Dr. Thomas Ronge

This week, the SODCO Advisory Board has gathered in College Station, TX for its first meeting. This meeting will help to chart the course ahead for the U.S. SciOD community. A final report will be posted on the SODCO website following the meeting.

Bauhaus-style artwork depicting the sun, oceans, seafloor, and core as circles. Underneath the different stages and timeline of scientific ocean drilling are listed.

Always liked the simplicity of the Bauhaus-style.
Scientific Ocean Drilling 1960s - today.

Scientists are trying to solve the mystery of whether global warming is speeding up. A new study says it has the answer | CNN Is the world getting hotter, faster? It’s a big question which has been puzzling and dividing scientists for years. A new paper says it has the answer, and it’s not good news.

"Earth warmed by about 0.2°C per decade between 1970 and 2015. Then, between 2015 and 2025, it warmed by 0.35°, the study found — a 75% jump.

It’s a “significant” increase & higher rate than any previous decade since record keeping began in 1880, the paper concluded." share.google/tYiqi7QS5agw...

"the measured values suggest that with a hypothetical 1 m of relative sea-level rise, 31–37% more land and 48–68% more people (increasing estimates to 77–132 million) would fall below sea level."
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Check out this article in @science.org using IODP Expedition 397 data! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ady7970.

The team analyzed sediment cores collected off the coast of Portugal to better understand a major transition point in the Earth's climate around 2.7 million years ago.

SODCO is hiring a Science Program Officer based at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. If you’re a scientist with excellent organizational skills and excited to advance the next phase in U.S. scientific ocean drilling, check it out: academic.careers.columbia.edu#!/177103

Schematic diagram showing seafloor/sub-seafloor sampling technologies that might be utilized for SODCO expeditions. Modified after FUTURE 2024 Team

🚨If you're working on a US scientific ocean drilling proposal @us-sciod.bsky.social just added several info pages on:

The Operational Planning Process
Vessels and Platforms
Coring and Downhole Measurements
Containerized Laboratories

sodco.org#proposals

Schematic diagram showing seafloor/sub-seafloor sampling technologies that might be utilized for SODCO expeditions. Modified after FUTURE 2024 Team

🚨If you're working on a US scientific ocean drilling proposal @us-sciod.bsky.social just added several info pages on:

The Operational Planning Process
Vessels and Platforms
Coring and Downhole Measurements
Containerized Laboratories

sodco.org#proposals

Which type of chocolate has the lowest climate impact? A lifecycle analysis compares dark, milk, white, and compound chocolate, and detects the surprising environmental burden of different ingredients.

A super important question in my view: which type of CHOCOLATE 🍫 has the lowest climate impact? 😉

www.anthropocenemagazine.org/2026/02/whic...

SODCO at Texas A&M is hiring for the role of Chemistry Technician!

Learn more and apply at tamus.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/TAMU_External/job/SODCO-Chemistry-Technician_R-090805-1

📷 Erick Bravo, IODP JRSO

Over the years my marine geology career has drifted a bit away from its beginnings at foram(inifera) micropaleontology, but this episode was an amazing throwback. Even if you don't care for or haven't ever heard of forams, this ep. is worth it. Just imagine single-celled organisms the size of a 🏀!

Flickering glacial climate may have shaped early human evolution Researchers have identified a ‘tipping point’ about 2.7 million years ago when global climate conditions switched from being relatively warm and stable to cold

Flickering glacial climate may have shaped early human evolution. Results from #IODP #exp397 www.cam.ac.uk/research/new...

Onset of millennial climate variability with the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation The Quaternary Period (the last 2.58 Ma) was characterized by the waxing and waning of large ice sheets in the Northern Hemisphere. Using sediment sequences from the Iberian Margin, we demonstrate tha...

Very proud of this one:

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Happening tomorrow at 2pm! sodco.org/operational-...

If you work in US scientific ocean drilling, there is still time to sign up for tomorrow's @us-sciod.bsky.social webinar!

