Keith A Howard
Keith A. Howard is a Research Geologist Emeritus at the Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center in Menlo Park, CA. Since joining the USGS in 1966, he had a diverse geologic career investigating a wide range of geologic processes. Presently, his reasearch includes volcanology, Colorado River evolution, granite, and extensional tectonics.
Keith has conducted lunar and planetary investigations, Apollo astronaut training and mission support (1960s and 1970s), and field studies of volcanic and impact structures. He led a team that made the first national map of active faults and fault provinces of the United States and Puerto Rico. He conceived the USGS climate-research program and led the effort to gain support for the program and its acceptance by Congress (1970s). He led the Pacific to Arizona Crustal Experiment, geologic-geophysical transect across the SW USA (1980s-1990s). He has authored a range of studies of landscape evolution, crustal structure, planetology, and igneous and tectonic processes.
Research Partners:
- Arizona Geological Survey
- National Science Foundation
- University of Wyoming
- University of Oregon
- Queensland Technical Institute
- Texas Tech University
- University of Florida
Professional Experience
2007-current, USGS Scientist Emeritus, Menlo Park, CA
2014, Lecturer, San Jose State University
1966-2006, USGS Research Geologist
1974, Visiting Faculty, University of South Florida
1962, USGS Geologist
1961, Engineering Geologist, McCreary-Koretsky Engineering
1960, Geologic Field Assistant, UC Berkeley
Education and Certifications
PhD, Geology, Yale, 1966
MS, Geological Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1962
BS, Geological Engineering, University of California, Berkeley, 1961
Affiliations and Memberships*
Geological Society of America, Elected Fellow, 1972
American Geophysical Union, 1969
Peninsula Geological Society, 1967; President 2008-2009
Geological Society of WA since 1975
Fullbright Asso.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 95
Geologic map of the Lead Mountain 15’ quadrangle, San Bernardino County, California
The Lead Mountain 15’ quadrangle in the Mojave Desert contains a record of Jurassic, Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Quaternary magmatism. Small amounts of Mesoproterozoic(?) augen gneiss and Paleozoic and Mesozoic(?) metasedimentary rocks are preserved in small patches; they are intruded by voluminous Jurassic plutons of quartz diorite to granite composition and by Late Cretaceous granite of the Cadiz
Authors
Keith A. Howard, Keith J. Jagiello, Todd T. Fitzgibbon, Barbara E. John
Geologic map of the Valley Mountain 15’ quadrangle, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, California
The Valley Mountain 15’ quadrangle straddles the Pinto Mountain Fault, which bounds the eastern Transverse Ranges in the south against the Mojave Desert province in the north. The Pinto Mountains, part of the eastern Transverse Ranges in the south part of the quadrangle expose a series of Paleoproterozoic gneisses and granite and the Proterozoic quartzite of Pinto Mountain. Early Triassic quartz m
Authors
Keith A. Howard, John Bacheller, Todd T. Fitzgibbon, Robert E. Powell, Charlotte M. Allen
Stratigraphy and paleogeographic significance of the Pennsylvanian-Permian Bird Spring Formation in the Ship Mountains, southeastern California
A thick sequence of limestone, dolomite, and minor sandstone assigned to the Pennsylvanian and lower Permian Bird Spring Formation is exposed in the Ship Mountains about 85 kilometers (km) southwest of Needles, California, in the eastern Mojave Desert. These strata provide a valuable reference section of the Bird Spring Formation in a region where rocks of this age are not extensively exposed. Thi
Authors
Paul Stone, Calvin H. Stevens, Keith A. Howard, Thomas D. Hoisch
Dating of Pliocene Colorado River sediments: implications for cosmogenic burial dating and the evolution of the lower Colorado River
We applied cosmogenic 26Al/10Be burial dating to sedimentary deposits of the ancestral Colorado River. We compared cosmogenic burial ages of sediments to the age of an independently well-dated overlying basalt flow at one site, and also applied cosmogenic burial dating to sediments with less precise independent age constraints. All dated gravels yielded old ages that suggest several episodes of se
Authors
Ari Matmon, Greg M. Stock, Darryl E. Granger, Keith A. Howard
Stratigraphy and depositional environments of the upper Pleistocene Chemehuevi Formation along the lower Colorado River
The Chemehuevi Formation forms a conspicuous, widespread, and correlative set of nonmarine sediments lining the valleys of the Colorado River and several of its larger tributaries in the Basin and Range geologic province. These sediments have been examined by geologists since J. S. Newberry visited the region in 1857 and are widely cited in the geologic literature; however their origin remains unr
Authors
Daniel V. Malmon, Keith A. Howard, P. Kyle House, Scott C. Lundstrom, Philip A. Pearthree, Andrei M. Sarna-Wojcicki, Elmira Wan, David B. Wahl
Episodic growth of a Late Cretaceous and Paleogene intrusive complex of pegmatitic leucogranite, Ruby Mountains core complex, Nevada, USA
Gneissic pegmatitic leucogranite forms a dominant component (>600 km3) of the midcrustal infrastructure of the Ruby Mountains–East Humboldt Range core complex (Nevada, USA), and was assembled and modified episodically into a batholithic volume by myriad small intrusions from ca. 92 to 29 Ma. This injection complex consists of deformed sheets and other bodies emplaced syntectonically into a stratig
Authors
Keith A. Howard, J. L. Wooden, C. G. Barnes, W. R. Premo, A.W. Snoke, S.-Y. Lee
Erosion of tilted fault blocks and deposition of coarse sediments in half-graben basins during late stages of extension: Gold Butte area, Basin and Range Province
The provenance and stratigraphic architecture of basin-filling Miocene sediments around the Gold Butte area, southern Nevada, and adjacent highlands record the erosion of fault blocks that progressively tilted during extension. This study focuses especially on upper Miocene correlatives of the red sandstone unit and the Muddy Creek Formation that were deposited during waning stages of extension. U
Authors
Keith A. Howard, Sue Beard, M. A. Kuntz, Michael J. Kunk, Andrei M. Sarna-Wojcicki, M. E. Perkins, Ivo Lucchitta
The upper crust on its side---Steeply tilted slabs in the basin and range
No abstract available.
