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Kathryn Watts

Kathryn is a Research Geologist with the GMEG Science Center in Spokane, WA. Her research is focused on crustal magmatism, from processes that fuel volcanic eruptions to those that contribute to the formation of economically valuable mineral resources. Kathryn's areas of expertise include - igneous petrology, geochemistry, isotope geochemistry, geochronology, volcanology, and economic geology.

Current USGS Research Projects

  • 2022-Present: Multidisciplinary Investigations of REE Mineralization at Mountain Pass and in the Southeast Mojave Desert, California
  • 2019-Present: Lithium from Source to Sink: Genesis and Evolution of Li Brines and Clays
  • 2019-Present: Systems Approach to Critical Minerals Inventory, Research, and Assessment

 

Former USGS Research Projects

  • 2019-2022: REE Resources in the Southeast Mojave Desert, California
  • 2019-2020: Mineral Resource Assessment Training (Tungsten)
  • 2016-2018: Geophysical, Geologic, and Geochemical Investigations of REE Deposits in the Southeast Mojave Desert, Including Music Valley, Thor, and Mountain Pass
  • 2015-2018: Magmas to Metals: Melt Inclusion Insights into the Formation of Critical Element-Bearing Ore Deposits
  • 2013-2018: Geologic Framework of the Northern Great Basin
  • 2012-2016: Formation and Eruption of Large Silicic Magma Chambers and Their Potential Genetic Relationship to Carlin-Type Gold Deposits in the Northern Great Basin (Mendenhall Postdoctoral Research Fellowship)

Education and Certifications

  • Ph.D., Geological Sciences, University of Oregon, 2011

  • B.S., Geology, Louisiana State University, 2006

Science and Products

Filter Total Items: 13

Temporal and petrogenetic links between Mesoproterozoic alkaline and carbonatite magmas at Mountain Pass, California

Mountain Pass is the site of the most economically important rare earth element (REE) deposit in the United States. Mesoproterozoic alkaline intrusions are spatiotemporally associated with a composite carbonatite stock that hosts REE ore. Understanding the genesis of the alkaline and carbonatite magmas is an essential scientific goal for a society in which critical minerals are in high demand and
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Mineral Resources Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Tungsten skarn mineral resource assessment of the Great Basin region of western Nevada and eastern California

A new quantitative mineral resource assessment for tungsten, a critical mineral commodity with highly concentrated production and a moderate risk of global supply disruption, was conducted for the Great Basin region of western Nevada and eastern California. This assessment was part of a larger effort focusing on three regions in the United States and represents the first study of domestic tungsten
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Why did Great Basin Eocene magmatism generate Carlin-type gold deposits when extensive Jurassic to Middle Miocene magmatism did not? Lessons from the Cortez Region, Northern Nevada, USA

No abstract available.
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Zircon-hosted melt inclusion record of silicic magmatism in the Mesoproterozoic St. Francois Mountains terrane, Missouri: Origin of the Pea Ridge iron oxide-apatite rare earth element deposit and implications for regional crustal pathways of mineralizatio

Voluminous silicic magmatism was coeval with iron ore mineralization in the St. Francois Mountains terrane in southeast Missouri, part of the broader Mesoproterozoic Granite-Rhyolite province along the eastern margin of Laurentia. Some of the iron deposits contain extraordinary endowments of critical elements, such as the Pea Ridge iron oxide-apatite (IOA) deposit, which has an average grade of ~1
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Apatite trace element geochemistry and cathodoluminescent textures—Acomparison between regional magmatism and the Pea Ridge IOA-REE andBoss IOCG deposits, southeastern Missouri iron metallogenic province, USA

The southeast Missouri iron metallogenic province contains a remarkable wealth of historically important Fe, Cu, Au, and rare earth element (REE) deposits including the Pea Ridge iron oxide-apatite-rare earth element (IOA-REE) deposit and the Boss iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) deposit. These deposits are coeval with silicic and intermediate composition magmatism in the St. Francois Mountains terra
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Mineral Resources Program, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Oxygen isotopic investigation of silicic magmatism in the Stillwater caldera complex, Nevada: Generation of large-volume, low-δ18O rhyolitic tuffs and assessment of their regional context in the Great Basin of the western United States

