The Lamont Log

The Lamont Log is on hiatus, but our scientists are going strong. Drop by the website, sign up for our e-newsletters, and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter @LamontEarth for the latest stories about our research and expeditions. 

Our April newsletter arrived in thousands of inboxes on Tuesday morning. If your mailbox wasn’t among them, follow the link above to see what you missed and subscribe online to ensure that you receive the next one.

Field Photo Friday: A carbon injection site at Hellisheidi geothermal power plant, Iceland. Photo courtesy of Martin Stute. This video and photo essay describe the research on carbon sequestration that Stute and his colleagues are doing in Iceland.

Richard Seager authored an article about Mark Cane the March issue of Oceanography in honor of Mark being elected a Fellow of The Oceanography Society. 

What are our current research priorities and what will be the focus of our research and education in the future? Find out in the new Lamont Strategic Plan. Please have a look and let us know what you think!

Field Photo Friday: Some examples of the sea ice that Frank Nitsche has encountered on his way to East Antarctica. Top left: bands of grease ice. Top right: small pancake ice merged together. Bottom left: larger pancake ice; bottom right: the Nathaniel B. Palmer, steaming through dense sea ice cover. Visit Frank’s blog or follow him on Twitter for more on his research and Antarctic fieldwork.

Lots of exciting research was presented at yesterday’s Postdoctoral Symposium, which featured talks and posters by our dynamic group of postdoctoral scientists. Thanks to all who attended!

Campus happenings: Yesterday our Core Repository hosted a group of Boy Scouts from Troop 13 in Brooklyn, NY. 

The New York Times has a nice round up of resources -- including studies by Lamont scientists -- to help you understand water usage and drought in California.

NASA's MESSENGER mission, led by Sean Solomon, has given us significant data from mapping Mercury’s surface and delving into the planet’s origins, atmosphere, magnetic field and interior. It may even have given us clues into how Earth formed and evolved.

Field Photo Friday: Marine geophysicist Donna Shillington (right)  and graduate student Natalie Accardo (left) make a last minute inspection of the hull of the M/V Katundu before leaving port in Chilumba, Malawi for the second leg of the SEGMeNT seismic active source cruise in Lake Malawi. Rest assured they found everything to be ship shape and the water extremely refreshing!

Lamont/NASA climate scientist Ben Cook and his NASA colleagues host a Reddit Ask Me Anything today at 1PM EST. They’ll take questions on drought, “megadrought” and how climate change can affect drought patterns now and in the future. 

“We are the first to do this kind of quantitative comparison between the projections and the distant past, and the story is a bit bleak,” said Jason E. Smerdon, a co-author and climate scientist at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory.

The icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer at the pier in Hobart, Tasmania. Marine geologist and geophysicist Frank Nitsche just set sail for a seven-week expedition on the Palmer  to investigate the vulnerability of East Antarctic ice streams to warmer ocean water. Follow his blog or @FrankAtSea on Twitter for updates about his research and life in the Southern Ocean. 

Field Photo Friday: Sunset from the stern of the R/V L’Atalante, captured by graduate student Kyle Frischkorn. Kyle and Lamont biogeochemist Solange Duhamel are aboard the ship studying how microorganisms in the South Pacific Ocean influence the carbon cycle. Follow Kyle’s blog to learn more about their expedition.

Our March newsletter arrived in thousands of inboxes on Thursday afternoon. If your mailbox wasn’t among them, follow the link above to see what you missed and subscribe online to ensure that you receive the next one. 

New York City friends! Join our Core Repository and Polar Geophysics scientists this Saturday, March 21, at the American Museum of Natural History for hands-on explorations of our planet. The event is free with museum admission.