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Douglas C Kreiner

Doug Kreiner is a Research Geologist at the Alaska Science Center.

Doug joined the USGS in late 2016 following 5 and a half years in the mineral exploration industry. His research involves field-based studies of fluid-rock interactions in the upper crust and the time-space genesis of mineral deposits with a particular interest in the links between regional scale tectonic processes and metallogenesis of Cu and Au dominant systems. Current projects focus on the metallogenic evolution of eastern interior Alaska, characterization, documentation and geochronology of porphyry deposits across Alaska, developing a mineral systems framework for Alaska, and attempting to understand where, how, and why critical mineral enrichments occur in Alaska mineral systems. Kreiner earned a BS in Geosciences and Environmental Studies at Northland College (2004), his M.S. from Colorado State University (2006) and his PhD from University of Arizona (2011).

Professional Experience

  • 2016 - Present    Research Geologist, USGS Alaska Science Center

Education and Certifications

  • Ph.D.   2011   University of Arizona

  • M.S.    2006  Colorado State University

  • B.S.    2004   Northland College  Geosciences and Environmental Studies

Science and Products

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Half-meter-thick quartz veins cut across outcrops of granitic gneiss on Divide Mountain along the Alaska-Yukon border

Alaska Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI)

Our objective is to provide a strategic framework for planning, coordination, and execution of the USGS Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) in Alaska. Earth MRI aims to improve knowledge of the U.S. geologic framework through new geological and geophysical mapping and to identify areas that have the potential to contain undiscovered critical mineral resources.
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Mineral Resources Program, Alaska Science Center
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Alaska Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI)

Our objective is to provide a strategic framework for planning, coordination, and execution of the USGS Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) in Alaska. Earth MRI aims to improve knowledge of the U.S. geologic framework through new geological and geophysical mapping and to identify areas that have the potential to contain undiscovered critical mineral resources.
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Half-meter-thick quartz veins cut across outcrops of granitic gneiss on Divide Mountain along the Alaska-Yukon border

Tectonic and Metallogenic Evolution of the Yukon-Tanana Upland, Alaska

The Yukon-Tanana upland in eastern interior Alaska is a geologically complex block containing deposits of base-metal, platinum-group-element, and gold-silver-copper mineralization. It also hosts numerous mineral systems that are known or suspected to contain critical minerals.
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Mineral Resources Program, Alaska Science Center, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center
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Tectonic and Metallogenic Evolution of the Yukon-Tanana Upland, Alaska

The Yukon-Tanana upland in eastern interior Alaska is a geologically complex block containing deposits of base-metal, platinum-group-element, and gold-silver-copper mineralization. It also hosts numerous mineral systems that are known or suspected to contain critical minerals.
Learn More
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Darby Mountain outcrop of quartz monzonite towards the contact between the pluton and Paleozoic marbles

Petrology, Tectonic Setting, and Potential for Concentration of Rare Earth Elements (REE) and High Field Strength Elements (HFSE) in the High-K Darby and Kachauik Plutons, Seward Peninsula, Alaska

One of the geologic environments that host rare earth and other critical and strategic element deposits are alkaline intrusive rocks.
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Mineral Resources Program, Alaska Science Center
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Petrology, Tectonic Setting, and Potential for Concentration of Rare Earth Elements (REE) and High Field Strength Elements (HFSE) in the High-K Darby and Kachauik Plutons, Seward Peninsula, Alaska

One of the geologic environments that host rare earth and other critical and strategic element deposits are alkaline intrusive rocks.
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Whole Rock Major and Trace Element Chemistry for Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks from the Yukon-Tanana Upland, Alaska

This data set consists of one table containing whole-rock geochemistry data for 753 igneous and metamorphic rocks from the Yukon-Tanana upland of eastern interior Alaska, collected between 2013 and 2019. All materials were analyzed by ALS Global, between 2014 and 2020, by a range of different techniques, so multiple unique entries for a given element relate to different analytical methods or prepa
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Alaska Science Center

U-Pb zircon data for igneous units related to mineralization in the eastern Yukon-Tanana upland, eastern Alaska

From 2017-2019, framework metallogenic studies were completed in the eastern Yukon-Tanana upland in eastern Alaska. Numerous previously undated plutons known or suspected to contain components of porphyry, epithermal, and intrusion-related gold systems and associated deposit types were sampled for age and zircon trace element determinations between the Black Mountain area and the Yukon border, nor
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Mineral Resources Program, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center

