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College of Letters and Science >
Department of Earth Sciences >
Faculty and Staff
Kenneth L. Pierce
Affiliate Professor of Geology
Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center, U.S. Geological Survey
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Contact Information
Office: AJM Johnson #214
Phone: (406) 994-5085
Email: kpierce(AT)usgs.gov
Website: http://www.nrmsc.usgs.gov/staff/kpierce
Education
B.A., Stanford University, 1959
Ph.D., Yale University, 1964
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Research Interests
My research is in the field of Quaternary Geology and Geomorphology. I
am interested in natural landscapes and the geologic processes
responsible for their formation. My research has focused on the
following topics (see references):
- Pleistocene glaciations of the Rocky
Mountains and adjacent areas.
- Yellowstone caldera unrest
- The track of the Yellowstone hotspot:
Volcanism, faulting and uplift
- Quaternary faulting and neotectonics
- Geologic controls on ecology of the
greater Yellowstone area
Committee Participation
I have appreciated serving on the following student committees, and as
of December 2004, I am on about 4 additional graduate student thesis
committees.
- Cal Ruleman, 2002, Quaternary tectonic
activity within the northern area of the Yellowstone tectonic parabola
and associated seismic hazards, southwest Montana
- Denny Capps, 2004, Glacial geology of the
Lake Ashley area, northwest Montana
- Nicole Davis, 2004, Glacial lake
Musselshell, central Montana
- Scott Patterson, 2006, Sedimentology and
geomorphology of quaternary alluvial fans with implications to growth
strata, Lost River Range, Idaho
- Karen Jacobs, 2006, Fire and vegetation
history of the last 2000 years in Jackson Hole, Grand Teton National
Park, Wyoming
- Falene Petrick, 2008, Scarp analyusis of
the Centennial normal fault, Beaverhead County, Montana and Fremont
county, Idaho
- Mariana Huerta, 2008, Postglacial
vegetation, fire, and climate history of Blacktail Pond, northern
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
Selected Publications
Licciardi, J.M., and Pierce, K.L., 2008, Cosmogenic exposure-age
chronologies of Pinedale and Bull Lake glaciations in greater
Yellowstone and the Teton Range, USA: Quaternary Science REviews 27, p.
814-831, doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2007.12.005.
Morgan, L.A., Pierce, K.L., and Shanks, W.C., 2008, Track of the
Yellowstone hotspot: Young and ongoing geologic processes from the
Snake River Plain to the Yellowstone Plateau and Tetons: Geological
Society of America Field Guide 10, p.
Pierce, K.L., Despain, D.G., Morgan, L.A., and Good, J.M., 2007, The
Yellowstone hotspot, greater Yellowstone ecosystem, and human
geography, in Morgan, LAl
(Ed.), Integrated Geoscience STudies in the Greater Yellowstone
Area--Volcanic, Tectonic, and Hydrothermal Processes in the Yellowstone
Geoecosystem, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 1717, p. 1-40.
Saunders, A.D., Jones, S.M., Morgan, L.A., Pierce, K.L., Widdowson, M.,
and Xu, Y.G., 2007, Regional uplift associated with continental large
igneous provinces: The roles of mantle plumes and the lithospere, in
I.H. Campbell and A.C. Kerr, editors: Chemical Geology, v. 241, Issues
3-4, p. (2007), doi:10.106/j.chemgeo.2007.01.017.
Pierce, K.L., Cannon, K.P., Meyer, G.A., Trebesch, M.J., and Watts,
Raymond, 2007, Post-Glaicial Inflation-Deflation Cycles, Tilting, and
Faulting in the Yellowstone Caldera Based on Yellowstone Lake
Shorelines, in Morgan, L.A.,
editor, Integrated Geoscience Studies in the Greater Yellowstone
Area--Volcanic, Tectonic, and Hydrothermal Processess in the
Yellowstone Geoecosystem, U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper
1717, Chapter E, p. 131-168.
Pierce, K.L., 2004, Pleistocene glaciations of the Rocky Mountains, in
Gillespie, A.R., Porter, S.C., and Atwater, B.F., eds., The Quaternary
Period in the United States: Developments in Quaternary Science, v. 1,
Elsevier Amsterdam, p. 63-76.
Parrett, Charles, Cannon, Susan, and Pierce,
K.L., 2004, Wildfire-related floods and debris flows in Montana in 2000
and 2001: U.S. Geological Survey, Water Resources Investigations Report
WRIR 03-4319, 22 p.
Pierce, K.L., Despain, D.G., Whitlock,
Cathy, Cannon, K.P., Meyer, Grant, Morgan, Lisa, and Licciardi, J.M.,
2003, Quaternary geology and ecology of the Greater Yellowstone area,
in Easterbrook, D. J., editor, Quaternary Geology of the United States,
INQUA 2003 Field Guide Volume, Desert Research Institute, Reno, Nevada,
p. 313-344.