Authors
Keith A. Howard
Rapid middle Miocene extension and unroofing of the southern Ruby Mountains, Nevada
Paleozoic rocks in the northern Ruby Mountains were metamorphosed during Mesozoic crustal shortening and Cenozoic magmatism, but equivalent strata in the southern Ruby Mountains were never buried deeper than stratigraphic depths prior to exhumation in the footwall of a west dipping brittle normal fault. In the southern Ruby Mountains, Miocene sedimentary rocks in the hanging wall of this fault dat
Authors
Joseph Colgan, Keith A. Howard, Robert J. Fleck, Joseph L. Wooden
Cenozoic evolution of the abrupt Colorado Plateau–Basin and Range boundary, northwest Arizona: A tale of three basins, immense lacustrine-evaporite deposits, and the nascent Colorado River
In northwest Arizona, the relatively unextended Colorado Plateau gives way abruptly to the highly extended Colorado River extensional corridor within the Basin and Range province along a system of major west-dipping normal faults, including the Grand Wash fault zone and South Virgin–White Hills detachment fault. Large growth-fault basins developed in the hanging walls of these faults. Lowering of
Authors
J. E. Faulds, Keith A. Howard, E. M. Duebendorfer
Riparian vegetation dynamics and evapotranspiration in the riparian corridor in the delta of the Colorado River, Mexico
Like other great desert rivers, the Colorado River in the United States and Mexico is highly regulated to provide water for human use. No water is officially allotted to support the natural ecosystems in the delta of the river in Mexico. However, precipitation is inherently variable in this watershed, and from 1981–2004, 15% of the mean annual flow of the Lower Colorado River has entered the ripar
Authors
Pamela L. Nagler, Edward P. Glenn, Osvel Hinojosa-Huerta, Francisco Zamora, Keith A. Howard
Stratigraphy of Colorado River deposits in lower Mohave Valley, Arizona and California
Deposits in lower Mohave Valley and upper Topock Gorge near Topock, Arizona and Park Moabi, California record a succession of depositional and erosional events since late Miocene time that relate to the development of the Colorado River. Upper Miocene alluvial fans were deposited toward a depocenter east of the present valley bottom, indicating there was no valley outlet then through the area of T
Authors
Keith A. Howard, D.V. Malmon
Science and Products
- Data
No Result Found
- Maps
- Publications
Filter Total Items: 95
Geologic map of the Lead Mountain 15’ quadrangle, San Bernardino County, California
The Lead Mountain 15’ quadrangle in the Mojave Desert contains a record of Jurassic, Cretaceous, Tertiary, and Quaternary magmatism. Small amounts of Mesoproterozoic(?) augen gneiss and Paleozoic and Mesozoic(?) metasedimentary rocks are preserved in small patches; they are intruded by voluminous Jurassic plutons of quartz diorite to granite composition and by Late Cretaceous granite of the CadizAuthorsKeith A. Howard, Keith J. Jagiello, Todd T. Fitzgibbon, Barbara E. JohnGeologic map of the Valley Mountain 15’ quadrangle, San Bernardino and Riverside Counties, California
The Valley Mountain 15’ quadrangle straddles the Pinto Mountain Fault, which bounds the eastern Transverse Ranges in the south against the Mojave Desert province in the north. The Pinto Mountains, part of the eastern Transverse Ranges in the south part of the quadrangle expose a series of Paleoproterozoic gneisses and granite and the Proterozoic quartzite of Pinto Mountain. Early Triassic quartz mAuthorsKeith A. Howard, John Bacheller, Todd T. Fitzgibbon, Robert E. Powell, Charlotte M. AllenStratigraphy and paleogeographic significance of the Pennsylvanian-Permian Bird Spring Formation in the Ship Mountains, southeastern California
A thick sequence of limestone, dolomite, and minor sandstone assigned to the Pennsylvanian and lower Permian Bird Spring Formation is exposed in the Ship Mountains about 85 kilometers (km) southwest of Needles, California, in the eastern Mojave Desert. These strata provide a valuable reference section of the Bird Spring Formation in a region where rocks of this age are not extensively exposed. ThiAuthorsPaul Stone, Calvin H. Stevens, Keith A. Howard, Thomas D. HoischDating of Pliocene Colorado River sediments: implications for cosmogenic burial dating and the evolution of the lower Colorado River
We applied cosmogenic 26Al/10Be burial dating to sedimentary deposits of the ancestral Colorado River. We compared cosmogenic burial ages of sediments to the age of an independently well-dated overlying basalt flow at one site, and also applied cosmogenic burial dating to sediments with less precise independent age constraints. All dated gravels yielded old ages that suggest several episodes of seAuthorsAri Matmon, Greg M. Stock, Darryl E. Granger, Keith A. HowardStratigraphy and depositional environments of the upper Pleistocene Chemehuevi Formation along the lower Colorado River
