News Archive

2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 | 2001

REPORTS FROM THE FIELD 12/23/03

CAT/SCAN -- A Joint American-Italian Project to Monitor Earthquakes on the Most Active Seismic Belt in Italy

Researchers from the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, in conjunction with the Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, are working to deploy 50 land and 10 ocean seismographs over the next month to collect seismic data about the Calabrian Arc, which extends down the Italian Peninsula through Calabria, and across Sicily toward Tunisia. Calabria, the toe of the Italian Peninsula, is part of the most active seismic belt in Italy and has a high earthquake hazard. The Messina earthquake of 1908 killed over 100,000 people.
12/23/03

Black Soot and Snow: A Warmer Combination

New research from NASA and Columbia University scientists suggests emissions of black soot alter the way sunlight reflects off snow. According to a computer simulation, black soot may be responsible for 25 percent of observed global warming over the past century. Researchers say the ice fields on Africa's highest mountain, Mt. Kilimanjaro, shown at right in a Landsat satellite image from February 2000, shrank by 80 percent in the past century.
12/18/03

Study Finds Evidence for Global Methane Release About 600 Million Years Ago

Scientists at the University of California, Riverside and Columbia University have found evidence of the release of an enormous quantity of methane gas as ice sheets melted at the end of a global ice age about 600 million years ago, possibly altering the ocean's chemistry, influencing oxygen levels in the ocean and atmosphere, and enhancing climate warming because methane is a powerful greenhouse gas. The study was published in today's issue of the journal Nature.
12/08/03

Select Presentations by Columbia University Scientists at the Annual American Geophysical Union Meeting, December 8 to 12, 2003, San Francisco, California

Presentation topics include earthquakes, carbon sequestration, gender diversity in geosciences, and climate modeling. For a full list of Columbia University scientists associated with the Earth Institute who are presenting and their topics, click here. They include researchers from the Center for International Earth Science Information Network, the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), and the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI).
12/03/03

Columbia University Researcher Links Climate to the Quality of the World's Most Cherished Violins

There has been considerable debate surrounding the reasons why instruments crafted in the late 17th and early 18th centuries are tonally superior to modern instruments. Theories range from the skill of the craftsman to secret techniques such as a special varnish, the drying of the wood, the storage time, or even the use of old wood from historic structures. Lloyd Burckle of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University, and Henri Grissino-Mayer of the Laboratory of Tree Ring Science, University of Tennessee, have proposed an alternate hypothesis -- climate. Their research was published in the journal Dendrochronologia.
11/19/03

By the Year 2050, Human Population Could Add 2.6 Billion People, Reports Rockefeller Scientist Joel E. Cohen

It took from the beginning of time until 1950 to put the first 2.5 billion people on the planet. Yet in the next half-century, an increase that exceeds the total population of the world in 1950 will occur.
11/18/03

Iceland's President Cites Sustainability as Secret of Success

At an Earth Institute workshop on Sustainable Fisheries at Columbia University last week, President Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson of Iceland constructed an inspiring case study of his country's success. Fishing is sometimes seen as a backwards, regional type of industry, he noted, but in Iceland it is the foundation of what has become an economy with one of the highest per capita incomes and life expectancies in the world.
11/18/03

Dr. Shahid Naeem, Expert in Biodiversity Research, Joins CERC and E3B

Dr. Shahid Naeem, an expert in biodiversity research, has joined the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation, and the Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Biology department.
11/18/03

Dr. Steve Zebiak Named Director General of IRI

Dr. Steve Zebiak has been named Director General of the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI), it was announced last week. Dr. Zebiak has been serving as Interim Director of the IRI for the past two years. He continues to serve as director of climate modeling and predictions research.
11/17/03

Conference on Dominican-American Relations Addresses Topics of Trade, Poverty, and Education

With more than 300 participants, including former Dominican Republic President Leonel Fernández (above, left), and Dr. Joaquin Vial from the Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development (above, right), the conference's presentations and discussions sparked fruitful and provocative interchange about development challenges both in the Dominican Republic and in the Dominican community overseas.
11/17/03