Love, J.D., Reed, J.C., Jr., and Pierce,
K.L., 2003, Creation of the Teton Landscape, a Geological Chronicle of
Jackson Hole and the Teton Range, Grand Teton Natural History
Association, Moose, Wyoming, 132 p.
Pierce, K.L., Morgan, L.A., and Saltus,
R.W., 2002, Yellowstone plume head: Postulated tectonic relations to
the Vancouver slab, continental boundaries, and climate, in Bill
Bonnichsen, C.M. White, and Michael McCurry, editors, Tectonic and
Magmatic Evolution of the Snake River Plain Volcanic Province: Idaho
Geological Survey Bulletin 30, p 5-33.
Pierce, K.L, Cannon, K.P., Meyer, G.A. w J.
Trebesch, M.J., and Watts, Raymond, 2002, Post-Glacial
Inflation-Deflation Cycles, Tilting, and Faulting in the Yellowstone
Caldera Based on Yellowstone Lake Shorelines, U.S. Geological Survey
Open-File Report 02-0142, 30 p plus 16 Figures and 4 tables.
Machette, M.N., Pierce, K.L., McCalpin,
J.P., Haller, K.M., and Dart, R.L., 2001, Map and data for Quaternary
faults and folds in Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey Open File Report
01-461, map and 155 pages.
Licciardi, J.M., Clark, P.U., Brook, E.J.,
Pierce, K.L., Kurz, M.D., Elmore, D., and Sharma, P., 2001, Cosmogenic
3He and 10Be Chronologies of the Northern Outlet Glacier of the
Yellowstone Ice Cap, Montana, USA, Quaternary Research, v. 29, no 12,
p. 1095-1098.
Pierce, K.L., and Friedman, Irving, 2000,
Obsidian hydration dating of Quaternary events, in Noller, J.S.,
Sowers, J.M., and Lettis. W.R. editors, Quaternary Geochronology,
Methods and Applications: AGU Reference Shelf 4, p. 223-240.
Pierce, K.L., Lundstrom, Scott, and Good,
John, 1998, Geologic setting of archeological sites in the Jackson Lake
area, Wyoming, in Connor, Melissa, Final Report on the Jackson Lake
Archeological Project, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming: Midwest
Archeological Center, National Park Service, Lincoln, Neb., Technical
Report No. 46, p. 29-48 and 19 figures on p. 222-242.
Good, J.D., and Pierce, K.L., 1996,
Interpreting the Landscapes of Grand Teton and Yellowstone National
Parks, Recent and Ongoing Geology: Grand Teton National History
Association, 58 p. 57 illus., Second printing, revised and reprinted,
1998.
Sturchio, N.C., Pierce, K.L., Morrell, M.T.,
and Sorey, M.L., 1994, Uranium-series ages of travertines and timing of
the last glaciation in the northern Yellowstone area, Wyoming-Montana:
Quaternary Research, v. 41, p. 265-277.
Smith, R.B., Pierce, K.L., and Wold, R.J.,
1993, Seismic surveys and Quaternary history of Jackson Lake, Wyoming,
in Snoke, A.W., Steidtmann, J.R., and Roberts, S.M., Geology of
Wyoming: Wyoming Geological Survey Memoir No. 5, p. 668-693.
Pierce, K.L., and Good, J.D., 1992, Field
guide to the Quaternary geology of Jackson Hole, Wyoming: U.S.
Geological Survey Open-File Report 92-504, 49 p.
Pierce, K.L., and Morgan, L.A., 1992, The
track of the Yellowstone hot spot--volcanism, faulting and uplift, in
Link, P.K., Kuntz, M.A., and Platt, L.W., eds., Regional geology of
eastern Idaho and western Wyoming: Geological Society of America Memoir
179 (in honor of Steve Oriel), p. 1-53, 24 figs., 1 color map.
Colman, S.M., and Pierce, K.L., 1992, Varied
records of early Wisconsin Alpine glaciation in the Western United
States derived from weathering-rind thicknesses, in Clark, P.U., and
Lea, P.D., eds., The last interglacial-glacial transition in North
America: Geological Society of America Special Paper 270, p. 269-278.
Pierce, K.L., Adams, K.D., and Sturchio,
N.C., 1991, Geologic setting of the Corwin Springs Known Geothermal
Resource area-Mammoth Hot Springs area in and adjacent to Yellowstone
National Park, in M.L. Sorey, editor, Effects of potential geothermal
development in the Corwin Springs Known Geothermal Resource Area,
Montana, on the thermal features of Yellowstone National Park: U.S.
