Kelly Hattori

Kelly  Hattori
Research Engineering/ Scientist Associate IV, Jackson School of Geosciences

Office: PIC KLE
Mailcode: E0610


Kelly is a carbonate stratigrapher in the STARR research group at the Bureau of Economic Geology. Kelly holds a M.S. degree in Geosciences from the University of Texas at Austin and B.S. degrees in Geology and Marine Biology from the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. Her early research interests focused on sequence stratigraphy and paleoecology of coral reef systems, particularly with respect to global and local ocean perturbations such as ocean anoxic events and ocean acidification. She now broadly works Gulf Coast Cretaceous carbonates (as well as the occasional Paleozoic carbonates) with a focus on unique systems such as mixed carbonate-siliciclastic environments, post-perturbation recovery patch reef complexes, halokinetic carbonate systems (salt-sediment interactions), and drowned platforms. She has built a specialty in salt-sediment interactions within the East Texas Basin that examine the sometimes-conflicting relationship between halokinesis and traditional sequence stratigraphy as well as the impact of halokinetic topography on carbonate depositional systems.

Areas of Expertise

Carbonate sedimentology and stratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy, mixed carbonate-siliciclastic systems, salt-sediment interactions, reefs, ocean anoxic events and effect on carbonate deposition


Hattori, K., Kelley, P., Dietl, G., Moore, N., Simpson, S., Zappulla, A., Ottens, K. & Visaggi, C. (2014). Validation of taxon-specific sampling by novice collectors for studying drilling predation in fossil bivalves. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 412, 199-207. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.07.034.

Hattori, K., Kerans, C. & Martindale, R. (2019). Sequence stratigraphic and paleoecologic analysis of an Albian coral-rudist patch reef, Arizona, USA. PALAIOS, 32(12), 600-615. doi:https://doi.org/10.2110/palo.2019.052.

Hattori, K., Loucks, R. & Kerans, C. (2019). Stratal architecture of a halokinetically controlled patch reef complex and implications for reservoir quality: A case study from the Aptian James Limestone in the Fairway Field, East Texas Basin. Sedimentary Geology, 387, 87-103. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sedgeo.2019.04.009.

Ettinger, N., Larson, T., Kerans, C., Thibodeau, A., Hattori, K., Kacur, S. & Martindale, R. (2021). Ocean acidification and photic-zone anoxia at the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event: Insights from the Adriatic Carbonate Platform. Sedimentology, 68, 63-107. doi:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/sed.12786.