[3] Raymo has done pioneering work on the origin of the ice ages, the geologic temperature record of the Earth, and past sea level change, publishing over 100 peer-reviewed scientific articles.

Her work underlies fundamental ideas in paleoceanography including the uplift weathering hypothesis, the "41,000-year problem," the Pliocene sea-level paradox, and the Lisiecki-Raymo δ18O stack.

[11][12] According to this hypothesis, tectonic uplift of areas such as the Himalayas and Tibetan plateau over the last 40 million years contributed to surface cooling and thus the Ice Ages.

[17] Raymo is known for her research using sedimentological and geochemical data from deep sea cores to better understand how the ocean's thermohaline circulation changed in the past, as well as how Earth's Milankovitch cycles have influenced the pacing of ice ages over the Pleistocene and Pliocene.

Raymo has also made contributions to the stratigraphy and dating of the past by means of oxygen isotope analysis of foraminifera from deep ocean sediments.

This included publishing the first continuous oxygen isotope stratigraphy and time scale of the northern hemisphere Ice Ages from DSDP Site 607.

In an analysis of collapsed polar ice sheets during the stage 11 Marine Isotope Interglacial (MIS), Raymo and Jerry X. Mitrovica computed global sea-level variations over the past 500 kyr.

Additionally, the researchers performed a Monte Carlo parameter where they observed mantle viscosity, lithospheric thickness, and the duration of the break during MIS 11 (Raymo & Mitrovica, 2012).

In a research paper by Raymo and her colleagues, they explained that the majority of existing sea level projections focus on shorter timelines of less than 2000 years, however, longer timeline projections are critical for predicting potential future sea-level heights to effectively develop long-term sea level defense infrastructure (Kemp et al., 2015).

[29] The demand to present location-specific details regarding future sea level projections in the midst of climate change is a critical aspect of climatology research because of the growing concentration of socioeconomic and residential activity along global coastlines.

[8][33] In 2014, she received the Milutin Milankovic Medal[34][31] at the European Geosciences Union’s annual meeting for her use of geochemistry, geology and geophysics to solve paleoclimatology’s big problems.