Maureen Raymo

Last updated
Maureen E. Raymo
Maureen Raymo.jpg
Maureen Raymo
Born1959 (age 64–65)
Los Angeles
Alma mater
Awards Wollaston Medal, Milutin Milankovic Medal
Scientific career
Fields Paleoclimatology
Institutions

Maureen E. "Mo" 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 the 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]

Among other awards and honors, Raymo became in 2014 the first woman to win the Wollaston Medal for geology, which had been awarded for 183 years at the time. She was described in her nomination as "... one of the foremost and influential figures in the last 30 years". [8]

Background

Raymo was born in Los Angeles [9] and attended Brown University, receiving her Sc.B. Geology in 1982. She then attended Columbia University, where she earned her M.A. in geological sciences in 1985, her M.Phil. in geology in 1988, and her Ph.D. in geology in 1989. [9]

Research

Raymo is known for developing (along with William Ruddiman and Philip Froelich) the Uplift-Weathering Hypothesis. According to this hypothesis, tectonic uplift of areas such as the Himalayas and Tibetan plateau in the late Cenozoic contributed to surface cooling and thus the Ice Ages. Mountain uplift enhances the chemical weathering of minerals, a process that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The resulting cooling led to the growth of large ice sheets at both poles. She and her colleagues initially suggested that measuring the proportions of isotopes of strontium (Sr) in deep ocean sediments could substantiate the Uplift-Weathering Hypothesis but soon recognized that ambiguities in the sources of Sr to the ocean existed. Over 35 years later, the hypothesis continues to be debated and studied. [10] [11] [12] This mechanism of CO2 removal is also the inspiration behind numerous projects aiming to remove anthropogenic CO2 from the atmosphere via artificially enhanced chemical weathering.

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 also well known for her interdisciplinary work, particularly using palaeoceanography to better understand the thermohaline circulation of the global ocean as well as the pacing of ice ages over the Pleistocene and Pliocene and how they link to changes in orbital forcing and Milankovitch climate dynamics. [14] Raymo, along with her collaborator Lorraine Lisiecki, made important contributions to stratigraphy and the dating of the past by means of oxygen isotope analysis of foraminifera from cores of deep ocean sediments, including publishing the widely used 5 million year LR04 benthic foraminifera stable oxygen isotope stack record. [15]

Scientific process

Maureen Raymo has “shaped our understanding of Earth’s natural climate variability and her many landmark papers have influenced a generation of climate scientists" states a biography by Columbia University in New York. [16] In her years as a graduate student, she began her career studying the history of ice ages, specifically the glacial/interglacial cycles that took place over the last few million years. “I would examine ice-rafted detritus material brought in by icebergs and try to figure out what it could tell us about how cold the Atlantic was through time.” (Aronsohn 2019). [17] She stated that these cores were “like a tape recorder through time” (Aronsohn, 2019). This work resulted in a series of papers in the late 80s and early 90s that published the first continuous high resolution records of Earth's climate history from oxygen and carbon isotopes.

In an analysis of collapsed polar ice sheets during the stage 11 Marine Isotope Interglacial (MIS), Maureen Raymo and Jerry Mitrovica computed global sea-level variations over the past 500 kyr. In their analysis, they assumed that the melting of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS) and the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) happened towards the end of this interglacial period (Raymo & Mitrovica, 2012). [18] One of the methods they used in their examination involved using a “gravitationally self-consistent theory”. Additionally, the researchers performed a Monte Carlo parameter where they observed mantle viscosity, lithospheric thickness, and the duration of the break during MIS 11 (Raymo & Mitrovica, 2012). Raymo and Mitrovica have said that employing this method “yields a preferred bound on the peak eustatic sea level (ESL) during MIS 11” (Raymo & Mitrovica, 2012). Understanding the durability of existing ice sheets amidst climate change remains a significant concern for societal safety.