Zircon Trace Element Data for Igneous Units Related to Mineralization in the Eastern Yukon-Tanana Upland and nearby areas, Eastern Alaska

From 2017-2019, framework metallogenic studies were completed in the eastern Yukon-Tanana upland in eastern Alaska. Numerous previously undated plutons known or suspected to contain components of porphyry, epithermal, and intrusion-related gold systems and associated deposit types were sampled for age and zircon trace element determinations between the Black Mountain area and the Yukon border, nor
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Alaska Science Center

Re-Os Geochronologic Data for Porphyry Deposits in the Yukon-Tanana Upland, Eastern Alaska

Rhenium-osmium (Re-Os) geochronology of molybdenite provides a tool to directly date mineralizing events in hydrothermal systems. In the Yukon-Tanana upland of eastern Alaska, numerous molybdenite-bearing porphyry occurrences are recognized. The deposits are related to middle and Late Cretaceous granitoids (Kreiner and others, 2019; 2020). Some of the porphyry districts have multiple superimposed
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Alaska Science Center

Data and results for GIS-based identification of areas that have resource potential for lode gold deposits in Alaska

This data release contains the analytical results and evaluated source data files of geospatial analyses for identifying areas in Alaska that may be prospective for different types of lode gold deposits, including orogenic, reduced-intrusion-related, epithermal, and gold-bearing porphyry. The spatial analysis is based on queries of statewide source datasets of aeromagnetic surveys, Alaska Geochemi
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Alaska Science Center

GIS and Data Tables for Focus Areas for Potential Domestic Nonfuel Sources of Rare Earth Elements

In response to Executive Order 13817 of December 20, 2017, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) coordinated with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to identify 35 nonfuel minerals or mineral materials considered critical to the economic and national security of the United States (U.S.). Acquiring information on possible domestic sources of these critical minerals is the basis of the USGS Earth Mappi
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Mineral Resources Program, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center
Children from the village of Elim, Alaska explore the beach outcrops with USGS geologists
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Filter Total Items: 13

Yukon River incision drove organic carbon burial in the Bering Sea during global climate changes at 2.6 and 1 Ma

River erosion affects the carbon cycle and thus climate by exporting terrigenous carbon to seafloor sediment and by nourishing CO2-consuming marine life. The Yukon River–Bering Sea system preserves rare source-to-sink records of these processes across profound changes in global climate during the past 5 million years (Ma). Here, we expand the terrestrial erosion record by dating terraces along the
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Alaska Science Center

Marine minerals in Alaska — A review of coastal and deep-ocean regions

Minerals occurring in marine environments span the globe and encompass a broad range of mineral categories, forming within varied geologic and oceanographic settings. They occur in coastal regions, either from the continuation or mechanical reworking of terrestrial mineralization, as well as in the deep ocean, from diagenetic, hydrogenetic, and hydrothermal processes. The oceans cover most of the

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Ecosystems, Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program, Alaska Science Center, Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Marine Minerals Laboratory

Focus areas for data acquisition for potential domestic resources of 11 critical minerals in Alaska—Aluminum, cobalt, graphite, lithium, niobium, platinum group elements, rare earth elements, tantalum, tin, titanium, and tungsten, chap. C of U.S. Geologic

Phase 2 of the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) focuses on geologic belts that are favorable for hosting mineral systems that may contain select critical minerals. Phase 1 of the Earth MRI program focused on rare earth elements (REE), and phase 2 adds aluminum, cobalt, graphite, lithium, niobium, platinum-group metals, tantalum, tin, titanium, and tungsten. This report describes the
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Energy and Minerals, Mineral Resources Program, Alaska Science Center

Alaska focus area definition for data acquisition for potential domestic sources of critical minerals in Alaska for antimony, barite, beryllium, chromium, fluorspar, hafnium, magnesium, manganese, uranium, vanadium, and zirconium

Phase 3 of the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) focuses on geologic belts that are favorable for hosting mineral systems that could contain the critical minerals antimony, barite, beryllium, chromium, fluorspar, hafnium, magnesium, manganese, uranium, vanadium, and zirconium. Prior phases of the Earth MRI program in Alaska focused only on rare earth elements, aluminum, cobalt, graphi
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Energy and Minerals, Mineral Resources Program, Alaska Science Center

