Maureen Raymo

Last updated
Maureen E. Raymo
Born (1959-12-27) December 27, 1959 (age 65)
Los Angeles
Alma mater
Awards Wollaston Medal, Milutin Milankovic Medal, Maurice Ewing Medal
Scientific career
Fields Climate Scientist and Marine Geologist
Institutions

Maureen E. Raymo (born 1959) is an American paleoclimatologist and marine geologist. She is the Co-Founding Dean Emerita of the Columbia Climate School [1] and the G. Unger Vetlesen Professor of Earth & Environmental Sciences at Columbia University. From 2011 to 2022, she was also the Director of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory's (LDEO) Core Repository and, until 2024, was the Founding Director of the LDEO Hudson River Field Station. [2] From 2020 to 2023, she was first Interim Director then Director of Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, the first climate scientist and first female scientist to head the institution. [3]

Contents

Raymo has done pioneering work on the origin of the ice ages, the geologic temperature record of the Earth, and past sea level change, publishing over 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles. Her work underlies fundamental ideas in paleoceanography including the uplift weathering hypothesis, the "41,000-year problem," the Pliocene sea-level paradox, and the Lisiecki-Raymo δ18O stack. [4] [5] [6] [7]

Early life and education

Raymo was born in Los Angeles, [8] and at age eight sailed with her family to Europe on the ocean liner S.S. United States and resolved to dedicate her life to studying the ocean. The books and films of Jacques Cousteau were also important early influences. [9] Raymo attended Oliver Ames High School in Easton, Massachusetts, where she graduated with the Bausch and Lomb Honorary Science Award, and then attended Brown University, receiving her Sc.B. Geology in 1982. After a brief stint working in a lab, she then attended Columbia University, where she earned her M.A. in geological sciences in 1985, M.Phil. in geology in 1988, and Ph.D. in geology in 1989. [8]

Career

Early climate research

Raymo is known for developing (with William Ruddiman and Philip Froelich) the Uplift-Weathering Hypothesis. [10] [11] According to this hypothesis, tectonic uplift of areas such as the Himalayas and Tibetan plateau over the last 40 million years enhanced the chemical weathering of minerals, which removed carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and resulted in cooling that spurred the growth of large ice sheets. Over 35 years later, the hypothesis continues to be actively researched. [12] [13] [14] [15] Their proposed mechanism of CO2 removal, the chemical weathering of rock, also now underpins projects to sequester anthropogenic CO2 via artificially enhanced chemical weathering. [16]

Reconstruction of the past 5 million years of climate history, based on oxygen isotope composition of microfossils in deep sea sediment cores (serving as a proxy for the total global mass of glacial ice sheets)(Lisiecki and Raymo 2005) and to the temperature scale derived from Vostok ice cores following Petit et al. (1999). Five Myr Climate Change.png
Reconstruction of the past 5 million years of climate history, based on oxygen isotope composition of microfossils in deep sea sediment cores (serving as a proxy for the total global mass of glacial ice sheets)(Lisiecki and Raymo 2005) and to the temperature scale derived from Vostok ice cores following Petit et al. (1999).

Raymo is known for her research using deep sea cores to better understand past oceanic thermohaline circulation, as well as how Earth's Milankovitch cycles influenced ice age pacing over the Pleistocene and Pliocene. [18] Raymo's Anti-phase Hypothesis [19] explains the 41,000 year pacing of Earth's climate cycles from 3 to 1 million years ago as due to the out-of-phase response of the polar ice sheets to orbital precession.

Raymo has also advanced stratigraphy and dating of the past via oxygen isotope analysis of foraminifera from deep ocean sediments. This included publishing the first continuous oxygen isotope stratigraphy and time scale of the northern hemisphere ice ages from DSDP Site 607. [20] [21] In 2005, with her post-doc Lorraine Lisiecki, Raymo published the widely adopted 5-million-year LR04 benthic isotope stack, which remains the benchmark against which most Plio-Pleistocene studies are measured. [22]

In 1996, Raymo used carbon isotopes of marine organic matter to produce the first paleo-CO2 estimate for the Middle Pliocene Warm Period, [23] a time when global temperatures were about 2-3 °C above preindustrial levels. Their CO2 estimate, between 350 and 400 ppm, later inspired the name of the activist organization 350.org [24] which advocates for a return to 350 ppm as a safe level of atmospheric carbon dioxide.