During the PLIOMAX project, Maureen Raymo formulated a method for correcting shorelines during the Pliocene period, for post-depositional isostatic changes (PLIOMAX, n.d.). [19] One of the main hurdles the PLIOMAX project faced was the ability to adjust and verify the model performance under CO2 and climate conditions (PLIOMAX, n.d.). [20] The accuracy of accessible paleoclimate data hindered these factors as mentioned earlier (PLIOMAX, n.d.). In another analysis, Maureen Raymo and her colleagues examined how polar ice sheets evolved during previous warm periods, specifically during the Pliocene period. For their research, the scientists examined existing evidence of previous sea levels and ice sheet constructions (Dutton et al., 2015). Despite many geological advances in the understanding of global mean sea level during previous warm periods, potential research hindrances still exist for future paleoclimate researchers. For instance, the peak heat temperatures during previous warm periods may have varied on the span of the respective interglacial period, which suggests that warm periods that lasted thousands of years may not represent “equilibrium conditions for the climate-cryosphere system” (Dutton et al., 2015). Additionally, it is currently not possible for researchers and scientists to make exact estimates of peak global mean sea level during the Pliocene period. In a research paper by Maureen Raymo and her colleagues, they explained that the majority of existing sea level projections focus on shorter timelines of <2000 years, however, longer timeline projections are critical for predicting potential future sea-level heights to effectively develop long-term sea level defense infrastructure (Kemp et al., 2015). [21] The demand to present location-specific details regarding future sea level projections in the midst of climate change is a critical aspect of climatology research because of the growing concentration of socioeconomic and residential activity along global coastlines (Kemp et al., 2015).

Scientific context

Maureen Raymo is known famously for her Weathering hypothesis. Maureen’s hypothesis consisted of mending the ideas of global cooling and the beginning of the ice ages to a decline in atmospheric CO2. The Tibetan plateau and the Himalayas are a direct cause of this. Raymo has also come up with a hypothesis concerning the flexibility and arrangement of ice sheets over a few million years. [22] Furthermore, Raymo was innovating new ways of researching previous sea level changes. Maureen’s focal point in her research had always been centered around identifying where and how the Earth's oceans, biogeochemical cycles, and climate have changed in previous years compared to models of past and future climate.


Awards and honors

Raymo is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2016 she was elected a member of the National Academy of Sciences. [4] Raymo has won various prizes for her scientific work, including becoming in 2014 the first woman to be awarded the prestigious Wollaston Medal - the highest award of the Geological Society of London. [8] [23] In 2014, she received the Milutin Milankovic Medal at the European Geosciences Union’s annual meeting for her use of geochemistry, geology and geophysics to solve paleoclimatology’s big problems. [24] In 2019 she was awarded the Maurice Ewing Medal by the American Geophysical Union. [25] In 2022 she was elected as a Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Class for Geosciences. [26]

In 2002, she was included by the illustrated magazine Discover in a list of the 50 most important women in science [5] [27] and 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...She's been an important role model to women scientists—you can get to the top". [8]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Timeline of glaciation</span> Chronology of the major ice ages of the Earth

There have been five or six major ice ages in the history of Earth over the past 3 billion years. The Late Cenozoic Ice Age began 34 million years ago, its latest phase being the Quaternary glaciation, in progress since 2.58 million years ago.

The Cromerian Stage or Cromerian Complex, also called the Cromerian, is a stage in the Pleistocene glacial history of north-western Europe, mostly occurring more than half a million years ago. It is named after the East Anglian town of Cromer in Great Britain where interglacial deposits that accumulated during part of this stage were first discovered. The stratotype for this interglacial is the Cromer Forest Bed situated at the bottom of the coastal cliff near West Runton. The Cromerian stage preceded the Anglian and Elsterian glacials and show an absence of glacial deposits in western Europe, which led to the historical terms Cromerian interglacial and the Cromerian warm period. It is now known that the Cromerian consisted of multiple glacial and interglacial periods.

The Wolstonian Stage is a middle Pleistocene stage of the geological history of Earth from approximately 374,000 until 130,000 years ago. It precedes the Eemian Stage in Europe and follows the Hoxnian Stage in the British Isles.

The geologic temperature record are changes in Earth's environment as determined from geologic evidence on multi-million to billion (109) year time scales. The study of past temperatures provides an important paleoenvironmental insight because it is a component of the climate and oceanography of the time.