Urban Sustainability Gets a Boost at CUBES Conference

Public policy for environmental conservation can be constructed explicitly to alleviate poverty, according to presenters from the CUBES-Capetown Urban Biosphere Group at the recent conference Urban Biosphere and Society: Partnership of Cities.
11/14/03

NOAA/Columbia University Establish Cooperative Institute For Climate Applications And Research

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Columbia University in Palisades, N.Y., have established a cooperative institute to study climate applications and research. NOAA is an agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce.
11/14/03

NASA Awards $20 million to Columbia University to Support Use of Remote Sensing

The Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) at Columbia University’s Earth Institute has received a five-year, $20 million contract from the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to operate the NASA Socioeconomic Data and Applications Center (SEDAC) in support of the application of remote sensing data in research and decision-making.
11/11/03

GPS Measurements Reveal Imprint of North American Plate in Siberia

Two Columbia University researchers, in collaboration with scientists in Russia and the U.S., recently resolved a decades-old debate when they discovered that the boundary between the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates passes through Eastern Siberia. The study carried out by Mikhail Kogan and Christopher Scholz at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Grigory Steblov and Dmitry Frolov of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Robert King at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Roland Bürgmann of the University of California, Berkeley appeared in a recent issue of Geophysical Research Letters.
11/10/03

Wanted: Innovations to Feed the Hungry, Reward Offered

Most people who die from hunger were farmers out of necessity -- born in rural areas, with no other resources with which to earn a living. When a farm family’s production falls short of their own food needs, they fall into a downward spiral of malnutrition, ill-health, and even lower production.
10/31/03

Presentations by Columbia University Scientists at the 115th Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America: November 2 to 5, 2003, Seattle, Washington

A recent study conducted by oceanographers Taro Takahashi and Stewart Sutherland from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) and Richard Feely and Cathy Cosca from the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) indicates the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) measured in surface waters dramatically changed after the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) phase shift in the Pacific Ocean that occurred around 1990.
10/30/03

Release of Carbon Dioxide From the Equatorial Pacific Ocean Intensified During the 1990s

A recent study conducted by oceanographers Taro Takahashi and Stewart Sutherland from Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) and Richard Feely and Cathy Cosca from the NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) indicates the partial pressure of CO2 (pCO2) measured in surface waters dramatically changed after the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) phase shift in the Pacific Ocean that occurred around 1990.
10/24/03

Columbia Researchers Improve Remote Mapping Techniques For Rapid Assessment of Disaster Zones

Research by scientists at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University shows that Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) polarimetry is a more superior technology for rapidly identifying disaster zones than the currently used optical remote sensing technologies, such as Landsat and SPOT. Their findings are published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, and coincide with an opportunity to outfit satellites scheduled for deployment in 2004 with SAR polarimetry instruments.
10/24/03

Columbia Researchers Discover Currents Connecting Pacific and Indian Oceans Are Colder and Deeper Than Expected

Scientists at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory have found that currents connecting the Indian and Pacific Oceans are colder and deeper than originally believed. This discovery may one day help climate modelers predict the intensity of the Asian monsoon or El Niño with greater accuracy and with more lead-time than is currently possible. Watch animation of Indonesian throughflow (ITF)
10/20/03

Seasonal Climate Predictions Can Benefit Society

Although seasonal climate predictions will always be probabilistic and therefore have inherent uncertainty, they can be used effectively to save dollars and lives. That was the major finding from a two-day policy forum hosted on April 23-24, 2003 by the American Meteorological Society (AMS), in collaboration with the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
10/16/03

Arctic Researcher and Longtime Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Scientist Receives Polar Society Medallion

Dr. Kenneth Hunkins, Special Research Scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, was awarded the American Polar Society Medallion for his lifelong research in the Arctic region. Dr. Hunkins was on the first IGY Arctic floating "Station Alpha" (where he is pictured at right, circa 1957) when celestial navigation (instead of satellites and Global Positioning System) was used to tell if the floating ice station had drifted out of range for supply drops. The Alpha station was the first to discover the Alpha Rise, a submarine ridge named for the ice camp, using the Precision Depth Recorder invented by Maurice Ewing, the founder of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
10/09/03

