Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

05/28/2026

🪟 In fall 2025, the Rockland Audubon Society (RAS) helped fund the installation of bird strike deterrents on windows at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

🐦 On May 17, nine RAS members visited campus for a 4-hour bird walk that stepped off at 6:30am, and by 8am, had observed no less than 215 Cedar Waxwings flying over in multiple flocks of 10 to 80 individuals!

🪺 Other highlights included Blackburnian and Tennessee Warblers, Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Swainsons’s Thrush, Orchard and Baltimore Orioles, Scarlet Tanager, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and Eastern Wood-Pewee. It also appeared that all four Tree Swallow nest boxes were active. In total, the group saw or heard 44 species!

💚 Learn more about Lamont's campus stewardship efforts:
https://lamont.columbia.edu/leisc

📷 Courtesy of Gino Ver Eecke

1. Rockland Audubon Society visitors
2. Baltimore Oriole
3. Swainson's Thrush
4. Tree Swallow on nest box
5. Orchard Oriole
6. Northern Mockingbird
7. American Robin on nest
8. Common Yellowthroat
9. Cedar Waxwings and Red-winged Blackbird

05/28/2026

🐟 🐟 🐟 Each spring, the Hudson River is alive with migratory fish species that are drawn into the protective waters of the estuary as part of their reproduction ritual, moving between the ocean and connected estuaries in a carefully timed rhythm.

🗓️ On Saturday May 30, World Fish Migration Day, join scientists and educators at multiple locations along the lower Hudson River Estuary to celebrate the vital role played by estuaries in the life cycle of many ocean fish species.

⛵ One site is our Hudson River Field Station () in Piermont, NY, where you can join us 12-4pm to take part in the Lower Hudson & Harbor Fish Count! From silvery Atlantic silverside and bay anchovy to mummichog and Atlantic menhaden to the lined seahorse and northern stargazers, come discover some of the 235 species that have been identified in the Hudson River Estuary.

➡️ Learn more via State of the Planet:
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2026/05/27/join-us-on-may-30-to-celebrate-hudson-river-world-fish-migration-day/

📷 Educators and participants scan the net for species at World Fish Migration Day. Credit: Hudson River Field Station

05/27/2026

Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet may have been far smaller during one of Earth’s most recent warm periods, according to a new study co-authored by Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory geochemist Sarah Aarons.

The study analyzed dust trapped in a coastal Antarctic ice core that captures the Last Interglacial (warm) period, approximately 129,000 to 116,000 years ago. Dust particles carry chemical signatures that reveal their origins, which allows researchers to trace how dust sources around the Ross Sea changed as the climate warmed.

“We found a volcanic signature rarely seen before in Antarctic ice from a warm period, and it was really perplexing at first. Seeing volcanic rock material in the dust record suggested that parts of the Ross Sea region may have been exposed during that warm period,” said Aarons.

Climate simulations support the findings, raising concerns about future West Antarctic Ice Sheet stability and its potential to contribute 3–5 meters of global sea-level rise.

“If we know that during the Last Interglacial we probably had little or no Ross Ice Shelf and a diminished West Antarctic Ice Sheet, it may not bode well for future West Antarctic ice sheet stability,” said Aarons.

Published in Nature Geoscience, the study's lead author is Austin Carter, a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University.

Learn more: https://lamont.columbia.edu/news/ancient-antarctic-dust-reveals-signs-diminished-ross-ice-shelf

📷 A drill tent at the Allan Hills Blue Ice Area in East Antarctica. Photo: Austin Carter

05/24/2026

If you've been wondering how to avoid microplastics in everyday life, your laundry room is an important place to start.

An average three-pound load of laundry sheds hundreds of thousands of microfibers into the sewer system, where they slip undetected past water chemical treatment plants and enter river and ocean ecosystems.

"We believe that the laundering of clothes and the effluents that are released from washing machines are the biggest source of microplastic fibers in our waterways," says Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory biological oceanographer Joaquim Goes.

The good news is that a few simple changes can help cut down on the amount of microplastics your household sends into the air and waterways.

Learn more via Miami Herald.

If you've been wondering how to avoid microplastics in everyday life, your laundry room is a surprisingly important place to start.

05/23/2026

For roughly 45 million years, the eastern section of the African continental plate has been slowly pulling apart like a giant zipper. While most models suggest that it should continue to unzip sequentially from north to south, new research by Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory's Christian Rowan, Folarin Kolawole, Anne Bécel, and colleagues finds that a region in the middle of the zipper is on the verge of splitting open in a process called necking.

