Tectonics, Mountains & Ice Ages
Laureates: Peter Molnar & Maureen E. Raymo
About This Prize
The 2014 Crafoord Prize in Geosciences was awarded jointly to Peter Molnar (University of Colorado Boulder) and Maureen E. Raymo (Lamont-Doherty Observatory, Columbia University) “for fundamental contributions to the understanding of how tectonic processes have influenced Earth’s climate.” Molnar’s work revealed how the uplift of the Tibetan Plateau and Himalayan mountains altered atmospheric circulation patterns and triggered Cenozoic cooling. Raymo pioneered the use of deep-sea sediment records to reconstruct past climate and sea level, demonstrating the links between orbital forcing, CO₂ levels, and the waxing and waning of ice sheets.
★ Laureate Lectures
Maureen E. Raymo
Lamont-Doherty Observatory, Columbia University, USA
“Climate Change, CO₂, and Sea Level: Past is Prologue”
Raymo presents her research on Plio-Pleistocene climate records, showing how past warm periods with elevated CO₂ produced sea levels 6–20 meters higher than today — with profound implications for future projections.
Peter Molnar
University of Colorado Boulder, USA
“From the Building of High Mountains and Plateaus to the Initiation of Ice Ages, via Tropical Islands”
Molnar traces the chain of causation from Himalayan and Tibetan uplift through altered monsoon circulation, enhanced silicate weathering and CO₂ drawdown, to the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation — with an unexpected detour through Indonesian island arcs.
Key Concepts
- • Tectonic–Climate Coupling: How mountain building and plate rearrangements alter atmospheric circulation, ocean currents, and the global carbon cycle
- • Silicate Weathering: Chemical breakdown of silicate minerals that consumes atmospheric CO₂, acting as Earth’s long-term thermostat over millions of years
- • Orbital Forcing: Milankovitch cycles (eccentricity, obliquity, precession) that modulate ice sheet growth and decay on 10⁴–10⁵ year timescales
- • Paleoceanography: Using deep-sea sediment cores and oxygen isotope ratios (δ¹⁸O) to reconstruct past ocean temperatures, ice volumes, and sea levels
- • Cenozoic Cooling: The 50-million-year transition from a greenhouse world to the modern icehouse, driven by declining CO₂ and tectonic reorganization