: Raymond Bradley
Marie Tharp(1920–2006).Credit: Bruce Gilbert
William Haxby(1949–2006).Credit: Miriam Colwell
2004–2006 BIENNIAL REPORT Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory The Earth Institute at Columbia University
Throughherwork,TharprevealedthefirstevidencethattheMid-AtlanticRidgewasbisectedbyariftvalley,adiscoverythatHeezeninitiallydismissedas“girltalk”because itshookthepervadingbelief thatcontinentaldriftwasscientificheresy.Soon after, Tharp and Heezen provided the first comprehensive look at one ofEarth’smostdramaticgeologicalfeatures—theglobe-encircling,40,000mile–longmid-oceanridgesystem. Over the course of 30 years, Tharp and Heezen collected thousands ofsoundingstocreatethefirstglobaloceanfloormap,givingthefirstvisualimageofthespectacularseascapethat,untilthen,hadremainedbeyondhumanview.Soonafter,themid-oceanridgesystemwasdiscoveredtobethesiteofseafloorspreading,whichhelpedsupport thegrowingbelief thatcontinentsdriftacrossthefaceoftheEarth. TharpandHeezen’sWorldOceanFloormap,published in1977,washistoricandheroic,butitnecessarilycontainedgapsandeducatedguessesinplaceswhereshipsnevercollectedsoundings.Sixyearslater,WilliamHaxby,whodiedinJanuary2006,madeaspectacularleapinseafloormap-making. In a flashof insight, hegatheredmeasurementsof tinyheight variationsovertheoceansurfacethathadbeenrecordedbytheSeasatsatellite.Thesevariationsarecausedbymassivefeaturessuchassubmarinemountains,whichattractwatertowardthem,creatingmoundsofwateronthesurfaceabovethem.Bycontrast,featuressuchastrenchesandcanyonsleaveminisculedipsintheseasurface. Haxbydevisedacomputerprogramtoconvertthemassiveamountsofdataintoanexquisitetopographicmapthatdisplayedtheseafloorasiftheoceanshadbeendrainedaway.Thedataspannedtheentireocean,includingplaceswhereshipshadnevertraveledandguidedoceanographicexpeditionsfordecadestocome. HaxbywasanearlypioneerinusingcomputerstovisualizeEarth.Inthe1990s,heandLincolnPratsontransformedbathymetricdatacollectedbyNOAAintovisuallyandscientificallystunningimagesoftheU.S.continentalslope.Mostrecently,hecreatedasoftwareapplicationcalledGeoMapApp(http://www.marine-geo.org/geomapapp)thatenablespeopletoviewseafloorimagesonvirtuallyanycomputer. KevinVranes,whoearnedaPh.D. at Lamont-Doherty in 2003and is nowavisitingfellowattheUniversityofColorado,wroteinatributetoHaxby:“EverydayIwould…trudgeupthehilltotheOceanographybuilding,openthedoor,andtheretogreetme,startingatme,unavoidable,wasBillHaxby’smap.ItishungdeadcenterofthehallwaythatallenteringtheOceanographybuildingbythemainentrancemustwalktoward.…Passingthemapmanytimeseveryday,itheldaverystarkmessagetome:‘Greatandoriginalthingshavebeendoneinthisplace.…You’reheretotrytobegreat,too.’”
Credit[toptobottom]: Rusty Lotti Bond, Lamont Archive, Rusty Lotti Bond, Miriam Colwell, Steve Sagala
A GPS station on the Helheim Glacier in East Greenland placed by Meredith Nettles and her colleagues to monitor movement of the glacier during the summer of 2006. Credit: Meredith Nettles
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its: © D
ee Breger, B
ruce Gilb
ert, Carlos G
utierrez