Sea level research

Raymo has also worked extensively on reconstructing sea level and ice volume during past warm climate intervals with the goal of improving predictions of future sea level rise in response to global warming. She was the lead investigator of the PLIOMAX project [25] (2011-2018), a research project funded by the US National Science Foundation, which had the goal to deliver more accurate sea level and ice volume data for the Pliocene, a period 3 million years ago when atmospheric CO2 was at ~400 ppm. Raymo led and participated in fieldwork in Australia, South Africa, Argentina, and the US to map, interpret, and date Pliocene shorelines [26] . She also worked with Jerry X. Mitrovica to understand the role of glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) in deforming Pliocene shorelines [27] . They identified this process as one of the reasons for the Pliocene sea level paradox—namely the different elevations of Pliocene shorelines around the globe. Her work also contributed to the mounting evidence that dynamic topography—topography driven by convective forces in the mantle—changes over million year timescales and therefore contributes to the warping of ancient shorelines [26] [28] [29] . Numerical simulations of mantle convection support these findings [30] [31] [32] . New insight gained on Pliocene sea level change has since been used to calibrate the physics underpinning ice sheet simulations of the future Antarctic ice sheet change [33] [34] [35] . Her work on past sea level change and ice sheet stability based on paleo shorelines is complemented by her use of ice rafted debris in marine sediment cores to understand Antarctic ice sheet evolution [36] .

Beyond the Pliocene, Raymo has also worked on sea level change during more recent warm periods. Her work has focused on the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 interglacial, merging relative sea level indicators with glacial isostatic adjustment models to show that global mean sea level during this time reached 6-13 meters above present [37] . She has also contributed to mapping Last Interglacial (MIS 5e) shorelines in western Australia, Bermuda, Barbados, and the Bahamas to understand how high sea level rose during this time. In particular, she co-authored several studies arguing that global mean sea level during MIS 5e peaked lower than 5m [38] [39] , which is below estimates used in the IPCC report [40] , and an important hypothesis to be tested.