New Study Ties African Drought to Ocean Temperatures

A strong link has been confirmed between sea surface temperatures and precipitation in Africa’s semi-arid Sahel, according to a new study published in Science on October 9th. The study was co-authored by Alessandra Giannini, a climate expert with the International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI), a unit of the Earth Institute at Columbia University.
10/05/03

Earth Institute's Pedro Sanchez Receives MacArthur Foundation 'Genius Award'

Pedro Sanchez, director of tropical agriculture at the Earth Institute and 2002 World Food Prize recipient, has been named a MacArthur Fellow for 2004. As the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation celebrates its 25th year of grantmaking, Sanchez is one of 24 people to receive this honor, also known as a “Genius Award.” He will receive $500,000 over the next five years to be used in an area of his choosing. Since its inception in 1981, 659 people, ranging in age from 18 to 82, have received the award.
10/01/03

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory Will Co-Lead Multi-Million Dollar Research Program to Explore Earth Processes Beneath the Ocean Floor

The U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Alliance of the Joint Oceanographic Institutions, Inc., Texas A&M University, and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University announced today that they have signed a contract to operate a scientific drillship as part of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP). The contract has an estimated cost of $626 million over ten years.
09/30/03

Earth Institute Hosts Heads of State from India, Ghana

The Earth Institute at Columbia University was honored to host Prime Minister Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee of India and President John Agyekum Kufuor of Ghana as part of Columbia University's World Leaders Forum last week. The Earth Institute has "thriving advisory programs" in both India and Ghana, in the words of Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs, who also noted that these were "two very impressive democratic leaders."
09/30/03

Borneo Elephants: A High Priority For Conservation

With scant fossil evidence supporting a prehistoric presence, scientists could not say for sure where Borneo’s elephants came from. Did they descend from ancient prototypes of the Pleistocene era or from modern relatives introduced just 300–500 years ago? That question, as Fernando et al. report in an article appearing in the inaugural issue of PLoS Biology (and currently available online at http://biology.plosjournals.org), is no longer subject to debate.
09/23/03

Development of a Smart Energy Plan Is Underway to Prevent Future Blackouts and Meet the Nation's Growth Needs

By 2050, it will take between 15 and 20 Terawatts (TW) of electric power to supply the North American economy. A little under 7 TW is currently used, with most of that consumed in the United States. The “Smart Electric Grid of the Future” must be able to efficiently and securely deliver this two- to three-fold-increase in power to all corners of the continent, in addition to being invulnerable to security breaches, attacks, natural disasters, and mechanical failures. The country can ill afford more blackouts like August 14, 2003.
08/27/03

The Secret Life of Lake Vostok

How do you study a subterranean lake that has remained isolated from the surface of the Earth for more than 35 million years, without contaminating the waters in the course of your study? This is the challenge that will be discussed in a lecture by Robin Bell of the Earth Institute at Columbia University on Tuesday, September 16.
08/11/03

Columbia University Researcher Develops New Use For Seismic Reflection Data: Revealing Locations And Potentials For Mega Earthquakes

Hazards to northwestern North America could be greater than previously thought
Researchers have found an important new application for seismic reflection data, commonly used to image geological structures and explore for oil and gas. Recently published in the journal Nature, new use of reflection data may prove crucial to understanding the potential for mega earthquakes.
08/06/03

President of Ghana Invites Earth Institute to Collaborate on Development

Tourism joins infrastructure, agriculture, and health as project focus
Perhaps the most surprising and inspiring development during a recent Earth Institute meeting with the President of Ghana and several of his ministers was the enthusiasm of the new Minister of Finance and Economic Planning for developing tourism as well as trade as engines of growth for the nation.
07/18/03

Deep Wells Can Target Low Arsenic Aquifers in Bangladesh, New Study Shows

Columbia researchers advance plan to mitigate arsenic crisis --UPDATED 9/25/2003
A solution to arsenic-poisoned drinking water in Bangladesh has come two steps closer with two new research papers by Lex van Geen, Doherty Senior Researcher at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, part of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, and a team of researchers from Columbia.
07/07/03

Sanchez Named Chairman Of Monterrey Bridge Coalition

Plans to coordinate anti-hunger group with Millennium Development Goals
Pedro Sanchez, Director of Tropical Agriculture at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, has been named honorary chairman of the Monterrey Bridge Coalition, a group that is working to reduce world hunger in a way that encourages sustainable development.