“This was the only known rift that was undergoing necking along the entire East African Rift System, or in the world. But based on ongoing work, there is evidence that there are other segments that are at the onset of necking in the East African Rift System,” said co-author Kolawole.

Learn more via American Geophysical Union (AGU) Eos:

The Turkana Rift Zone in Kenya entered a critical stage in continental breakup about 4 million years ago.

05/20/2026

📣 Job Alert! Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in Palisades, New York seeks a postdoctoral research scientist in the broad area at the intersection of radiation, circulation, and the structure of Earth’s atmosphere.

➡️ Learn more/apply and please share! https://academic.careers.columbia.edu/ #!/183751

The postdoc will build on recent theoretical progress in understanding how the composition and spectroscopy of Earth’s atmosphere determine atmospheric structure and the response to perturbations.

Specific projects will depend on mutual interest but could include developing insights into the surface radiation budget, investigating relationships between radiation and circulations across a range of scales, and generalizing this emerging understanding of Earth’s atmosphere to other planets within and beyond the solar system (e.g., exoplanets).

📷 Clouds at sunrise over the Atlantic Ocean near Barbados during the ATOMIC field experiment. Credit: Robert Pincus

Columbia University Columbia Climate School

05/19/2026

🏆 Congratulations to our 2026 Excellence in Scientific Mentoring awardee Dorothy Peteet, Excellence in Technical Mentoring awardee James Ross, and Community Impact awardee Jacqueline Austermann for their outstanding contributions to the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory community!

🌟 These awards reflect the importance of mentorship, collaboration, and community when building a thriving academic and research institution. The willingness to guide, support, and invest in others is what helps create an environment where people can grow, innovate, and succeed together.

📷 Excellence in Scientific Mentoring awardee Dorothy Peteet with LDEO interim director Steve Goldstein.

📷 Excellence in Technical Mentoring awardee James Ross with LDEO interim director Steve Goldstein.

📷 Community Impact awardee Jacky Austermann with LDEO interim director Steve Goldstein.

➡️ Learn more: https://lamont.columbia.edu/about/lamont-awards

05/15/2026

Scientists estimate that Indonesia will lose its two remaining glaciers by 2030, joining Venezuela and Slovenia on the list of countries that have lost all of their glaciers.

Tropical glaciers are among the first to go extinct because of their smaller size. Longer and colder winters at higher latitudes often preserve glaciers there, delaying retreat. However, tropical glaciers serve as a warning for glaciers around the world. “The glaciers here could be considered the canary in the coal mine—especially for countries with a small amount of glacial ice to begin with,” says Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory geologist Mike Kaplan.

The rise in global temperatures has directly contributed to global glacier melt combined with El Niño conditions that have dramatically increased glacier melt. “For Papua, it becomes dry and warm during El Niño, which means less snow at high elevations and more melting. Both can be a death knell, especially to a small glacier,” says Kaplan.

The loss of these glaciers is not only a serious environmental concern, but also a significant cultural loss for many Indigenous Papuan communities for whom the glaciers are sacred.

Learn more via Via GlacierHub/State of the Planet (link in bio).
https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2026/05/14/indonesia-may-soon-lose-its-last-glaciers/

📷 Aerial view of remaining glacial ice on Puncak Jaya, Papua. Credit: BMKG

05/15/2026

👏 Congratulations to Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory climate scientist Marco Tedesco, co-author of a in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres on behalf of the American Geophysical Union (AGU), ranked within the top 10% of most-viewed papers published by the journal in 2024!

A large portion of melt from the Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) comes from regions with dark bare ice, because dark ice absorbs more incoming sunlight than regions with bright snow. This study provides a more accurate method for determining the reflectivity of bare ice regions, which had been overestimated by previous methods, thereby underestimating how much melt comes from the bare ice regions on the GrIS. More accurate methods for determining the reflectivity of bare ice regions will ultimately lead to improved estimates of sea-level rise.

➡️ Learn more via Wiley in research:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2023JD040241

05/14/2026

In a tradition honoring , Lamonters hopped on their bikes to commute from both sides of the Hudson to the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory campus in Palisades, NY.

Manhattanites cycled up Riverside Drive and over the George Washington Bridge then along the river and onto Route 9W, while the Bike-to-Work group from Nyack/Piermont rode along the old railway trail high above the Hudson River then up through Tallman Mountain State Park to Lamont.

What a scenic, green way to commute in the company of friends and colleagues, highlighting alternatives to fossil fuel-powered vehicles!