Awards and honors

In 2002, Raymo was named one of the 50 most important women in science by Discover [41] [42] magazine and in 2003 she was awarded a John Simons Guggenheim Fellowship. [43] In 2014, Raymo became the first woman in 183 years to win the prestigious Wollaston Medal, the highest award of the Geological Society of London. [44] [45] In her nomination for the Wollaston Medal, Professor James Scourse described her as "one of the foremost and influential figures in the last 30 years" and "an important role model to women scientists" [44] . She also received the 2014 Milutin Milankovic Medal [46] [42] at the European Geosciences Union's annual meeting for her use of geochemistry, geology and geophysics to solve paleoclimatology's big problems. [47] In 2016 she was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences., [42] and in 2017 became a fellow of the Explorers Club and received a Doctor of Science, honoris causa, from the University of Lancaster, Great Britain. [42] In 2019 she was awarded the Maurice Ewing Medal by the American Geophysical Union. [48] Raymo is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2022 she was elected as a Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Class for Geosciences. [42]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Leadership of the Columbia Climate School".
  2. ↑ "Maureen Raymo". Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  3. ↑ Schwartz, John (2020-07-10). "She's an Authority on Earth's Past. Now, Her Focus Is the Planet's Future". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2020-07-12.
  4. ↑ Morford, Stacy (2016-05-03). "Maureen Raymo Elected to National Academy of Sciences". Columbia University. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia Climate School. Retrieved 2024-11-23.
  5. ↑ Fitzgerald, Brian (26 September 2003). "2003-04 Guggenheim fellowship winner, Maureen Raymo: studying 40 million years or climate change". B. U. Bridge. VII (5). Boston University.
  6. ↑ Gornitz, Vivien (2009). "Active mountain building and climate change". Encyclopedia of paleoclimatology and ancient environments. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. p. 855. ISBN   9781402045516 . Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  7. ↑ Gornitz, Vivien (2009). "Issues in middle Pliocene warming". Encyclopedia of paleoclimatology and ancient environments. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. pp. 567–568. ISBN   9781402045516 . Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  8. 1 2 M.E. Raymo (July 2018). "Curriculum vitae" (PDF). Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  9. ↑ Fletcher, Tiera; Rue, Ginger (2021). Wonder Women of Science. Candlewick Press. ISBN   978-1-5362-0734-7.
  10. ↑ Raymo, Maureen; Ruddiman, William; Froelich, Phillip (1988). "Influence of late Cenozoic mountain building on ocean geochemical cycles". Geology. 16 (7): 649–653. Bibcode:1988Geo....16..649R. doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1988)016<0649:IOLCMB>2.3.CO;2.
  11. ↑ Raymo, Maureen; Ruddiman, William (1992). "Tectonic forcing of late Cenozoic climate". Nature. 359 (6391): 117–122. Bibcode:1992Natur.359..117R. doi:10.1038/359117a0.
  12. ↑ "Theory on a Plateau And the Climate Gains". The New York Times. November 3, 1992. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  13. ↑ "Cracking the Ice Age". NOVA. September 30, 1997. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  14. 1 2 Petit, J. R.; Jouzel, J.; Raynaud, D.; Barkov, N. I.; Barnola, J. M.; Basile, I.; Bender, M.; Chappellaz, J.; Davis, J.; Delaygue, G.; Delmotte, M.; Kotlyakov, V. M.; Legrand, M.; Lipenkov, V.; Lorius, C.; Pépin, L.; Ritz, C.; Saltzman, E.; Stievenard, M. (1999). "Climate and Atmospheric History of the Past 420,000 years from the Vostok Ice Core, Antarctica". Nature. 399 (6735): 429–436. Bibcode:1999Natur.399..429P. doi:10.1038/20859. S2CID   204993577.
  15. ↑ Li, Shilei; Raymo, Maureen; Goldstein, Stephen (2021). "Neogene continental denudation and the Beryllium conundrum". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118 (42) e2026456118. Bibcode:2021PNAS..11826456L. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2026456118 . PMC   8545494 . PMID   34649990.
  16. ↑ "Heirloom". www.heirloomcarbon.com.