07/01/03

In Rwanda, HIV/AIDS Strategy Is Example for a Continent

Will funding shortage prevent others from following?
Josh Ruxin of Columbia University was pleased to see that the opening meeting of the HIV/AIDS task force in Kigali, Rwanda was attended by Rwanda's President, Prime Minister, head of the National AIDS Program, Minister of Health, and the government's entire cabinet. After all, Rwanda is a country that is meeting its AIDS crisis head-on.
07/01/03

Columbia University Researchers Begin to Divide the World According to Evolutionary Genetics

Monkeys and Toads Define Priority Areas for Conservation on a Fine Geographic Scale
Researchers from the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC) are making finer geographic distinctions within global "hotspots" -- habitats with high concentrations of unique species vulnerable to human activity -- by examining how evolutionary relationships within distantly-related organisms are distributed throughout a shared habitat.
06/25/03

Carbon Sequestration Could Be Employed Today To Help Alleviate Greenhouse Emissions

Columbia University researcher presents "A Guide to CO2 Sequestration"
Recent congressional support to research and develop zero-emissions plants and hydrogen fueled vehicles is a necessary long-term solution toward reducing harmful greenhouse gases; however, there are immediate opportunities to render fossil fuels—currently accounting for 85% of all commercial energy—environmentally acceptable.

06/24/03

Cape Town Project Examines Intersection of Urban Issues with Biodiversity

Network of contacts could be useful to other Earth Institute Projects
The Columbia University/UNESCO Joint Program on Biosphere and Society (CUBES) has initiated a project in Cape Town, S. Africa, to study how a city with high rates of urban problems—poverty, HIV and tuberculosis, population growth in informal settlements lacking basic services—can address urban issues while protecting endangered, globally significant biodiversity and critical ecosystems within the Cape Floral Region, the smallest and most diverse of the world’s six floral kingdoms.
06/19/03

Does the Trigger for Abrupt Climate Change Reside in the Ocean or in the Atmosphere?

A Science "Review" by W.S. Broecker, the Newberry Professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.
06/07/03

Engaging the Disenfranchised in International Policy-making

Earth Institute researcher wants to hear more voices in the sustainability debate
Dana R. Fisher believes that efforts to put the Earth on a path toward sustainable development require including the voices of groups currently left out of international governance. On June 5, Dr. Fisher hosted a round table discussion called Engaging the Disenfranchised in International Policy-making to explore this problem.

06/04/03

National Science Foundation Provides Emergency “Event Response” Funding To Study Massive Volcanic Eruption On Anatahan, Mariana Islands

On May 10, 2003, a volcanic eruption occurred on Anatahan, an uninhabited island just 75 nautical miles north of Saipan in the northwestern Pacific Ocean. At the time of the eruption, researchers studying the sinking (or subduction) of ocean seafloor into the earth's mantle for the MARGINS Program, headquartered at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, were deploying seismographic equipment in the area.
05/27/03

Earth Institute Launches Project With Indian State of Gujarat:

Physical sciences to support economics in novel approach to development planning
Over the next three years, the Earth Institute at Columbia University will use a novel combination of science and economics to try and set the Indian state of Gujarat on a new path of growth. On May 9, the Institute’s Center on Globalization and Sustainable Development (CGSD) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government of Gujarat to launch a multidisciplinary research project aimed at advancing the Gujarat economy.
05/21/03

Five Earth Institute Speakers To Participate In Sustainability Conference In Paris

How will global public policy for sustainable development evolve? What forces should shape it? These will be some of the issues discussed at Revisiting Global Policies for Sustainable Development, a conference in Paris next week sponsored by the Alliance Program, a French political science academy, with participation from Columbia’s Earth Institute and the School of International and Public Affairs. Earth Institute Director Jeffrey Sachs will deliver the keynote speech to the conference on May 26.
05/16/03

