Dr. Kevin Hobbs

As a field geologist and mapper for the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources, I enjoy being a generalist in the field of geology. My research interests span scales in space and time, ranging from soil micromorphology to basin-scale tectonosedimentary relationships and from the oldest Proterozoic rocks in New Mexico to Holocene geomorphic features. The geological problems I most enjoy are those which allow me to use multiple methods to understand better the geological history of an area. I am especially interested in the Cenozoic Era evolution of the San Juan Basin in northwest New Mexico and the timing of volcanic, tectonic, depositional, and erosional events on the Taos Plateau in the Pliocene Epoch. I enjoy collaboration with colleagues at NMBG and at other institutions, and am always curious about the unknowns in geological research.

I enjoy sharing the wonder of geology with others. In addition to having taught geology and environmental sciences courses at the college level, I participate in educational outreach through Master Naturalist classes and K-12 school visits. I have taught geology summer field camps in Montana, Colorado, Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico.

Webpage updated August 2023.

• Ph.D. in Earth & Planetary Sciences, 2016, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico
  Dissertation: Sedimentation, pedogenesis, and paleoclimate conditions in the Paleocene San Juan Basin, New Mexico, U.S.A.
• M.S. in Geological Sciences, 2010, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho
  Thesis: Miocene global change recorded in Columbia River basalt–hosted paleosols
• B.S. in Geology, 2006, University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee

• 2020-present: Field Geologist – Surficial Mapper, NMBGMR, Socorro, New Mexico
• 2016-2020: Assistant Professor of Geology, University of New Mexico – Valencia Campus, Los Lunas, New Mexico
• 2014-2015: Visiting Instructor of Geology, University of the South, Sewanee, Tennessee
• 2006-2008: Geologist, Southern Company Services, Birmingham, Alabama
• 2006: GSA GeoCorps Summer Intern, Denali National Park, Alaska

• Geological Society of America, 2005-present
• New Mexico Geological Society, 2010-present
• National Association of Geoscience Teachers, 2015-present
• Rocky Mountain Association of Geologists, 2015-present
• Four Corners Geological Society, 2022-present

• Study to Address Sedimentation and Erosion Impacting Infrastructure on the Southern Jicarilla Apache Nation, New Mexico
• Geological mapping of the Coyote Canyon 15-minute Quadrangle, New Mexico
• Geological mapping of the Chaco Canyon 30'x60' Quadrangle, New Mexico
• Geological mapping of the Fort Craig and Paraje Well 7.5' Quadrangles, New Mexico
• Investigation of intertrappean deposits and paleosols on the Taos Plateau
• Relationships between tectonics and sedimentation in the eastern San Juan Basin

1. Koning, D.J., Hobbs, K.M., Jochems, A.P., and Chamberlin, R.M., 2022, Sedimentologic evidence for a major paleogeographic change at 8.5-6.5 Ma near San Antonio, south-central New Mexico: New Mexico Geological Society, Guidebook 72, p. 221-238, doi.org/10.56577/FFC-72.221
2. Morgan, G.S., Koning, D.J., Shackley, M.S., Love, D.W., Hobbs, K.M., and Jochems, A.P., 2022, Early Pleistocene (late Blancan) vertebrates from Simon Canyon, Socorro County, central New Mexico: New Mexico Geological Society, Guidebook 72, p. 265-279, doi.org/10.56577/FFC-72.265
3. Jochems, A.P., Hobbs, K.M., and Mustoe, G.E., Fossil wood in the upper Santa Fe Group, south-central New Mexico: implications for mineralization style and paragenesis: New Mexico Geological Society, Guidebook 72, p. 296-304, doi.org/10.56577/FFC-72.295
4. Hobbs, K.M., 2022, Cataclasites in a fault zone exposed in a bedrock quarry near San Marcial, New Mexico, suggest multiple modes of deformation in interlayered sedimentary and volcanic rocks: New Mexico Geological Society, Guidebook 72, p. 321-328, doi.org/10.56577/FFC-72.321
5. Hobbs, K.M., and Fawcett, P.J., 2021, Nonclimatic and extrabasinal processes controlled pedogenesis in paleosols of the Paleocene Nacimiento Formation, New Mexico, USA: Geological Society of America Bulletin, doi.org/10.1130/B35803.1
6. Hobbs, K. M., and Fawcett, P.J., 2021, A physical and chemical sedimentary record of Laramide tectonic shifts in the Cretaceous-Paleogene San Juan Basin, New Mexico, USA: Geosphere, v. 17, p. 854-875, doi.org/10.1130/GES02324.1.
7. Turner, A., McGuire, C., Hobbs, K.M., Soto, M., Perea, D., and Moore, J., 2017; The sedimentology, paleoenvironment, and diagenesis of the Asencio Formation of Western Uruguay; Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, v. 480, p. 42-52.
8. Hobbs, K.M., and Parrish, J.T., 2016; Miocene global change recorded in Columbia River Basalt-hosted paleosols: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 128, p. 1543-1554.