  17. ↑ Lisiecki, Lorraine E.; Raymo, Maureen E. (January 2005). "A Pliocene-Pleistocene stack of 57 globally distributed benthic d18O records" (PDF). Paleoceanography. 20 (1): PA1003. Bibcode:2005PalOc..20.1003L. doi:10.1029/2004PA001071. hdl:2027.42/149224. S2CID   12788441.
    • Supplement: Lisiecki, L. E.; Raymo, M. E. (2005). "Pliocene-Pleistocene stack of globally distributed benthic stable oxygen isotope records". Pangaea. doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.704257.
    Lisiecki, L. E.; Raymo, M. E. (May 2005). "Correction to "A Pliocene-Pleistocene stack of 57 globally distributed benthic δ18O records"". Paleoceanography. 20 (2): PA2007. Bibcode:2005PalOc..20.2007L. doi: 10.1029/2005PA001164 . S2CID   128995657.
    data: doi : 10.1594/PANGAEA.704257.
  18. ↑ Raymo, M. E.; Huybers, P. (2008). "Unlocking the mysteries of the Ice Ages". Nature. 451 (7176): 284–285. Bibcode:2008Natur.451..284R. doi: 10.1038/nature06589 . PMID   18202644. S2CID   4360319.
  19. ↑ Raymo, Maureen; Lisiecki, Lorraine; Nisancioglu, Kerim (2006). "Plio-Pleistocene ice volume, Antarctic climate, and the global δ18O record". Science. 313 (5786): 492–495. doi:10.1126/science.1123296. PMID   16794038.
  20. ↑ Raymo, Maureen; Ruddiman, William; Backman, Jan; Clement, Stephen; Martinson, Douglas (1989). "Late Pliocene variation in Northern Hemisphere ice sheets and North Atlantic deep circulation". Paleoceanography. 4: 413–446. doi:10.1029/PA004i004p00413.
  21. ↑ Ruddiman, William; Raymo, Maureen; Martinson, Douglas; Clement, Stephen; Backman, Jan (1989). "Pleistocene evolution of Northern Hemisphere ice sheets and North Atlantic Ocean" (PDF). Paleoceanography. 4 (4): 353–412. Bibcode:1989PalOc...4..353R. doi:10.1029/PA004i004p00353.
  22. ↑ Lisiecki, Lorraine E.; Raymo, Maureen E. (March 2005). "A Pliocene-Pleistocene stack of 57 globally distributed benthic D 18 O records" (PDF). Paleoceanography. 20 (1): n/a. Bibcode:2005PalOc..20.1003L. doi:10.1029/2004PA001071. hdl:2027.42/149224. S2CID   12788441.
  23. ↑ Raymo, Maureen; Grant, Barry; Horowitz, Michael (1996). "Mid Pliocene warmth: stronger greenhouse and stronger conveyor". Marine Micropaleontology. 27 (1–4): 313–326. Bibcode:1996MarMP..27..313R. doi:10.1016/0377-8398(95)00048-8.
  24. ↑ "350.org: A global campaign to confront the climate crisis". 350.
  25. ↑ "PLIOMAX". PLIOMAX. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
  26. 1 2 Rovere, A.; Raymo, M. E.; Mitrovica, J. X.; Hearty, P. J.; O'Leary, M. J.; Inglis, J. D. (2014). "The Mid-Pliocene sea-level conundrum: Glacial isostasy, eustasy and dynamic topography". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 387: 27–33. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2013.11.015.
  27. ↑ Raymo, Maureen E.; Mitrovica, Jerry X.; O'Leary, Mick; Deconto, Robert; Heary, Paul (2011). "Departures from eustasy in Pliocene sea-level records". Nature Geoscience. 4 (5): 453–456. Bibcode:2011NatGe...4..328R. doi:10.1038/ngeo1118. PMID   22419155.
  28. ↑ Rovere, A.; Hearty, P. J.; Austermann, J.; Mitrovica, J. X.; Gale, J.; Moucha, R.; Raymo, M. E. (2015). "Mid-Pliocene shorelines of the US Atlantic Coastal Plain—An improved elevation database with comparison to Earth model predictions". Earth-Science Reviews. 145: 117–131. Bibcode:2015ESRv..145..117R. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2015.02.007.
  29. ↑ Hollyday, Andrew; Raymo, Maureen E.; Austermann, Jacqueline; Richards, Fred; Hoggard, Mark; Rovere, Alessio (2024). "Pliocene shorelines and the epeirogenic motion of continental margins: a target dataset for dynamic topography models". Earth Surface Dynamics. 12 (4). Copernicus GmbH: 883–905. Bibcode:2024ESuD...12..883H. doi: 10.5194/esurf-12-883-2024 .
  30. ↑ Rowley, D. B.; Forte, A. M.; Moucha, R.; Mitrovica, J. X.; Simmons, N. A.; Grand, S. P. (2013). "Dynamic topography change of the eastern United States since 3 million years ago". Science. 340 (6140): 1560–1563. Bibcode:2013Sci...340.1560R. doi:10.1126/science.1229180. PMID   23686342.
  31. ↑ Austermann, J.; Mitrovica, J. X.; Huybers, P.; Rovere, A. (2017). "Detection of a dynamic topography signal in last interglacial sea-level records". Science Advances. 3 (7): e1700457. Bibcode:2017SciA....3E0457A. doi:10.1126/sciadv.1700457. PMID   28695210.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link)
