Career
Maureen East. Raymo is an American paleoclimatologist and marine geologist. She is a fellow of the American Geophysical Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. one of the foremost and influential figures in the last 30 years..She’s been an important role model to women scientists—you can get to the top". Raymo earned her reputation particularly from developing (along with William Ruddiman and Philip Froelich) the Uplift-Weathering Hypothesis.
According to this hypothesis, tectonic uplift of areas such as the Tibetan plateau has contributed to surface cooling.
During phases of mountain range formation, there are at the surface many minerals which can chemically interact with carbon dioxide. During the process of chemical weathering, there is a Netto removal of Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, as a result of which the temperature on the ground decreases.
She and her colleagues initially suggested that measuring the proportions of isotopes of strontium in deep ocean sediments could substantiate the Uplift-Weathering Hypothesis but soon recognized that ambiguities in the sources of Senior to the ocean existed. Over twenty years later, the hypothesis continues to be debated and studied.
Raymo is also well known for her interdisciplinary work, particularly using palaeoceanography to better understand the thermohaline circulation and pacing of ice ages over the Pleistocene and Pliocene and how they link to changes in orbital forcing and Milankovitch climate dynamics.
Raymo, along with her collaborator Lorraine Lisiecki, has made important contributions to palaeoclimate science and stratigraphic by means of oxygen isotope analysis of foraminifera from sample cores of deep ocean sediments including publishing the widely used 5 million year LR04 benthic foraminifera stable oxygen isotope stack record. A list of Raymo"s current projects can be found on her website.