Geospatial analysis delineates lode gold prospectivity in Alaska

Comprehensive, data-driven geographic information system analyses utilize publicly available lithologic, geochemical, geophysical, and mineral occurrence datasets to delineate gold resource potential in Alaska. These prospectivity analyses successfully identify areas containing known lode gold occurrences, expand areas of high prospectivity around known occurrences, improve the precision of deline
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Ecosystems, Alaska Science Center

GIS-based identification of areas that have resource potential for lode gold in Alaska

Several comprehensive, data-driven geographic information system (GIS) analyses were conducted to assess prospectivity for lode gold in Alaska. These analyses use available geospatial datasets of lithologic, geochemical, mineral occurrence, and geophysical data to build models for recognizing different types of gold deposits within physiographic units defined by stream drainage basins that are app
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Ecosystems, Energy and Minerals, Mineral Resources Program, Alaska Science Center, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center

Deposit classification scheme for the Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative Global Geochemical Database

A challenge for the global economy is to meet the growing demand for commodities used in today’s advanced technologies. Critical minerals are commodities (for example, elements, compounds, minerals) deemed vital to the economic and national security of individual countries that are vulnerable to supply disruption. The national geological agencies of Australia, Canada, and the United States recentl
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Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center

Systems-deposits-commodities-critical minerals table for the earth mapping resources initiative

To define and prioritize focus areas across the United States with resource potential for 35 critical minerals in a few years’ time, the U.S Geological Survey Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) required an efficient approach to streamline workflow. A mineral systems approach based on current understanding of how ore deposits that contain critical minerals form and relate to broader geo
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Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center

Tectonic and magmatic controls on the metallogenesis of porphyry deposits in Alaska

Porphyry Cu and Mo deposits and occurrences are found throughout Alaska; they formed episodically during repeated subduction and arc-continent collisions spanning the Silurian to Quaternary. Porphyry systems occur in continental-margin and island arcs, which are broadly grouped into pre-accretionary or post-accretionary arcs. Pre-Mesozoic occurrences formed in continental or island arcs prior to a
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Ecosystems, Climate Adaptation Science Centers, Mineral Resources Program, Alaska Science Center, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center

Ancient rivers and critical minerals in eastern Alaska

No abstract available.
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Alaska Science Center

Evaluation of the analytical methods used to determine the elemental concentrations found in the stream geochemical dataset compiled for Alaska

A recent U.S. Geological Survey data compilation of stream-sediment geochemistry for Alaska contains decades of analyses collected under numerous Federal and State programs. The compiled data were determined by various analytical methods. Some samples were reanalyzed by a different analytical method than the original, resulting in some elements having concentrations reported by multiple analytical
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Ecosystems, Alaska Science Center

Links between tectonics, magmatism, and mineralization in the formation of Late Cretaceous porphyry systems in the Yukon-Tanana upland, eastern Alaska, USA

Cretaceous-Paleocene porphyry Cu(±Mo±Au) occurrences are scattered throughout the Yukon-Tanana upland in eastern Alaska. Known occurrences in eastern Alaska are poorly characterized, despite a resurgence in exploration. Porphyry deposits in the upland are emplaced into structurally complex metamorphic rocks representing a variety of tectonic environments, resulting in diverse alteration and minera
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Alaska Science Center

Non-USGS Publications**

Kreiner, Douglas C., and Mark D. Barton. "Sulfur-poor intense acid hydrothermal alteration: A distinctive hydrothermal environment." Ore Geology Reviews 88 (2017): 174-187.
Kreiner, Douglas C., and Mark D. Barton. "High-level alteration in iron-oxide (-Cu-Au)(’IOCG’) vein systems, examples near Copiapó Chile." Society for Geology Applied to Mineral Deposits, 11th, Antofagasta, Chile, Extended Abstracts (2011): 497-499.
Barton, Mark D., James D. Girardi, Douglas C. Kreiner, Eric Seedorff, Lukas Zurcher, John H. Dilles, Gordon B. Haxel, David A. Johnson, R. C. Steininger, and W. M. Pennell. "Jurassic igneous-related metallogeny of southwestern North America." Great Basin Evolution and Metallogeny: Reno, Nevada, Geological Society of Nevada (2011): 373-396.

**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.

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