The Chemehuevi Formation forms a conspicuous, widespread, and correlative set of nonmarine sediments lining the valleys of the Colorado River and several of its larger tributaries in the Basin and Range geologic province. These sediments have been examined by geologists since J. S. Newberry visited the region in 1857 and are widely cited in the geologic literature; however their origin remains unrAuthorsDaniel V. Malmon, Keith A. Howard, P. Kyle House, Scott C. Lundstrom, Philip A. Pearthree, Andrei M. Sarna-Wojcicki, Elmira Wan, David B. WahlEpisodic growth of a Late Cretaceous and Paleogene intrusive complex of pegmatitic leucogranite, Ruby Mountains core complex, Nevada, USA
Gneissic pegmatitic leucogranite forms a dominant component (>600 km3) of the midcrustal infrastructure of the Ruby Mountains–East Humboldt Range core complex (Nevada, USA), and was assembled and modified episodically into a batholithic volume by myriad small intrusions from ca. 92 to 29 Ma. This injection complex consists of deformed sheets and other bodies emplaced syntectonically into a stratigAuthorsKeith A. Howard, J. L. Wooden, C. G. Barnes, W. R. Premo, A.W. Snoke, S.-Y. LeeErosion of tilted fault blocks and deposition of coarse sediments in half-graben basins during late stages of extension: Gold Butte area, Basin and Range Province
The provenance and stratigraphic architecture of basin-filling Miocene sediments around the Gold Butte area, southern Nevada, and adjacent highlands record the erosion of fault blocks that progressively tilted during extension. This study focuses especially on upper Miocene correlatives of the red sandstone unit and the Muddy Creek Formation that were deposited during waning stages of extension. UAuthorsKeith A. Howard, Sue Beard, M. A. Kuntz, Michael J. Kunk, Andrei M. Sarna-Wojcicki, M. E. Perkins, Ivo LucchittaThe upper crust on its side---Steeply tilted slabs in the basin and range
No abstract available.AuthorsKeith A. HowardRapid middle Miocene extension and unroofing of the southern Ruby Mountains, Nevada
Paleozoic rocks in the northern Ruby Mountains were metamorphosed during Mesozoic crustal shortening and Cenozoic magmatism, but equivalent strata in the southern Ruby Mountains were never buried deeper than stratigraphic depths prior to exhumation in the footwall of a west dipping brittle normal fault. In the southern Ruby Mountains, Miocene sedimentary rocks in the hanging wall of this fault datAuthorsJoseph Colgan, Keith A. Howard, Robert J. Fleck, Joseph L. WoodenCenozoic evolution of the abrupt Colorado Plateau–Basin and Range boundary, northwest Arizona: A tale of three basins, immense lacustrine-evaporite deposits, and the nascent Colorado River
In northwest Arizona, the relatively unextended Colorado Plateau gives way abruptly to the highly extended Colorado River extensional corridor within the Basin and Range province along a system of major west-dipping normal faults, including the Grand Wash fault zone and South Virgin–White Hills detachment fault. Large growth-fault basins developed in the hanging walls of these faults. Lowering ofAuthorsJ. E. Faulds, Keith A. Howard, E. M. DuebendorferRiparian vegetation dynamics and evapotranspiration in the riparian corridor in the delta of the Colorado River, Mexico
Like other great desert rivers, the Colorado River in the United States and Mexico is highly regulated to provide water for human use. No water is officially allotted to support the natural ecosystems in the delta of the river in Mexico. However, precipitation is inherently variable in this watershed, and from 1981–2004, 15% of the mean annual flow of the Lower Colorado River has entered the riparAuthorsPamela L. Nagler, Edward P. Glenn, Osvel Hinojosa-Huerta, Francisco Zamora, Keith A. HowardStratigraphy of Colorado River deposits in lower Mohave Valley, Arizona and California
Deposits in lower Mohave Valley and upper Topock Gorge near Topock, Arizona and Park Moabi, California record a succession of depositional and erosional events since late Miocene time that relate to the development of the Colorado River. Upper Miocene alluvial fans were deposited toward a depocenter east of the present valley bottom, indicating there was no valley outlet then through the area of TAuthorsKeith A. Howard, D.V. Malmon
*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government