The Illinoian Stage is the name used by Quaternary geologists in North America to designate the period c.191,000 to c.130,000 years ago, during the Chibanian stage of the Pleistocene, when sediments comprising the Illinoian Glacial Lobe were deposited. It precedes the Sangamonian Stage and follows the Pre-Illinoian Stage in North America. The Illinoian Stage is defined as the period of geologic time during which the glacial tills and outwash, which comprise the bulk of the Glasford Formation, accumulated to create the Illinoian Glacial Lobe. It occurs at about the same time as the penultimate glacial period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elster glaciation</span>

The Elster glaciation or, less commonly, the Elsterian glaciation, in the older and popular scientific literature also called the Elster Ice Age (Elster-Eiszeit), is the oldest known ice age that resulted in the large-scale glaciation of North Germany and other parts of Europe. It took place approximately 500,000–400,000 years ago. It succeeded a long period of rather warmer average temperatures, the Cromerian Complex. The Elster was followed by the Holstein interglacial, which was followed Saale glaciation. The glacial period is named after the White Elster, a right tributary of the Saale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mindel glaciation</span>

The Mindel glaciation is the third youngest glacial stage in the Alps. Its name was coined by Albrecht Penck and Eduard Brückner, who named it after the Swabian river, the Mindel. The Mindel glacial occurred in the Middle Pleistocene; it was preceded by the Haslach-Mindel interglacial and succeeded by the Mindel-Riss interglacial.

The Beestonian Stage is an early Pleistocene stage in the geological history of the British Isles. It is named after Beeston Cliffs near West Runton in Norfolk where deposits from this stage are preserved.

The Pastonian interglacial, now called the Pastonian Stage, is the name for an early or middle Pleistocene stage of geological history in the British Isles. It precedes the Beestonian Stage and follows the Pre-Pastonian Stage. Unfortunately the precise age of this stage cannot yet be defined in terms of absolute dating or MIS stages. The Pre-Pastonian Stage is equivalent to the Tiglian C5-6 Stage of Europe and the Pre-Illinoian I glaciation of the early Pre-Illinoian Stage of North America.

The Bramertonian Stage is the name for an early Pleistocene biostratigraphic stage of geological history the British Isles. It precedes the Pre-Pastonian Stage. It derives its name from Bramerton Pits in Norfolk, where the deposits can be found on the surface. The exact timing of the beginning and end of the Bramertonian Stage is currently unknown. It is only known that it is equivalent to the Tiglian C1-4b Stage of Europe and early Pre-Illinoian Stage of North America. It lies somewhere in time between Marine Oxygen Isotope stages 65 to 95 and somewhere between 1.816 and 2.427 Ma. The Bramertonian is correlated with the Antian stage identified from pollen assemblages in the Ludham borehole.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marine isotope stages</span> Alternating warm and cool periods in the Earths paleoclimate, deduced from oxygen isotope data

Marine isotope stages (MIS), marine oxygen-isotope stages, or oxygen isotope stages (OIS), are alternating warm and cool periods in the Earth's paleoclimate, deduced from oxygen isotope data derived from deep sea core samples. Working backwards from the present, which is MIS 1 in the scale, stages with even numbers have high levels of oxygen-18 and represent cold glacial periods, while the odd-numbered stages are lows in the oxygen-18 figures, representing warm interglacial intervals. The data are derived from pollen and foraminifera (plankton) remains in drilled marine sediment cores, sapropels, and other data that reflect historic climate; these are called proxies.

The Plio-Pleistocene is an informally described geological pseudo-period, which begins about 5 million years ago (Mya) and, drawing forward, combines the time ranges of the formally defined Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs—marking from about 5 Mya to about 12 kya. Nominally, the Holocene epoch—the last 12 thousand years—would be excluded, but most Earth scientists would probably treat the current times as incorporated into the term "Plio-Pleistocene"; see below.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Holstein interglacial</span>

The Holstein or Holsteinian interglacial, also called the Mindel-Riss interglacial (Mindel-Riß-Interglazial) in the Alpine region, is the third to last major interglacial in Europe before the Holocene, the present warm period. It followed directly after the Elster glaciation and came before the Saale glaciation, during the Middle Pleistocene. The more precise timing was historically controversial since Holstein was commonly correlated to two different marine isotope stages, MIS 11 and MIS 9. Recent scholarship has supported a MIS 11 date, spanning approximately 421-395,000 years ago.