Successive caldera-forming eruptions from ca. 30 to 25 Ma generated a large nested caldera complex in western Nevada that was subsequently dissected by Basin and Range extension, providing extraordinary cross-sectional views through diverse volcanic and plutonic rocks. A high-resolution oxygen isotopic study was conducted on units that represent all major parts of the Job Canyon, Louderback Mounta
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Insights into the emplacement of upper-crustal plutons and their relationship to large silicic calderas, from field relationships, geochronology, and zircon trace element geochemistry in the Stillwater – Clan Alpine caldera complex, western Nevada, USA

Geologic mapping, new U-Pb zircon ages, and new and published 40Ar/39Ar sanidine ages document the timing and extent of Oligocene magmatism in the southern Stillwater Range and Clan Alpine Mountains of western Nevada, where Miocene extension has exposed at least six nested silicic calderas and underlying granitic plutons to crustal depths locally ≥ 9 km. Both caldera-forming rhyolitic tuffs and un
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Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Probing the volcanic-plutonic connection and the genesis of crystal-rich rhyolite in a deeply dissected supervolcano in the Nevada Great Basin: Source of the late Eocene Caetano Tuff

Late Cenozoic faulting and large-magnitude extension in the Great Basin of the western USA has created locally deep windows into the upper crust, permitting direct study of volcanic and plutonic rocks within individual calderas. The Caetano caldera in north–central Nevada, formed during the mid-Tertiary ignimbrite flare-up, offers one of the best exposed and most complete records of caldera magmat
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Energy and Minerals Mission Area, Energy Resources Program, Mineral Resources Program, National Laboratories Program, Science and Decisions Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Chemical abrasion-SIMS (CA-SIMS) U-Pb dating of zircon from the late Eocene Caetano caldera, Nevada

Zircon geochronology is a critical tool for establishing geologic ages and time scales of processes in the Earth's crust. However, for zircons compromised by open system behavior, achieving robust dates can be difficult. Chemical abrasion (CA) is a routine step prior to thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) dating of zircon to remove radiation-damaged parts of grains that may have experience
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Energy and Minerals Mission Area, Energy Resources Program, Mineral Resources Program, National Laboratories Program, Science and Decisions Center, Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Revised Wonoka isotopic anomaly in South Australia and Late Ediacaran mass extinction

The global Late Ediacaran Shuram–Wonoka carbon isotope anomaly has been regarded as the largest and longest known isotopic anomaly in the ocean, assuming that all Ediacaran carbonate is marine. Disregarding carbonate in South Australia shown here to be palaeosol or palaeokarst, the synchronous marine organic–carbonate excursion is only −8‰ for δ13C organic and −6‰ for δ13C carbonate, and lasted le
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Linking rapid magma reservoir assembly and eruption trigger mechanisms at evolved Yellowstone-type supervolcanoes

The geological record contains evidence of volcanic eruptions that were as much as two orders of magnitude larger than the most voluminous eruption experienced by modern civilizations, the A.D. 1815 Tambora (Indonesia) eruption. Perhaps nowhere on Earth are deposits of such supereruptions more prominent than in the Snake River Plain–Yellowstone Plateau (SRP-YP) volcanic province (northwest United
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Energy and Minerals Mission Area, Energy Resources Program, Mineral Resources Program, National Laboratories Program, Science and Decisions Center, Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Crustal-scale recycling in caldera complexes and rift zones along the Yellowstone hotspot track: O and Hf isotopic evidence in diverse zircons from voluminous rhyolites of the Picabo volcanic field, Idaho

Rhyolites of the Picabo volcanic field (10.4–6.6 Ma) in eastern Idaho are preserved as thick ignimbrites and lavas along the margins of the Snake River Plain (SRP), and within a deep (>3 km) borehole near the central axis of the Yellowstone hotspot track. In this study we present new O and Hf isotope data and U–Pb geochronology for individual zircons, O isotope data for major phenocrysts (quartz,
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Energy and Minerals Mission Area, Energy Resources Program, Mineral Resources Program, National Laboratories Program, Science and Decisions Center, Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Non-USGS Publications**

