Dallas Abbott

Dallas Abbott
Alma mater	Massachusetts Institute of Technology (B.S. Earth and Planetary Sciences, 1974) Columbia University, Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory (M.S. Marine Geology, 1978; Ph.D. Marine Geology and Geophysics, 1982)
Occupation(s)	Geophysicist, Adjunct research scientist
Years active	1974–present
Employer	Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University (adjunct research scientist since 1996)
Known for	Research on underwater impact events, megatsunamis, cosmic dust, and Earth's geological evolution

Dallas Abbott is a geophysicist serving as an adjunct research scientist at the Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and participates in the Holocene Impact Working Group. Her investigations focus on underwater impact events, megatsunamis, cosmic dust, and their effects on climate patterns and Earth's geological evolution. Additionally, she has examined a major impact crater located in the Gulf of Maine.

Education and career

Abbott completed her Bachelor of Science in Earth and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1974. She then obtained a Master of Science in Marine Geology from Lamont–Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) at Columbia University in 1978, followed by a Ph.D. in Marine Geology with a minor in Geophysics from LDEO in 1982. During her graduate studies, Abbott was awarded the Boris Bakmeteff Fellowship in Fluid Mechanics and received the Bruce Heezen Prize.

Her professional experience includes academic appointments at Oregon State University and Barnard College. Since 1996, she has been an adjunct research scientist at LDEO. Beginning in 1990, Abbott has led or co-led LDEO’s summer undergraduate internship program, mentoring students in scientific research techniques, technical writing, and data interpretation.

Abbott has contributed to the editorial board of Precambrian Research and was honored as a Graduate Fellow at Columbia University.

Research

In 1994, Abbott and her collaborators introduced the first empirical model detailing the thermal history of Earth's mantle. Before this work, mantle evolution was primarily understood through theoretical frameworks or by assuming that Archean komatiites represented average mantle composition rather than localized hotspots.

Her studies in submarine geology uncovered that volcanic arcs contain a substantially higher number of active underwater volcanoes than previously recognized, as demonstrated by research published in 2024. Abbott also explored connections between submarine impacts and megatsunamis, including dating sedimentary deposits in southern Madagascar that may result from submarine landslides or extraterrestrial collisions.

In the area of cosmic dust research, Abbott identified tin-enriched particles within ice core samples and discovered tin-coated pelagic foraminifera in sediments from the Hudson River—marking the first recorded instance of such marine microfossils. This finding was later corroborated through similar observations in diatoms by her student Jiahua Wu (2024).

Within Precambrian geology, Abbott documented native iron aged approximately 2.0 billion years within India’s Chaibasa Formation; subsequent interpretations linked this to meteorite impacts. She investigated possible relationships between mantle plume activity and significant impact events during the Precambrian era.

Her tectonic research proposed that buoyant subduction processes occurred around 2.4 billion years ago, offering a potential explanation for variations observed in Archean continental crust formation.

In climate-related studies, Abbott analyzed the climatic anomaly dated to 536 AD, attributing its intensity to a combination of volcanic eruptions and cosmic dust deposition.

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.
• Abbott, Dallas, & Lyle, Mitchell (1984). Age of oceanic plates at subduction and volatile recycling. Geophysical Research Letters, 11(10), 951–954.
• Abbott, Dallas (1991). The case for accretion of the tectosphere by buoyant subduction. Geophysical Research Letters, 18(4), 585–588.
• 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.
• 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.
• Abbott, Dallas H. (2014). What caused terrestrial dust loading and climate downturns between A.D. 533 and 540? In Volcanism, Impacts, and Mass Extinctions: Causes and Effects. Geological Society of America.
• Abbott, Dallas & Menke, William (1990). Length of the global plate boundary at 2.4 Ga. Geology, 18(1), 58.
• Abbott, Dallas (2001). Oceanic upwelling and mantle-plume activity: Paleomagnetic tests of ideas on the source of the Fe in early Precambrian iron formations. In Mantle plumes: their identification through time. Geological Society of America.
• 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.
• Condie, Kent C., Abbott, Dallas, & Des Marais, David J. (2002). Preface. Journal of Geodynamics, 34(2), 159–162.
• 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.
• Abbott, Dallas H., & Isley, Ann E. (2002). Extraterrestrial influences on mantle plume activity. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 205(1-2), 53–62.
• Abbott, Dallas H., & Isley, Ann E. (2003). Reply to Comment on ‘Extraterrestrial influences on mantle plume activity’ by Andrew Glikson. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 215(3-4), 429–432.

See also

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