Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

09/03/2026

💬 “Most observatories don't even try to put instruments right on the rim of the volcano, and yet, there are unique signals that can be picked up when instruments are that close to the action.”
— Terry Plank, Volcanologist, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

Research Highlights
🌋 Wiring the Spirit's House
🌧️ The Changing Shape of Extreme Rain in the U.S.
🌡️ Long-Term Study Suggests Landfill Methane Emissions Are Far Higher Than Estimates

Opportunities to Participate
🐟 Science Saturdays: Join us Saturdays through Sep 26 (12–4pm) at LDEO Hudson River Field Station in Piermont, NY for hands-on, family-friendly activities!
🗓️ LDEO Open House: Join us on Saturday Oct 17 for our biggest, best science fun and discovery event of the year on our beautiful campus in Palisades, NY.
🤝 Columbia Giving Day: Support LDEO science on Wednesday Oct 28!

➡️ Learn more: https://createsend.com/t/d-7DD2E4329A3731FA2540EF23F30FEDED

📩 Subscribe: lamont.columbia.edu/news/newsletter

📷 Each summer, undergraduates in the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory summer intern programs experience cutting-edge scientific research under the mentorship of our Earth, atmospheric, oceanic, and environmental scientists. Here, our 2026 summer undergraduate interns at LDEO with Mike Kaplan, Dallas Abbott, and Laisa Sevilla. Credit: William Menke

09/01/2026

💡 Today I Discovered (TID): Working Toward Solutions for Mitigating Harmful Algal Blooms

Mira Agarwal, a high school student at The Brearley School in New York City, has spent the past two summers conducting research in The Goes-Gomes Lab, helping better understand how harmful algal blooms (HABs) in New York’s freshwater lakes can be controlled and mitigated.

Through carefully designed laboratory experiments, Mira is testing environmentally friendly approaches to suppress Microcystis, a major bloom-forming cyanobacterium, while minimizing impacts on other freshwater organisms. Each experiment brings us closer to safe, effective, and sustainable strategies for HAB mitigation.

This work reflects Columbia University’s Fourth Purpose—putting knowledge in service of society. By engaging young scientists in research that addresses real environmental challenges, we are connecting scientific discovery with practical solutions to protect New York’s freshwater resources and the communities that depend on them.

Learn more about this work and The Goes-Gomes Lab: https://www.thegoes-gomeslab.org

📷 Mira Agarwal in The Goes-Gomes Lab. Credit: Joaquim I. Goes

📷 Water samples for lab experiments on suppressing harmful algal blooms. Credit: Joaquim I. Goes

📷 Microcystis, a major bloom-forming cyanobacterium. Credit: Joaquim I. Goes

📷 Mira Agarwal in the lab running an experiment on the harmful algal bloom Microcystis. Credit: Joaquim I. Goes

📷 Water before and after treatment for mitigating algal blooms. Credit: Joaquim I. Goes

08/31/2026

Josie Brooks, a 2025 intern in the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Polar Climate Ambassadors program (lamont.columbia.edu/education-outreach/polar-climate-ambassadors), reflects on an exhibit at Maine’s The Peary-MacMillan Arctic Museum, which explores Inuit food traditions, hunting, art, and community.

"As Polar Climate Ambassadors, we work to expand polar literacy because learning about the polar regions changes how we view northern communities, the planet, and our own future. My internship experience deepened my appreciation for how this museum exhibit draws connections between climate and environmental changes and the social and cultural life of the Arctic peoples and brings this information to the wider public," writes Brooks.

Learn more: https://lamont.columbia.edu/news/polar-climate-ambassador-visits-arctic-museum-maine

08/29/2026

Global cooperation by scientists revealed a landslide, not a glacial collapse, likely initiated the cascade of events causing the devastating flood in Tibet and Nepal.

Among them, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory seismologist Göran Ekström used data from the Global Seismographic Network and LDEO algorithms to find that the Lhende Khola landslide "was one of the largest in the last decade or two in the world.” Cloud-free satellite imagery later confirmed the huge rock landslide. “The glacier just came along for the ride,” Ekström says.

“Landslides have been occurring as long as the mountains have been building,” Ekström says. But “in areas where glaciers are disappearing, these landslides are occurring more frequently.”

Learn more via Science.

