Kathleen Springer
Biography
I study geologic deposits associated with desert wetlands, pluvial lakes, and anything else I can get my hands on to query the paleoclimate record of the American Southwest. I was trained as a geologist and paleontologist, with B.S. and M.S. degrees in Geological Sciences from the University of California, Riverside, and spent the first part of my career at the San Bernardino County Museum where I was the Senior Curator of Geological Sciences. Now with the USGS, my research focuses on deciphering paleo-depositional environments of Quaternary localities (paleowetlands and pluvial lakes) throughout the Mojave Desert and southern Great Basin, stressing the application of detailed stratigraphic and chronologic controls. I also use detailed geologic mapping to understand how hydrologic systems in the desert responded to past episodes of climate change and tectonic activity. In addition, I am a lifelong geoscience educator and communicator, specializing in earthquake science messaging by raising awareness of earthquake hazards and risk and promoting natural disaster preparedness.
Science and Products
Quaternary Hydroclimate Records of Spring Ecosystems
Desert springs and wetlands are among the most biologically productive, diverse, and fragile ecosystems on Earth. They are home to thousands of rare, endemic, and endangered plants and animals and reflect the availability and health of emergent groundwater. Despite the ecological importance of these wetlands, our knowledge of how they might respond to predicted future climate change is limited...
Paleohydrology of Desert Wetlands
Springs and wetlands are among the most highly threatened ecosystems on Earth. Although geographically limited, they support more than 20% of all the threatened and endangered species in the United States. Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey are examining the rock record to determine how springs and wetlands responded to abrupt climate change during prehistoric times and the recent...
Climatically driven displacement on the Eglington fault, Las Vegas, Nevada
The Eglington fault is one of several intrabasinal faults in the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada and is the only one recognized as a source for significant earthquakes. Its broad warp displaces late Pleistocene paleo-spring deposits of the Las Vegas Formation, which record hydrologic fluctuations that occurred in response to millennial and submillennial-...
Springer, Kathleen B.; Pigati, Jeffrey S.Mammut pacificus sp. nov., a newly recognized species of mastodon from the Pleistocene of western North America
A new species of mastodon from the Pleistocene of western North America, Mammut pacificus sp. nov. is herein recognized, with specimens identified throughout California and from two localities in southern Idaho. This new taxon differs from the contemporaneous M. americanum in having narrower teeth, most prominently in M3/m3, as...
Dooley Jr., Alton C; Scott, Eric; Green, Jeremy; Springer, Kathleen B.; Dooley, Brett; Smith, Gregory J.The Las Vegas Formation
The Las Vegas Formation was established in 1965 to designate the distinctive light-colored, fine-grained, fossil-bearing sedimentary deposits exposed in and around the Las Vegas Valley, Nevada. In a coeval designation, the sediments were subdivided into informal units with stratigraphic and chronologic frameworks that have persisted in the...
Springer, Kathleen B.; Pigati, Jeffrey S.; Manker, Craig R.; Mahan, Shannon A.The geology and paleontology of Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, Nevada
On December 19, 2014, Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, located in the Las Vegas Valley of southern Nevada, was established by Congress as the 405th unit of the National Park Service to “conserve, protect, interpret, and enhance for the benefit of present and future generations the unique and nationally important paleontological,...
Springer, Kathleen B.; Pigati, Jeffrey S.; Scott, EricExamining the relationship between portable luminescence reader measurements and depositional ages of paleowetland sediments, Las Vegas Valley, Nevada
Portable luminescence readers are exciting new tools that have the potential to rapidly determine the age structure of late Quaternary stratigraphic columns. This is important because high-resolution age profiling can reveal details about the temporal dynamics of climate cause and ecosystem effect, often while...
Gray, Harrison J.; Mahan, Shannon A.; Springer, Kathleen B.; Pigati, Jeffrey S.Desert wetlands record hydrologic variability within the Younger Dryas chronozone, Mojave Desert, USA
One of the enduring questions in the field of paleohydrology is how quickly desert wetland ecosystems responded to past episodes of abrupt climate change. Recent investigations in the Las Vegas Valley of southern Nevada have revealed that wetlands expanded and contracted on millennial and sub-millennial timescales in response to changes in climate...
Pigati, Jeffrey S.; Springer, Kathleen B.; Honke, Jeffrey S.The Great Acceleration and the disappearing surficial geologic record
The surficial geologic record is the relatively thin veneer of young (<~1 Ma) and mostly unconsolidated sediments that cover portions of Earth’s terrestrial surface (Fig. 1). Once largely ignored as “overburden” by geologists, surficial deposits are now studied to address a wide range of issues related to the sustainability of human societies....
Rech, Jason A.; Springer, Kathleen B.; Pigati, Jeffrey S.The Tule Springs local fauna: Rancholabrean vertebrates from the Las Vegas Formation, Nevada
A middle to late Pleistocene sedimentary sequence in the upper Las Vegas Wash, north of Las Vegas, Nevada, has yielded the largest open-site Rancholabrean vertebrate fossil assemblage in the southern Great Basin and Mojave Deserts. Recent paleontologic field studies have led to the discovery of hundreds of fossil localities and specimens, greatly...
Scott, Eric; Springer, Kathleen B.; Sagebiel, James C.Vertebrate paleontology, stratigraphy, and paleohydrology of Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, Nevada (USA)
Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument (TUSK) preserves 22,650 acres of the upper Las Vegas Wash in the northern Las Vegas Valley (Nevada, USA). TUSK is home to extensive and stratigraphically complex groundwater discharge (GWD) deposits, called the Las Vegas Formation, which represent springs and desert wetlands that covered much of the...
Springer, Kathleen B.; Pigati, Jeffery S.; Scott, EricGeology and vertebrate paleontology of Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument, Nevada, USA
Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument (TUSK) preserves 22,650 acres of the upper Las Vegas Wash in the northern Las Vegas Valley, Nevada, USA. TUSK is home to extensive and stratigraphically complex groundwater discharge (GWD) deposits, called the Las Vegas Formation, which represent springs and desert wetlands that covered much of the valley...
Springer, Kathleen B.; Pigati, Jeffrey S.; Eric ScottFirst records of Canis dirus and Smilodon fatalis from the late Pleistocene Tule Springs local fauna, upper Las Vegas Wash, Nevada
Late Pleistocene groundwater discharge deposits (paleowetlands) in the upper Las Vegas Wash north of Las Vegas, Nevada, have yielded an abundant and diverse vertebrate fossil assemblage, the Tule Springs local fauna (TSLF). The TSLF is the largest open-site vertebrate fossil assemblage dating to the Rancholabrean North American Land Mammal Age in...
Scott, Eric; Springer, Kathleen B.Desert wetlands—Archives of a wetter past
Scientists from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are finding evidence of a much wetter past in the deserts of the American Southwest using a most unlikely source—wetlands. Wetlands form in arid environments where water tables approach or breach the ground surface. Often thought of as stagnant and unchanging, new evidence suggests that...
Pigati, Jeffery S.; Springer, Kathleen B.; Manker, Craig R.