Dallas Abbott

Dallas Abbott is a geophysicist and adjunct research scientist at the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and is part of the Holocene Impact Working Group. ^[1] Her research focuses on submarine impacts, megatsunamis, cosmic dust, and their effects on climate and Earth's geological history.^[2] She also has presented research regarding a large impact crater in the Gulf of Maine.^[3]

Education and career

Abbott received her B.S. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Earth and Planetary Sciences) in 1974; her M.S. from the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University (Marine Geology) in 1978; and her Ph.D. from the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory (Marine Geology with a Geophysics minor) in 1982.^[4] During her graduate studies, she received the Boris Bakmeteff Fellowship in Fluid Mechanics and the Bruce Heezen Prize.^[4]

She held academic positions at Oregon State University and Barnard College. Also, she has been an adjunct research scientist at LDEO of Columbia University since 1996.^[5] Since 1990, Abbott has directed or co-directed LDEO's summer undergraduate internship program, which trains students in scientific research methods, technical writing, and data analysis. ^[6]

She previously served on the editorial board of Precambrian Research and was named a Graduate Fellow of Columbia University.^[7]

Research

In 1994, Abbott and colleagues published the first empirical thermal history of Earth's mantle.^[8] Prior to their work, most discussions of mantle evolution relied on theoretical models or assumed that Archean komatiites represented the average Archean mantle rather than isolated hotspot regions.^[9]

Her research in submarine geology has shown that volcanic arcs contain significantly more active underwater volcanoes than previously recorded in standard databases, as documented in a 2024 study.^[10] Abbott has also investigated potential links between submarine impacts and megatsunamis, including dating deposits in southern Madagascar that may have originated from submarine landslides or extraterrestrial impacts.^[5] Abbott has studied cosmic dust deposition in Earth’s geological record, identifying tin-rich particles in ice cores and discovering tin-coated pelagic foraminifera in Hudson River sediments—the first documented case of such marine microfossils. ^[1]This finding was later confirmed in diatoms by her student, Jiahua Wu (2024).^[11]

In the field of Precambrian geology, Abbott documented 2.0 billion-year-old native iron in the Chaibasa Formation of India,^[12] later interpreted by other researchers as resulting from a meteorite impact.^[13] Her work also explored correlations between mantle plume activity and the timing of large impact events during the Precambrian.^[14]

Her tectonic research proposed the concept of buoyant subduction around 2.4 billion years ago, which may account for differences in the formation of Archean continental crust.^[9]

In climate research, Abbott has examined the 536 AD climate anomaly, attributing its severity to a combination of volcanic activity and cosmic dust deposition.^[15]

Selected publications

• Abbott, D. H.; Hoffman, S. E. (1984). "Archaean plate tectonics revisited 1. Heat flow, spreading rate, and the age of subducting oceanic lithosphere and their effects on the origin and evolution of continents". Tectonics. 3 (4): 429–448. doi:10.1029/tc003i004p00429. ISSN 0278-7407.
• Abbott, Dallas; Lyle, Mitchell (1984). "Age of oceanic plates at subduction and volatile recycling". Geophysical Research Letters. 11 (10): 951–954. doi:10.1029/gl011i010p00951. ISSN 0094-8276.
• Abbott, Dallas (1991). "The case for accretion of the tectosphere by buoyant subduction". Geophysical Research Letters. 18 (4): 585–588. doi:10.1029/91gl00813. ISSN 0094-8276.
• Abbott, Dallas H.; Drury, Rebecca; Mooney, Walter D. (1997). "Continents as lithological icebergs: the importance of buoyant lithospheric roots". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 149 (1–4): 15–27. doi:10.1016/s0012-821x(97)00065-4. ISSN 0012-821X.
• Abbott, Dallas; Sparks, David; Herzberg, Claude; Mooney, Walter; Nikishin, Anatoly; Zhang, Yu Shen (2000). "Quantifying Precambrian crustal extraction: the root is the answer". Tectonophysics. 322 (1–2): 163–190. doi:10.1016/s0040-1951(00)00062-7. ISSN 0040-1951.
• Abbott, Dallas H.; Breger, Dee; Biscaye, Pierre E.; Barron, John A.; Juhl, Robert A.; McCafferty, Patrick (2014), "What caused terrestrial dust loading and climate downturns between A.D. 533 and 540?", Volcanism, Impacts, and Mass Extinctions: Causes and Effects, Geological Society of America, doi:10.1130/2014.2505(23), ISBN 978-0-8137-2505-5, retrieved 2025-05-27
• Abbott, Dallas; Menke, William (1990). <0058:lotgpb>2.3.co;2 "Length of the global plate boundary at 2.4 Ga". Geology. 18 (1): 58. doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1990)018<0058:lotgpb>2.3.co;2. ISSN 0091-7613.
• Abbott, Dallas; Isley, Ann (2001), "Oceanic upwelling and mantle-plume activity: Paleomagnetic tests of ideas on the source of the Fe in early Precambrian iron formations", Mantle plumes: their identification through time, Geological Society of America, ISBN 978-0-8137-2352-5, retrieved 2025-05-27
• Isley, Ann E.; Abbott, Dallas H. (2002). "Implications of the Temporal Distribution of High‐Mg Magmas for Mantle Plume Volcanism through Time". The Journal of Geology. 110 (2): 141–158. doi:10.1086/338553. ISSN 0022-1376.
• Condie, Kent C; Abbott, Dallas; Des Marais, David J (2002). "Preface". Journal of Geodynamics. 34 (2): 159–162. doi:10.1016/s0264-3707(02)00018-2. ISSN 0264-3707.
• Abbott, Dallas H; Isley, Ann E (2002). "The intensity, occurrence, and duration of superplume events and eras over geological time". Journal of Geodynamics. 34 (2): 265–307. doi:10.1016/s0264-3707(02)00024-8. ISSN 0264-3707.
• Abbott, Dallas H; Isley, Ann E (2002). "Extraterrestrial influences on mantle plume activity". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 205 (1–2): 53–62. doi:10.1016/s0012-821x(02)01013-0. ISSN 0012-821X.
• Abbott, Dallas H; Isley, Ann E (2003-10-30). "Reply to Comment on 'Extraterrestrial influences on mantle plume activity' by Andrew Glikson". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 215 (3–4): 429–432. doi:10.1016/s0012-821x(03)00459-x. ISSN 0012-821X.