News: EAS

Muawia Barazangi, professor emeritus of earth and atmospheric sciences, died March 30 in Ithaca at the age of 80. Read more

Swelling colloids – mixtures, such as milk and paint, in which particles are suspended in a substance and which can grow up to 100 times larger under certain temperatures – could be used to fix flow pathways in underground geothermal systems, a problem that has hobbled investment in geothermal energy. Read more

Muawia Barazangi, professor emeritus in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Cornell University, has passed away. Barazangi was known as a pillar of the EAS community and a foundational presence in the department. "Barazangi was one of our department's more prominent scholars. I have known him my entire professional career," said Geoff Abers, the William & Katherine Snee Professor in Geological Sciences and the chair of the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences. "He was also a warm, deeply caring individual who made an impact on many people’s lives. He will be missed." In... Read more

By the end of this century, Cornell’s Flavio Lehner and others said that megadroughts – extended drought events that can last two decades – will be more severe and longer in the western U.S. than they are today. Read more

Angeline Pendergrass, assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, is the recipient of a 2022 Outstanding Early Career Award presented by the American Meteorological Society (AMS) Scientific and Technological Activities Commission (STAC). The award recognizes Pendergrass’ fundamental contributions to understanding the dynamics of extreme precipitation and its response to greenhouse gas forcing, the radiative forcing caused by greenhouse gases that humans emit. Pendergrass’ area of study is Earth's hydrologic cycle. Her research focuses on extreme precipitation and... Read more

A new Cornell study could help inform the development of offshore wind farms by providing detailed models characterizing the frequency, intensity and height of low-level jet streams over the Atlantic coast. Read more

For the Northeastern U.S., the year 2021 was third warmest – at an average of 49.5 degrees, which ties the year 2020 – since 1895, says the Northeast Regional Climate Center. Read more

Far above the isle of La Palma in Spain’s Canary Islands, two Cornell scientists closely examined the airborne effects of the erupting Cumbre Vieja volcano. Read more

A new study co-led by a Cornell researcher has identified serpentinite – a green rock that looks a bit like snakeskin and holds fluids in its mineral structures – as a key driver of the oxygen recycling process. Read more

New research co-authored by Esteban Gazel, associate professor of earth and atmospheric sciences, connects the geochemical fingerprint of the Galápagos plume with mantle materials 900 miles away, underneath Panama and Costa Rica. Read more