Education
- PhD: Geological Sciences, Binghamton University, 2023
- MS: Earth Sciences, University of Memphis, 2014
- BS: Geosciences, Middle Tennessee State University, 2012
Specialties/Areas of Interest
- Evaporites
- Geochemistry
- Paleoclimatology
- Limnology
Courses Taught
- This Dynamic Earth
- Hazards, Disasters, and Catastrophes
- Surficial Geology
- Field Methods
- Introduction to GIS
- Advanced GIS Applications
- Mineralogy and Petrology
- Stratigraphy and Sedimentation
- Environmental Biogeochemistry
- Structural Geology
- Planetary Geology
- Env. Research Planning
- Junior Seminar
- Senior Seminar
Research & Publications
- So, R.T., Ibarra, D.E., Tierney, J.E., Jagniecki, E., Lowenstein, T.K., Jost, A.B., Olson, K., McGee, D., Feakins, S.J., 2026, Plant Wax Isotopic Reconstructions Reveal Thermodynamic Drivers of Hydroclimate Over the Last Two Glacial Cycles at Great Salt Lake and Bear Lake, Utah: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 41, e2025PA005357. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025PA005357
- Lowenstein, T., Olson, K., Stewart, B., McGee, D., Stroup, J., Hudson, A., Wendet, K., Peaple, M., Feakins, S., Bhattacharya, T., Lund, S., 2024, Unified 200 kyr paleohydrologic history of the Southern Great Basin: Death Valley, Searles Lake, Owens Lake, and the Devils Hole cave: Quaternary Science Reviews, v. 336, p. 108751. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108751
- Arnuk, W., Guillerm, E., Lowenstein, T., Krüger, Y., Olson, K., Lensky, N., Brauer, A., 2024, Nucleation- assisted microthermometry: a novel application to fluid inclusions in halite: Chemical Geology, v. 667, p. 122318. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2024.122318
- Olson, K., 2023, On the character and origin of Searles Lake evaporites: Doctoral dissertation, Binghamton University, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global, Publication No. 30635757.
- Olson, K., Demicco, R.V., Lowenstein, T., 2023, Seasonal dynamics of saline-alkaline lakes: Model solutions for shallow (modern) Owens Lake and deep (Late Pleistocene) Searles Lake, California (USA): Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 351, p. 51–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2023.04.009
- Stroup, J.S., Olson, K., Lowenstein, T., Jost, A.B., Mosher, H.M., Peaple, M.D., Feakins, S.J., Chen, C.Y., Lund, S.P., McGee, D., 2023, A >200 ka U-Th based chronology from lacustrine evaporites, Searles Lake, CA: Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, v. 24, p. e2022GC010685. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GC010685
- Olson, K., Guillerm, E., Peaple, M.D., Lowenstein, T.K., Gardien, V., Caupin, F., Feakins, S.J., Tierney, J.E., Stroup, J., Lund, S., McGee, D., 2023, Application of Brillouin thermometry to latest Pleistocene and Holocene halite from Searles Lake, California, USA: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 602, p. 117913. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117913
- Peaple, M.D., Bhattacharya, T., Lowenstein, T., McGee, D., Olson, K., Stroup, J.S., Tierney, J.E., Feakins, S.J., 2022, Biomarker and pollen evidence for late Pleistocene pluvials in the Mojave Desert: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, v. 37, p. e2022PA004471. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022PA004471
- Fendrock, M., Chen, C.Y., Olson, K., Lowenstein, T.K., McGee, D., 2022, A computer vision algorithm for interpreting lacustrine carbonate textures at Searles Valley, USA: Computers & Geosciences, p.105142. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2022.105142
- Olson, K., and Lowenstein, T.K., 2021, Searles Lake evaporite sequences: Indicators of Late Pleistocene/Holocene lake temperatures, brine evolution, and pCO2: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 133, n. 11-12, p. 2319-2334. https://doi.org/10.1130/B35857.1
- Larsen, D., and Olson, K., 2019, Evolution of the Pleistocene Lake Tecopa beds, southeastern California: A stratigraphic and sedimentologic perspective, in Starratt, S.W., and Rosen, M.R., eds., From Saline to Freshwater: The Diversity of Western Lakes in Space and Time: Geological Society of America Special Paper 536, p. 319-357. https://doi.org/10.1130/2019.2536(17)
