Amy Gilmer

Biography

I joined the USGS GEC Science Center in Denver, Colorado in 2017 as a Postdoctoral Fellow. I am interested in the role magmatic processes play in driving plate tectonics, building mountains, forming of volcanic belts and their associated geologic hazards, and forming hydrothermal ore deposits. I am working on the Cenozoic Landscape Evolution of the Southern Rocky Mountains Project investigating  the Platoro and Dulce dike swarms and post-caldera intrusions of the Platoro caldera complex and how they relate to the San Juan magma reservoir, Rio Grande extension-related magmatism, and ore deposition in the region.

Before joining the USGS, my research focused on the primary magmatic features and petrogenesis of the Don Manuel igneous complex and associated porphyry copper system in the Andean Cordillera of central Chile. I also worked for the Virginia Division of Geology and Mineral Resources conducting mineral resource assessments and geologic mapping in the Virginia Blue Ridge, Piedmont, and Coastal Plain. 

Publications

Gilmer, A. K., Sparks, R. S. J., Rust, A., Tapster, S., Webb, A. D., and Barfod, D. N., in press, The volcanic-porphyry copper deposit connection: Insights from the Don Manuel igneous complex, central Chile: Geological Society of America Bulletin.

Blundy, J., Mavrogenes, J., Tattitch, B., Sparks, S., and Gilmer, A. 2015, Generation of porphyry copper deposits by gas-brine reaction in volcanic arcs. Nature Geoscience.

Pratt, T. L., Horton, J. W., Spears, D. B., Gilmer, A. K., and McNamara, D. E., 2014, The 2011 Virginia Mw 5.8 earthquake: Insights from seismic reflection imaging into the influence of older structures on eastern US seismicity. Geological Society of America Special Papers, 509, SPE509-16.

Shah, A. K., Horton, J. W., Burton, W. C., Spears, D. B., and Gilmer, A. K., 2014, Subsurface geologic features of the 2011 central Virginia earthquakes revealed by airborne geophysics. Geological Society of America Special Papers, 509, SPE509-17.

Gilmer, A. K., Kyle, J. R., Connelly, J. N., and Mathur, R. D., and Henry, C. D., 2003, Extension of Laramide magmatism in southwestern North America into Trans-Pecos Texas: Geology, v. 31, no. 5, p. 447-450.