Watts, K.E., Bindeman, I.N., and Schmitt, A.K., 2012. Crystal-scale anatomy of a dying supervolcano: An isotope and geochronology study of individual phenocrysts from voluminous rhyolites of the Yellowstone caldera. Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, v. 164, p. 45-67.
Watts, K.E., Bindeman, I.N., and Schmitt, A.K., 2011. Large-volume rhyolite genesis in caldera complexes of the Snake River Plain: Insights from the Kilgore Tuff of the Heise volcanic field, Idaho, with comparison to Yellowstone and Bruneau-Jarbidge rhyolites. Journal of Petrology, v. 52, p. 857-890.
Watts, K.E., Leeman, W.P., Bindeman, I.N., and Larson, P.B., 2010. Supereruptions of the Snake River Plain: Two-stage derivation of low-δ18O rhyolites from normal-δ18O crust as constrained by Archean xenoliths. Geology, v. 38, p. 503-506.
Bindeman, I.N., Leonov, V.L., Ponomareva, V.V., Watts, K.E., Shipley, N.K., Perepelov, A.B., Bazanova, L.I., Jicha, B.R., Singer, B.S., Schmitt, A.K., Portnyagin, M.V., and Chen, C.H., 2010. Large-volume silicic volcanism in Kamchatka: Ar-Ar and U-Pb ages, isotopic, and geochemical characteristics of major pre-Holocene caldera-forming eruptions. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal Research, v. 189, p. 57-80.

**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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Open pit rare earth element mine at Mountain Pass, California. Stepped sides of the pit and access for mining vehicles shown.

Multidisciplinary Investigations of REE Mineralization at Mountain Pass and in the Southeast Mojave Desert, California

In this time of increased focus on renewable energy technologies, rare earth elements (REEs) are of critical importance. For example, neodymium (Nd) is a REE used in the generator and motor magnets of wind turbines and electric vehicles. Reliance on REE imports puts the U.S. at high risk for supply disruption. The project will integrate geology, geophysics, petrology, geochronology, and economic...
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Energy and Minerals Mission Area, Mineral Resources Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center
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Multidisciplinary Investigations of REE Mineralization at Mountain Pass and in the Southeast Mojave Desert, California

In this time of increased focus on renewable energy technologies, rare earth elements (REEs) are of critical importance. For example, neodymium (Nd) is a REE used in the generator and motor magnets of wind turbines and electric vehicles. Reliance on REE imports puts the U.S. at high risk for supply disruption. The project will integrate geology, geophysics, petrology, geochronology, and economic...
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Li brine and clay conceptual model

Lithium from Source to Sink: Genesis and Evolution of Li Brines and Clays

The purpose of this project is to trace the lithium (Li) geochemical cycle in the Great Basin, with an emphasis on the pathways that lead to the development of lithium clay and brine resources.
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Mineral Resources Program, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center
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Lithium from Source to Sink: Genesis and Evolution of Li Brines and Clays

The purpose of this project is to trace the lithium (Li) geochemical cycle in the Great Basin, with an emphasis on the pathways that lead to the development of lithium clay and brine resources.
Learn More
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USGS science for a changing world

Mineral Resource Assessment Training

The USGS Mineral Resources Program conducts mineral resource assessments and is training USGS scientists in how to conduct these assessments for future work. As a practical exercise, the scientists will conduct an assessment for tungsten in the U.S.
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Mineral Resources Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center
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Mineral Resource Assessment Training

The USGS Mineral Resources Program conducts mineral resource assessments and is training USGS scientists in how to conduct these assessments for future work. As a practical exercise, the scientists will conduct an assessment for tungsten in the U.S.
Learn More
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critical mineral distribution map

