{"id":2598,"date":"2026-11-11T10:11:48","date_gmt":"2026-11-11T16:11:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/?p=2598"},"modified":"2026-11-11T10:46:33","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T16:46:33","slug":"looking-at-laccoliths-in-the-sierra-blanca-mountains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/looking-at-laccoliths-in-the-sierra-blanca-mountains\/","title":{"rendered":"Looking at Laccoliths in the Sierra Blanca Mountains"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my opinion, the best part of geology is the field work. There\u2019s something amazing about visiting a site and witnessing billions of years of history with your own eyes. Every rock you pick up, every sample you take, is a clue that helps piece together Earth\u2019s story. I love learning about the field work Jackson students are doing, and I recently spoke to Adrianna Martinez about her trip to the Sierra Blanca Mountains, a gorgeous West Texas range with untapped geologic mysteries\u2014mysteries Adrianna hopes to help solve.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

Adrianna<\/a> is a first-year geology master\u2019s student studying rare earth element deposits in the Sierra Blanca Mountains. She majored in Environmental Science as an undergraduate student but became fascinated with geology her junior year. In her last year, she dove headfirst into the field, taking as many geology classes as she could. She said finally getting the chance to conduct field work as a graduate student has been incredibly rewarding.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor a while, I just felt like this was a field that I wanted to get into, and now I feel like I\u2019m in it,\u201d Adrianna said. \u201cThat has been such a shift for me in such a positive way, and now I just really want to contribute meaningfully.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

More than anything, Adrianna said she was thrilled to be in the field and experience the joy of being a geologist, tackling these mysteries alongside her team.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone in geology just really loves what they do. That was really sweet to see that play out while we were out there,\u201d she said. \u201cEven just hiking up this mountain, looking around to see if I find what I want to find. It was really hot, and it was kind of tiring, but I did love it. It was so cool to be doing something that feels so important.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Adrianna\u2019s passion for geology is clear in the way she speaks about her work. In the past, there has been extensive research on Round Top, one of five laccoliths in the Sierra Blanca complex. Geologists found that Round Top is enriched in heavy rare earth elements (REEs), making it an incredibly unique deposit. REEs are a valuable critical mineral used for everything from magnets to batteries to defense systems, and their production is considered essential for national security. Adrianna explained that light rare earth enrichment has been discovered in other parts of the United States, but until now, heavy rare earth production has mainly been concentrated in China.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s an opportunity for the U.S. to gain a domestic supply of heavy rare earth elements specifically,\u201d she said. \u201cThat\u2019s why there\u2019s a special interest in Round Top itself, but in general, there\u2019s an interest in a couple of the other laccoliths that also share this enrichment story.\u201d<\/span><\/h5>\n

 <\/p>\n

Round Top has been heavily researched, but geologists know comparatively little about deposits in the other four laccoliths. Adrianna\u2019s research seeks to fill in this gap in the mystery of the Sierras, specifically focusing on the mineralogy of Little Blanca. Geologists have performed bulk chemistry analysis at Little Blanca and found evidence of rare earth enrichment, but the mineralogy is not yet defined. That\u2019s where Adrianna\u2019s work comes in.<\/span><\/p>\n

The magmatic composition of the laccoliths is unusual for a REE deposit. There is a high concentration of fluorine in the magma itself, which would have bound to the REEs and kept them suspended in the magma for longer, leading to higher enrichment than you would typically see with this kind of magma.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a very unique chemistry, and we don\u2019t see this chemistry often, and we haven\u2019t seen it in a heavy rare earth element enrichment process,\u201d Adrianna said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Samples<\/span><\/p>\n

In September, Adrianna visited Little Blanca with her research team to survey the area and collect her first round of samples. She had access to previous geologic maps of the area, but for the most part, she was left to rely on her intuition as a geologist. Much of the fluoritization in the area occurs at the limestone-rhyolite contacts, and identifying these points required Adrianna to examine the texture of the rocks to see if they matched the description of rhyolite, putting her research into practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think I got kind of lucky,\u201d Adrianna said. \u201cI stumbled into this area where I could see that there was a fluorite vein, and I believe that vein was at one of the contacts.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Adrianna said her goal for the first visit was to gather as much information as possible. She made sure to note the geologic features of the area and their coordinates, taking care not to overlook anything.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou just want to be as descriptive as possible because as you\u2019re going through a research project,\u201d she said. \u201cYou don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to be valuable information until later, and then maybe all these things converge and there\u2019s a pattern that emerges.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

After collecting the samples, the next step is to perform geochemical analysis and get a good look at the rocks under a microscope. Adrianna said the big question is whether the fluorite was present during the initial crystallization of the magma chamber, which would point to REE enrichment similar to that found at Round Top.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI would love for it to be similar to Round Top because that makes my life easier, but also, if it\u2019s different, that\u2019s not a bad thing as far as future mining prospects,\u201d Adrianna explained. \u201cIt just means that I might have to approach it differently, which would be cool.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless of what she finds, Adrianna\u2019s work will provide crucial information for future mining projects, both in the Sierra Blanca complex and in the United States as a whole. Unraveling the mysteries beneath the laccoliths will allow us to better identify REE deposits in the future and determine the best way to extract these critical minerals. After a promising first trip to Little Blanca, Adrianna is excited for future field campaigns!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my opinion, the best part of geology is the field work. There\u2019s something amazing about visiting a site and witnessing billions of years of history with your own eyes. Every rock you pick up, every sample you take, is a clue that helps piece together Earth\u2019s story. I love…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":431,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[188,18,189,185,190,187,186],"research_theme":[],"class_list":["post-2598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bureau-of-economic-geology","tag-field-work","tag-masters-student","tag-rare-earth-elements","tag-round-top","tag-sierra-blancas","tag-west-texas"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/431"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2598"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2613,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2598\/revisions\/2613"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2598"},{"taxonomy":"research_theme","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jsg.utexas.edu\/science-yall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/research_theme?post=2598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}