Geological Survey Water Resources Investigations Report 91-4052, p. C-1
to C-37.
Colman, S.M., and Pierce, K.L., 1991,
Summary of Quaternary dating methods, chapter 3 of Rosholt, J.N., ed.,
Dating methods applicable to the Quaternary, in Morrison, R.B.,
Quaternary nonglacial geology of the conterminous United States:
Geological Society of America, DNAG V. K-2, p. 45-46, and large chart
35 x 28 inches.
Pierce, K.L., and Colman, S.M., 1986, Effect
of height and orientation (microclimate) on geomorphic degradation
rates and processes, late glacial terrace scarps in central Idaho:
Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 97, p. 869-885.
Colman, S.M., and Pierce, K.L., 1986, The
glacial sequence near McCall, Idaho--weathering rinds, soil
development, morphology, and other relative-age criteria: Quaternary
Research, v. 25, p. 25-42.
Pierce, K.L., 1986, Dating methods, in
Active tectonics: National Research Council, Geophysics Study
Committee, Washington, D.C., National Academy Press, p. 195-214.
Scott, W.E., Pierce, K.L., and Hait, M.H.,
Jr., 1985, Quaternary tectonic setting of the 1983 Borah Peak
earthquake, central Idaho: Seismological Society of America Bulletin,
v. 75, p. 1053-1066.
Porter, S.C., Pierce, K.L., and Hamilton,
T.D., 1983, Late Pleistocene glaciation in the Western United States,
in Porter, S.C., ed., The Late Pleistocene, v. 1, of Wright, H.E., Jr.,
ed., Late Quaternary Environments of the United States: Minneapolis,
Minn., University of Minnesota Press, p. 71-111.
Pierce, K.L., Covington, H.R., Williams,
P.W., and McIntyre, P.L., 1983, Geologic map of the Cotterel Mountains
and northern Raft River valley, Cassia County, Idaho: U.S. Geological
Survey Miscellaneous Investigations Series Map I-1450, scale 1:48,000,
18 ms.-p. text, 2 cross sections, 3 figs., 1 table.
Pierce, K.L., and Scott, W.E., 1982,
Pleistocene episodes of alluvial-gravel deposition, southeastern Idaho,
in Bonnichsen, Bill, and Breckenridge, R.M., eds., Cenozoic geology of
Idaho: Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulletin 26, p. 685-702.
Pierce, K.L., Fosberg, M.A., Scott, W.E.,
Lewis, G.C., and Colman, S. M., 1982, Loess deposits of southeastern
Idaho--age and correlation of the upper two loess units, in Bonnichsen,
Bill, and Breckenridge, R.M., eds., Cenozoic geology of Idaho: Idaho
Bureau of Mines and Geology Bulletin 26, p. 717-725.
Colman, S.M., and Pierce, K.L., 1981,
Weathering rinds on andesitic and basaltic stones as a Quaternary age
indicator, Western United States: U.S. Geological Survey Professional
Paper 1210, 56 p., 21 figs., 7 tables, 3 app.
Pierce, K.L., 1979, History and dynamics of
glaciation in the northern Yellowstone National Park area: U.S.
Geological Survey Professional Paper 729 F, 91 p., 4 pls., 51 figs., 8
tables.
Schmidt, P.W., and Pierce, K.L., 1976,
Mapping of mountain soils west of Denver, Colorado, for land-use
planning, in Coates, D.R., ed., Geomorphology and engineering:
Binghampton, N.Y., Geomorphology, State University of New York, p.
43-54, 7 figs., 1 table.
Pierce, K.L., Obradovich, J.D., and
Friedman, Irving, 1976, Obsidian hydration dating and correlation of
Bull Lake and Pinedale glaciations near West Yellowstone, Montana:
Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 87, p. 703-710, 5 figs.
Pierce, K.L., 1971-1974, 4 sole authored and
5 co-authored maps of the surficial geology of Yellowstone National
Park.
Pierce, K.L., and Armstrong, R.L., 1966,
Tuscarora fault, an Acadian (?) bedding-plane fault in the central
Appalachian Valley and Ridge province: American Association of
Petroleum Geologists Bulletin 50, no. 2, p. 385-390, 3 figs.
Pierce, K.L., 1966, Bedrock and surficial
geology of the McConnellsburg quadrangle, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania
Geological Survey, Atlas 109a, 4th series, 111 p., 3 pls., 19 figs.
Pierce, K.L., 1965, Geomorphic significance
of a Cretaceous deposit in the Great Valley of southern Pennsylvania,
in Geological Survey Research 1965: U.S. Geological Survey Professional
Paper 525-C, p. C152-C156, 4 figs.
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