Mantle plume versus plate tectonics - @theU U-led study leans toward tectonics in long debate over why so much magma appeared during continental break that formed the North Atlantic.

Glad to share an article by U. of Utah Science Communications on a new paper by IODP Exp 396 scientists on how basalts reveal the formation on an ocean: attheu.utah.edu/research/man... @us-sciod.bsky.social
(Link to article within)

Mapping tipping risks from Antarctic ice basins under global warming - Nature Climate Change Climate change threatens the future of the Antarctic Ice Sheet. Here the authors show that individual drainage basins have different thresholds and loss patterns, suggesting the need to consider the d...

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

@cytheropteron.bsky.social will be there and represent @us-sciod.bsky.social. 🙋‍♂️

Application deadline 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆, February 20th!
Details below 👇

We've had a chill here & there—but winter didn't really show up in the Brazos Valley this year

🌡️This winter is TIED as the 10th warmest Dec-Feb on record in #bcstx (56.1°, +2.8° above average)

🔴Long-term data shows us: winters are not only getting warmer, but shorter here

Check out this workshop on submarine landslide dynamics! Applications are due March 1.

Landslide dynamics, ocean currents, and carbon cycling on the southeastern U.S. Atlantic margins
🗓️ When: May 19-21
📍 Where: Austin, TX

More info at usoceandiscovery.org/workshop-landslide-dynamics/

To quote Charles Darwin on his 217th birthday

"I hate every wave of the ocean, with a fervor, which you, who have only seen the green waters of the shore, can never understand"

Research vessel Sonne (1) braving a Southern Ocean storm with 10m waves. A big wave is seen crashing over the ship‘s bow.

OTD 2001 Rammstein released „Hier kommt die Sonne“
I’ll never forget being on R/V Sonne in the Southern Ocean, in the middle of the night, weathering an epic storm with 14m waves, stumbling onto the bridge for a phone call, hearing the 1st mate blasting this song over the speakers. What. A. Legend!

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science!

Follow these awesome women ocean scientists, many of whom I'm proud to call colleagues and delighted to call friends.

🧪🦑🌍🐟

go.bsky.app/7MdiLgo

hanging quilt with the word Love Data Week and Vote for Challenged Stitches

If you have an email address with a Big Ten institution, then please vote for Challenged Stitches: a quilt with banned book data. This advocacy quilt utilizes an analog data visualization for @lovedataweek.bsky.social from Penn State. #QuiltSky
Vote/read full description at btaa.org/technology/l...

SODCO invites you to a webinar on the new operational planning process for NSF drilling proposals. We will introduce new planning materials, outline how the operations plan will be constructed, and answer questions.

Learn more and register at sodco.org/operational-planning

a cat is crawling on the floor with the words `` you know what time it is '' below it . Alt: a cat is crawling on the floor with the words `` you know what time it is '' below it .

🚨It's time to dust-off your shelved scientific ocean drilling proposals!
To help science teams prepare for developing an NSF drilling proposal, our office (SODCO) will host a webinar to walk proponents through the operational planning process.
Sign up here:
columbiauniversity.zoom.us/meeting/regi...

Hundreds of new species found in a hidden world beneath the Pacific As demand for critical metals grows, scientists have taken a rare, close look at life on the deep Pacific seabed where mining may soon begin. Over five years and 160 days at sea, researchers…

Hundreds of new species found in a hidden world beneath the Pacific

The Chemistry Lab at Texas A&M University's department for Scientific Ocean Drilling.

🚨Job alert🚨
Want to work as a Chem Tech for @us-sciod.bsky.social at Texas A&M University? Then apply below!
Responsibilities include prep lab containers for seagoing expeditions, mobilization/demobilization, sailing to operate instruments at sea...
tamus.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/TAMU_Externa...

The account formerly known as @TheJR on the other site is finally on here too! Follow them for all things Scientific Ocean Drilling and more!
Also check out this starter pack for other people here that work in SciOD.
go.bsky.app/DkM9Xqc