  32. ↑ Austermann, J.; Pollard, D.; Mitrovica, J. X.; Moucha, R.; Forte, A. M.; DeConto, R. M.; Raymo, M. E. (2015). "The impact of dynamic topography change on Antarctic ice sheet stability during the mid-Pliocene warm period". Geology. 43 (10): 927–930. Bibcode:2015Geo....43..927A. doi:10.1130/G36988.1.
  33. ↑ Pollard, D.; DeConto, R. M.; Alley, R. B. (2015). "Potential Antarctic Ice Sheet retreat driven by hydrofracturing and ice cliff failure". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 412: 112–121. Bibcode:2015E&PSL.412..112P. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2014.12.035.
  34. ↑ DeConto, Robert M.; Pollard, David (March 2016). "Contribution of Antarctica to past and future sea-level rise". Nature. 531 (7596): 591–597. doi:10.1038/nature17145. ISSN   1476-4687.
  35. ↑ DeConto, Robert M.; Pollard, David; Alley, Richard B.; Velicogna, Isabella; Gasson, Edward; Gomez, Natalya; Sadai, Shaina; Condron, Alan; Gilford, Daniel M.; Ashe, Erica L.; Kopp, Robert E.; Li, Dawei; Dutton, Andrea (May 2021). "The Paris Climate Agreement and future sea-level rise from Antarctica". Nature. 593 (7857): 83–89. doi:10.1038/s41586-021-03427-0. ISSN   1476-4687.
  36. ↑ Jasper, Claire E.; Dyer, Blake; Reilly, Brendan T.; Williams, Trevor; Hemming, Sidney; Raymo, Maureen E. (2024). "A 3.3-million-year record of Antarctic iceberg rafted debris and ice sheet evolution quantified by machine learning". Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. 39 (9): e2024PA004897. Bibcode:2024PaPa...39.4897J. doi:10.1029/2024PA004897.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link)
  37. ↑ Raymo, Maureen E.; Mitrovica, Jerry X. (March 2012). "Collapse of polar ice sheets during the stage 11 interglacial". Nature. 483 (7390): 453–456. Bibcode:2012Natur.483..453R. doi:10.1038/nature10891. ISSN   1476-4687. PMID   22419155. S2CID   4425122.
  38. ↑ Dyer, Blake; Austermann, Jacqueline; D'Andrea, William J.; Creel, Roger C.; Sandstrom, Michael R.; Cashman, Miranda; Rovere, Alessio; Raymo, Maureen E. (2021). "Sea-level trends across The Bahamas constrain peak last interglacial ice melt". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 118 (33). National Academy of Sciences: e2026839118. Bibcode:2021PNAS..11826839D. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2026839118 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   8379915 . PMID   34373328.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link)
  39. ↑ Dumitru, Oana A.; Dyer, Blake; Austermann, Jacqueline; Sandstrom, Michael R.; Cashman, M.; Goldstein, S. L.; D'Andrea, William; Creel, Roger; Bolge, Louise; Raymo, Maureen E. (2024). "Last interglacial global mean sea level derived from U-series ages of Bahamian fossil coral reefs". Quaternary Science Reviews. 318: 108415. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108415 (inactive 30 August 2025). ISSN   0277-3791.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of August 2025 (link) CS1 maint: article number as page number (link)
  40. ↑ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), ed. (2023), "Ocean, Cryosphere and Sea Level Change", Climate Change 2021 – The Physical Science Basis: Working Group I Contribution to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 1211–1362, doi:10.1017/9781009157896.011, ISBN   978-1-009-15788-9 , retrieved 2025-09-05
  41. ↑ "The 50 Most Important Women in Science". Discover Magazine. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  42. 1 2 3 4 5 "Maureen E. Raymo". Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University SIPA | CGEP. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  43. ↑ "Mo Raymo". Maureen E. Raymo. 2014-03-28. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  44. 1 2 "Climate Scientist Is First Woman to Win Geology's Storied Wollaston Medal – State of the Planet". 2014-03-03. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  45. ↑ "The Geological Society of London - Professor Maureen E. Raymo". www.geolsoc.org.uk. Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  46. ↑ "Maureen E. Raymo". European Geosciences Union (EGU). Retrieved 2024-11-24.
  47. ↑ European Geosciences Union - Milutin Milankovic Medal 2014
  48. ↑ "Past Recipients". American Geophysical Union. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
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