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Maureen Raymo

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Maureen E. Raymo
Maureen Raymo
Born1959 (age 64–65)
Los Angeles
Alma mater
AwardsWollaston Medal, Milutin Milankovic Medal, Maurice Ewing Medal
Scientific career
FieldsClimate 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 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]

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]

In 2014, Raymo became 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]

Early life and education[edit]

Raymo was born in Los Angeles[9], and at the age of eight she 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. 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, her M.Phil. in geology in 1988, and her Ph.D. in geology in 1989.[9]

Career[edit]

Early climate research[edit]

Raymo is known for developing (along 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 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. Raymo 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 with many new lines of evidence proposed.[12][13][14][15] Their proposed mechanism of CO2 removal, the chemical weathering of mechanically crushed rock, is also the scientific basis behind projects which aim to remove anthropogenic CO2 from the atmosphere 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)[17] and to the temperature scale derived from Vostok ice cores following Petit et al. (1999).[14]

Raymo is known for her research using sedimentological and geochemical data from deep sea cores to better understand the how the ocean's thermohaline circulation changed in the past, as well as how Earth's Milankovitch cycles have influenced the pacing of ice ages 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 northern and southern polar ice sheets to orbital precession at this time.

Raymo has also made contributions to the stratigraphy and dating of the past by means of 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 who led the project, Raymo published the widely adopted 5-million-year LR04 benthic isotope stack which defines Marine isotope stages and continues to be the chronological benchmark against which most studies of the last 5.5 Ma are measured.[22]

In 1996, Raymo published the first paleo-CO2 estimate for the Middle Pliocene Warm Period using carbon isotopes of marine organic matter[23]. This was a time three million years ago when global temperatures were about 2-3°C above preindustrial levels and their CO2 estimate, between 350 and 400ppm, later became the inspiration for the name of the activist organization 350.org[24] which advocates for a return to 350 ppm as a safe level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.


Sea level research[edit]

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).[25] 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.).[26] 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.).[27] 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).[28] 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).

Awards and honors[edit]

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][29] 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.[30] In 2019 she was awarded the Maurice Ewing Medal by the American Geophysical Union.[31] In 2022 she was elected as a Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Class for Geosciences.[32]

In 2002, she was included by the illustrated magazine Discover in a list of the 50 most important women in science[5][33] 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[edit]

References[edit]

  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. ^ a b "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. ^ a b 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. ^ a b c "Climate Scientist Is First Woman to Win Geology's Storied Wollaston Medal". Lamont -Doherty Earth Observatory. March 4, 2014. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  9. ^ a b M.E. Raymo (July 2018). "Curriculum vitae" (PDF). Retrieved 2020-02-10.
  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. ^ a b 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). 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. ^ 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.
  26. ^ "PLIOMAX". PLIOMAX. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
  27. ^ "Projects". Maureen E. Raymo. 2014-03-28. Retrieved 2023-12-11.
  28. ^ 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.
  29. ^ "Wollaston Medal". The Geological Society of London. Retrieved 16 February 2018.
  30. ^ European Geosciences Union - Milutin Milankovic Medal 2014
  31. ^ "Past Recipients". American Geophysical Union. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
  32. ^ "Several researchers elected new members of the Academy". Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. 23 January 2022. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  33. ^ Svitil, Kathy A. (November 1, 2002). "The 50 Most Important Women in Science". Discover. Retrieved 16 February 2018.

External links[edit]

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