In geochemistry, paleoclimatology and paleoceanography δ18O or delta-O-18 is a measure of the deviation in ratio of stable isotopes oxygen-18 (18O) and oxygen-16 (16O). It is commonly used as a measure of the temperature of precipitation, as a measure of groundwater/mineral interactions, and as an indicator of processes that show isotopic fractionation, like methanogenesis. In paleosciences, 18O:16O data from corals, foraminifera and ice cores are used as a proxy for temperature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">100,000-year problem</span> Discrepancy between past temperatures and the amount of incoming solar radiation

The 100,000-year problem of the Milankovitch theory of orbital forcing refers to a discrepancy between the reconstructed geologic temperature record and the reconstructed amount of incoming solar radiation, or insolation over the past 800,000 years. Due to variations in the Earth's orbit, the amount of insolation varies with periods of around 21,000, 40,000, 100,000, and 400,000 years. Variations in the amount of incident solar energy drive changes in the climate of the Earth, and are recognised as a key factor in the timing of initiation and termination of glaciations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marine Isotope Stage 11</span> Marine isotope stage between 424,000 and 374,000 years ago

Marine Isotope Stage 11 or MIS 11 is a Marine Isotope Stage in the geologic temperature record, covering the interglacial period between 424,000 and 374,000 years ago. It corresponds to the Hoxnian Stage in Britain.

Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by the American Geophysical Union. It publishes original research articles dealing with all aspects of understanding and reconstructing Earth's past climate and environments from the Precambrian to modern analogs. Until the first of January 2018 the name of the journal was Paleoceanography.

Lorraine Lisiecki is an American paleoclimatologist. She is a professor in the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has proposed a new analysis of the 100,000-year problem in the Milankovitch theory of climate change. She also created the analytical software behind the LR04, a "standard representation of the climate history of the last five million years".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marine Isotope Stage 9</span>

Marine Isotope Stage 9 was an interglacial period that consisted of two interstadial and one stadial period. It is the final period of the Lower Paleolithic and lasted from 337,000 to 300,000 years ago according to Lisiecki and Raymo's LR04 Benthic Stack. It corresponds to the Purfleet Interglacial in Britain, the Holstein Interglacial in continental Europe, and the Pre-Illinoian in North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Don Glaciation</span> Major glaciation of eastern Europe

The Don Glaciation, also known as the Donian Glaciation and the Donian Stage, was the major glaciation of the East European Plain, 0.5–0.8 million years ago, during the Cromerian Stage of the Middle Pleistocene. It is correlated to Marine Isotope Stage 16, approximately 650,000 years ago, which globally contained one of the largest glacial volumes of the Quaternary.

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. 1 2 "Ice & Sea-Level Scientist Maureen Raymo Elected to National Academy of Sciences". Columbia University. Center for Climate and Life. May 4, 2016. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  5. 1 2 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 3 "Climate Scientist Is First Woman to Win Geology's Storied Wollaston Medal". Lamont -Doherty Earth Observatory. March 4, 2014. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  9. 1 2 M.E. Raymo (July 2018). "Curriculum vitae" (PDF). Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  10. ↑ "Theory on a Plateau And the Climate Gains". The New York Times. November 3, 1992. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  11. ↑ "Cracking the Ice Age". NOVA. September 30, 1997. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  12. 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.
  13. ↑ 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.
  14. ↑ 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.
  15. ↑ 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.
  16. ↑ "Maureen E. Raymo | Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences". eesc.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
  17. ↑ "Maureen Raymo on Lamont's Living Library of Earth History". State of the Planet. 2019-04-16. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
  18. ↑ 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.
  19. ↑ "PLIOMAX". PLIOMAX. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
  20. ↑ "Projects". Maureen E. Raymo. 2014-03-28. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
  21. ↑ Kemp, Andrew C.; Dutton, Andrea; Raymo, Maureen E. (2015-09-01). "Paleo Constraints on Future Sea-Level Rise". Current Climate Change Reports. 1 (3): 205–215. Bibcode:2015CCCR....1..205K. doi: 10.1007/s40641-015-0014-6 . ISSN   2198-6061.
  22. ↑ "Dr. Maureen E. Raymo - Staff Profiles - Columbia Climate School". people.climate.columbia.edu. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
  23. ↑ "Wollaston Medal". The Geological Society of London. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  24. ↑ European Geosciences Union - Milutin Milankovic Medal 2014
  25. ↑ "Past Recipients". American Geophysical Union. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  26. ↑ "Several researchers elected new members of the Academy". Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. 23 January 2022. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  27. ↑ Svitil, Kathy A. (November 1, 2002). "The 50 Most Important Women in Science". Discover. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
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