Global cooperation revealed a landslide, not a glacial collapse, likely initiated the cascade of events

08/26/2026

Extreme precipitation events are among the most damaging natural disasters and a major concern in our changing climate.

What is the total area of the US affected, and how have these patterns changed over the last several decades? A study by led by PhD student Trinish Chatterjee of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory reveals some unexpected trends.

Learn more: https://lamont.columbia.edu/news/changing-shape-extreme-rain-us

The study, published in Geophysical Research Letters, was authored by Trinish Chatterjee, Adam Sobel, Radley Horton, all from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, and Danielle Touma of the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics.

08/24/2026

💡 Today I Discovered (TID): The Goes-Gomes Lab

The Secret Life of Noctiluca Scintillans: Understanding Symbiosis One Cell at a Time

Aquatic symbioses are central to marine and freshwater ecosystems, yet we know remarkably little about how many symbiotic partnerships begin, how partners recognize one another, and what determines whether an ingested microbe is digested as prey or retained as a functional symbiont.

At Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, biological oceanographers Joaquim I. Goes and Helga Gomes are using Noctiluca scintillans, a mixotrophic dinoflagellate, as a model for addressing these questions because it occurs as a heterotrophic, plastid-free red form without stable photosymbionts and as a green form created by an exclusive partnership with a green alga.

Learn more about this work and The Goes-Gomes Lab: https://www.thegoes-gomeslab.org

📷 Inside the single-celled Noctiluca scintillans. Credit: Francesca Giorgio

📷 Francesca Giorgio, a high school student from Dalton Academy in NYC, is studying what drives symbiosis in Noctiluca scintillans. Credit: Joaquim I. Goes

08/19/2026

Scientists have found that people are being exposed to more toxins from wildfire smoke than previously known. “It’s a bit of a young field” but recent research is compelling, says Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory climate scientist Dan Westervelt. Via The New York Times.

Scientists have found that people are being exposed to more toxins than previously known.

08/13/2026

Heat, cold, snow, and wildfire smoke in NYC have translated into eviction delays, giving tenants temporary respite to stay in their homes. Climate scientist Daniel Bader of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory breaks down the extreme weather events of 2026. Via Curbed.

Extreme weather — plus the Knicks parade — brought a jump in postponements.

08/12/2026

🌋 Volcanologists Terry Plank and Einat Lev of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory with the AVERT team and Chilean colleagues have brought real-time monitoring to Villarrica, one of Chile’s most active and dangerous volcanoes.

The indigenous Mapuche people call the volcano Rukapillán, often translated as “house of the spirits” or, less generously, “the demon’s house,” which may better convey Villarrica's long record of eruptions and the challenges it posed to this expedition from power-system troubles to washed-out roads to helicopter weight limits to sharp rock, high winds, and corrosive gas.

Despite that, the team aimed to make Villarrica the most wired remote crater rim on the planet. “Most observatories don’t even try to put instruments right on the rim, and yet, there are unique signals that can be picked up when instruments are that close to the action,” Plank says.

Months later, the sensors have done what the team hoped they would do: survive. They have continued sending data from the top of Villarrica to help make forecasts of future eruptions more accurate and give more time to act.

Learn more via State of the Planet: https://news.climate.columbia.edu/2026/08/10/wiring-the-spirits-house/

📷 by Francesco Fiondella:

🔶 Terry Plank disembarks from the helicopter at the site where the majority of the instruments are being installed.

🔶 Each day, the helicopter would make nearly a dozen trips from the base camp to the rim, hauling everything from cement bags to heavy equipment, tools, solar panels, and the 32 lead-acid batteries that would provide continuous power to the instruments.

🔶 A gas plume from the crater heads toward the main instrument site, where team members were working to set up the thermal and visual cameras. Solar panels (left) were bolted to steel A-frames, hopefully strong enough to withstand wind and the weight of snow and ice.

🔶 Conor Bacon and Einat Lev test the thermal camera before installing it in its aluminum casing. The computer and other electronics will be stored in rugged plastic boxes, which will sit directly on the rim surface.

08/11/2026

Seismologist Eric Beaucé of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory joins CBS News to explain how location played a role in Colombia's 7.4- magnitude earthquake that took place on Aug 10.

The powerful earthquake that hit Colombia on Monday slammed the country because of its location near the "Ring of Fire" area. Eric Beaucé, a research scientist at Columbia Climate School, has more.