Columbia University New York, N.Y. 10027 Office of Public Information (212) 854-5573
How deep are the oceans? What was the largest earthquake? How does El Niño affect the world's weather? And how do tree rings and corals reveal climates of the past?
The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University in Palisades, N.Y., will provide the answers to these and other questions brought by curious minds to its open house on Saturday, Oct. 14.
Once a year, Lamont-Doherty invites students of all ages, from kindergarteners to grandparents, to explore the world-famous earth sciences research center. In exhibits, demonstrations and lectures in laboratory buildings and under large canopy tents throughout the campus scientists and staff will explain the observatory's cutting-edge research, display the equipment and instruments they use, and answer questions on earthquakes, volcanoes, the seafloor, climate, oceans, rocks, ice sheets, hydrothermal vents and other earth phenomena.
Visitors will have opportunities to examine tree rings, corals, deep-sea sediments and other clues to earth's past climate. They will be able to make their own "earthquake" and see how seismic waves are recorded and interpreted. They can catch a ground-penetrating radar in action, get a three-dimensional view of earth from space, cruise the Internet and examine images from the microworld. In one "feets-on" demonstration, they will learn how the earth's surface behaves sometimes like a solid and sometimes like a liquid.
Scheduled lectures include: "Dinosaurs," "Fire and Ice: Active Volcanoes Beneath the Antarctic Ice Sheets," "Big Rocks that Fall from the Sky," "In the Belly of the Beast: Science Aboard a Nuclear Submarine," "Predicting El Niño," and "The Lore of Diamonds."
Young explorers can participate in a scavenger hunt for knowledge by searching for answers to earth science questions among the exhibits. A workshop for teachers will focus on current instructional software.
Highlighting this year's open house will be an exhibit on Lamont's pioneering and continuing research in seismology--the study of seismic waves to understand earthquakes, underground nuclear weapons tests and the planet's interior. Historical photographs and equipment showing Lamont's integral role in developing global seismic networks and instruments, including one deployed in 1969 by Apollo astronauts to record "moonquakes," will be on view.
The event is free and open to the public from 10 A.M. to 4 P.M. Visitors may park at the IBM Executive Conference Center, 1.4 miles north of the observatory on Route 9W in Palisades, N.Y., where free shuttle service to Lamont will be provided. Food and beverages may be purchased at the open house. For further information, including access instructions for persons with disabilities, telephone (914) 359-2900.
Free bus service to Lamont-Doherty from Columbia'a Morningside Heights campus in Manhattan will be available. Buses will depart from 116th and Broadway at 9, 10 and 11 A.M. and from the observatory at 1, 2 and 3 P.M. Reservations are required and may be made by calling the Department of Geological Sciences at (914) 365-8550 by 3 P.M. Friday, Oct. 13.
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