Columbia-Led Scientists Dust Off Desert Sands From The French Alps

NASA-funded scientists using an atmospheric computer model proved for the first time that dust from the Takla-Makan desert of China traveled more than 12,400 miles (20,000 kilometers) over two weeks time and landed atop the French Alps. Chinese dust plumes have been known to reach North America and even Greenland, but have never been reported before in Europe.
05/14/03

Researchers Find Soot Has Impact on Global Climate

A team of researchers, led by Columbia University and NASA scientists, found airborne, microscopic, black-carbon (soot) particles are even more plentiful around the world, and contribute more to climate change, than was previously assumed by the Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC).
05/13/03

Unconventional Ghanaian City of Accra is Focus of New Research Project by The Earth Institute; Columbia Students Inform Researchers with First-Hand Data

The results of an intensive research trip to Accra, Ghana by Columbia University urban planning students will inform a diverse and impressive community of researchers who are heading to Accra in June. Both trips, sponsored by The Earth Institute at Columbia University, are part of the new 21st Century Cities project.

05/06/03

DNA From Dung -- CERC Researchers Develop Non-Invasive Techniques For Studying Wild Animal Populations

Scientists from the Center for Environmental Research and Conservation (CERC), a unit of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, have developed non-invasive collection, extraction, and amplification protocols providing high quality DNA that will enable a broad application of genetic analysis, particularly with regard to endangered, elusive, or aggressive species.
05/02/03

Research by Dr. Won-Young Kim at LDEO Suggests Ancient Fault Line in Indiana Has Been Re-Activiated

Dr. Won-Young Kim, a seismologist with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, conducted research to determine the potential hazard of future earthquakes to the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone in Indiana, which in 2002 suffered a 5.0 magnitude earthquake.
04/30/03

Developing Countries Count on Columbia University and Glaser Progress Foundation to Utilize Millions from Global Fund to Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria

(APRIL 28, 2003, NEW YORK) As The Global Fund monies to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria are disbursed in Geneva this month, seven developing countries receiving significant funding will have utilized the assistance of a fledgling Columbia University program to develop their successful proposals.
04/30/03

Global Poverty Mapping Contributes to Anti-Poverty Initiative

Why don’t poverty experts know precisely where the world’s poor live? How would such knowledge help them diagnose the causes of poverty more accurately and formulate responses more effectively? The renowned global mapping experts of the Earth Institute at Columbia University’s Center for International Earth Science Information Network (CIESIN) recently convened a workshop to answer this and other questions about mapping poverty around the world.
04/17/03

Prestigious Panel of Researchers, Leaders, and Activists to Advise on Ten-Year Vision for The Earth Institute

The Earth Institute welcomes its External Advisory Board to campus this month. An impressive range of global view thinkers and leaders, the Board includes members, such as philanthropist George Soros, Professor Edward O. Wilson, and musician/activist Bono. Representatives of the group will convene for in-depth discussions on major initiatives within The Earth Institute.
04/16/03

Can Tourism and Conservation Co-Exist in the Caribbean?

Unique Collaboration of Tourism Industry Leaders and Conservation Organizations Come Together to Devise Caribbean Conservation Action Plan
WASHINGTON, D.C/DOMINICAN REPUBLIC (April 24, 2003) ­ In a first of its kind 'chief executives meeting,' key decision-makers influencing Caribbean tourism development will come together to develop a sustainable tourism action plan. 
04/10/03 - Reports From the Field

The Antarctic CORC/ARCHES Expedition, April 5 through May 8, 2003

Dr. Gerd Krahmann, of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, is aboard the Research Vessel Laurence M. Gould, traveling infamously rough waters to Antarctic's Weddell Sea. Krahmann is leading a group of five scientists and technicians from Lamont on an expedition to replace moored instruments deployed on the northern rim of the Weddell Sea.
03/27/03

Six Latin American Conservationists Selected In Launch of $500,000 Overbrook Fellowship