Systems Approach to Critical Minerals Inventory, Research, and Assessment

This project supports the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (EarthMRI) by developing a mineral systems approach for defining focus areas. This project is investigating domestic sources of critical minerals in three sequential stages: inventory, research, and assessment. 1) Inventory the abundance of critical minerals in ore, minerals, and processed materials from major deposits in each system...
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Mineral Resources Program, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center
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Systems Approach to Critical Minerals Inventory, Research, and Assessment

This project supports the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (EarthMRI) by developing a mineral systems approach for defining focus areas. This project is investigating domestic sources of critical minerals in three sequential stages: inventory, research, and assessment. 1) Inventory the abundance of critical minerals in ore, minerals, and processed materials from major deposits in each system...
Learn More
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SEM image of melt inclusions

Magmas to Metals: Melt Inclusion Insights into the Formation of Critical Element-Bearing Ore Deposits

This project applies innovative melt inclusion and mineralogical techniques to characterize several distinctive magma types occurring together with prodigious, critical rare earth elements (REE) and gold-(antimony-tellurium) ore deposits within the U.S. We will characterize the pre-eruptive/pre-emplacement magmatic conditions in several districts. The goal is to determine the role of magmatism in...
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Mineral Resources Program, Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center
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Magmas to Metals: Melt Inclusion Insights into the Formation of Critical Element-Bearing Ore Deposits

This project applies innovative melt inclusion and mineralogical techniques to characterize several distinctive magma types occurring together with prodigious, critical rare earth elements (REE) and gold-(antimony-tellurium) ore deposits within the U.S. We will characterize the pre-eruptive/pre-emplacement magmatic conditions in several districts. The goal is to determine the role of magmatism in...
Learn More
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gravity map Mojave Desert

Rare Earth Element Deposits in the Southeast Mojave Desert

In an effort to better understand domestic resource potential, the USGS is investigating the genetic relationship between rare earth element deposits at Mountain Pass, California and Music Valley (Pinto Mountains, California) and extend these studies across a 130-km long belt of alkaline Proterozoic rocks in the southeast Mojave Desert. Such a combined study would significantly improve our...
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Mineral Resources Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center
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Rare Earth Element Deposits in the Southeast Mojave Desert

In an effort to better understand domestic resource potential, the USGS is investigating the genetic relationship between rare earth element deposits at Mountain Pass, California and Music Valley (Pinto Mountains, California) and extend these studies across a 130-km long belt of alkaline Proterozoic rocks in the southeast Mojave Desert. Such a combined study would significantly improve our...
Learn More

Geochemistry, geochronology, and isotope geochemistry data for rocks and zircons from Mountain Pass, California

This dataset contains geochemical, geochronologic, and isotopic data collected for rocks and zircons from Mountain Pass, California, USA. See accompanying Economic Geology publication described in the "Larger Work" section of this metadata file for a detailed description of this dataset.
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Tungsten skarn mineral resource assessment of the Great Basin region of western Nevada and eastern California - Simulation results

The dataset consists of the input data, parameters, and results output from mineral resource assessment calculations.
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Mineral Resources Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geology, Energy & Minerals Science Center

Geochemistry, geochronology, and isotope geochemistry data for zircons and zircon-hosted melt and mineral inclusions in the St. Francois Mountains terrane, Missouri

This dataset contains geochemical, geochronologic, and isotopic data collected for zircons and zircon-hosted melt and mineral inclusions in the St. Francois Mountains terrane, southeast Missouri, USA.
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Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center
Thin section of a Mountain Pass carbonatite sample showing mineralogy and texture with slider for back-scattered electron map (black and white) and layered elemental map (colored). Note the large, euhedral, tabular crystal of bastnäsite.
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Thin section of a Mountain Pass carbonatite sample showing mineralogy and texture with slider for back-scattered electron map (black and white) and layered elemental map (colored). Note the large, euhedral, tabular crystal of bastnäsite.
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Thin section of a Mountain Pass carbonatite sample showing mineralogy and texture with slider for back-scattered electron map (black and white) and layered elemental map (colored). Note the large, euhedral, tabular crystal of bastnäsite.
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Science and Products