The Center for Environmental Conservation and Research (CERC), headquartered at the Earth Institute of Columbia University, and The Overbrook Foundation, New York, have announced the selection of the first six Overbrook Fellows, part of a new five year program to build local capacity for addressing problems of biodiversity conservation within Latin American countries with high or unique biodiversity.
03/25/03

Earth Institute Launches Partnership with Ugandan Stakeholders; President Museveni Welcomes Delegation

During its recent visit to Uganda, an Earth Institute delegation launched a partnership with government, academic and other stakeholders in the city of Kampala, Uganda to study the city and its hinterland.
03/20/03

Researcher Finds Solar Trend That Can Warm Climate

Ends Debate Over Whether Sun Can Play a Role in Climate Change
New data indicate that the sun may contribute to global climate change, according to a new study by Richard Willson, a Columbia-affiliated researcher.
03/14/03

Climate Change: The Battle Between Scientists and Government: An Op-Ed by John Mutter

The federal government is struggling to shape what could become one of the most important pieces of science policy of the 21st century - its strategy for understanding and addressing global climate change.
03/05/03

Columbia University Scientist Challenges Academia And Industry To Build On White House Decision To Develop World's First Zero-Emission Energy Plant

Thrilled with President Bush’s statement, Columbia University Scientist Dr. Klaus Lackner calls for an even larger vision. Zero-emissions energy plants would eliminate the need for flue stacks, like the one pictured at right.
03/04/03 - Reports From the Field

The Antarctic AnSlope Expedition, February 25 through April 11, 2003

Dr. Arnold L. Gordon, of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, is aboard the Research Vessel Nathaniel B. Palmer in Antarctic’s northwestern Ross Sea. Gordon is the principal investigator leading a study to build on scientific understanding of global climate and the crucial, but not well understood role played by a frontal zone known as the Antarctic Slope Front (ASF) occurring near the upper continental slope of much of Antarctic’s perimeter. This research, part of a multi-expedition project called AnSlope, seeks to unravel the dynamics of cold water transport into the intermediate and deep layers of the deep ocean.
02/18/03

Sachs Visit to Sri Lanka Boosts IRI Research

Thanks to a visit by Jeffrey Sachs in January 2003, a previously little-known climate research program run by Lareef Zubair of the Earth Institute's International Research Institute for Climate Prediction (IRI) now has the interest of Sri Lanka's highest ranking government officials.
01/24/03

Earth Institute Invited to Investigate Urban Challenges of Accra, Ghana

First site in 21st Century Cities initiative
In spring, 2003, Earth, social, and life scientists from the Earth Institute at Columbia University will be putting their mission to work—mobilizing the sciences to build a sustainable future—in the west African city of Accra, Ghana. Accra is the first focus of 21st Century Cities, a new Earth Institute initiative that focuses on urban growth challenges.

01/21/03

World's Most Intriguing Lake Formed by Tectonic Activity

New data shed light on Lake Vostok
The cavity which became Lake Vostok, a body of water located beneath more than 4 km of ice in the middle of East Antarctica, was formed by tectonic processes in the earth's crust millions of years ago, Columbia University's Michael Studinger and colleagues reveal in an article published on January 21st in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

01/17/03

Columbia University Research Finds Correlation Between Meteorite and Comet Impacts and an Increase in Volcanic Activity Development

10 Major Episodes of Extraterrestrial Impacts Found to Correlate with 9 Major Episodes of Volcanism
Supporting the theory that catastrophic events significantly influence major Earth processes, researchers have determined that comet and meteorite impacts on Earth occurring over the last 4 billion years have directly correlated with the activity of strong and normal mantle plumes - heated mantle rock causing volcanic eruptions (e.g. Hawaii, Iceland).
01/06/03

India Launches Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (CMH)--Based on Analysis Showing That Investment in Health Translates to Economic Development

Columbia's President Bollinger and Earth Institute Director and CMH Chair Jeffrey Sachs to speak at the January 9 launch in New Delhi, India
Based on a report issued in 2001 by the World Health Organization's (WHO) Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (chaired by economist Jeffrey Sachs), the government of India is officially forming a special Indian Commission on Macroeconomics and Health to target health sector priorities in order to spur economic development.