Education

​University of Arizona | Tucson, Arizona
2016 Ph.D. Geosciences
2010 M.S. Geosciences

Carleton College | Northfield, Minnesota
2007 B.A. Geology, with distinction, magna cum laude
concentration: Environmental and Technology Studies 

Professional Experience

Associate Professor (2025-present) Idaho State University, Department of Geosciences
Assistant Professor (2019-2025) Idaho State University, Department of Geosciences
Visiting Assistant Professor (2018-2019) Hamilton College, Geosciences Department
Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2016-2018) University of Michigan, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Graduate Research/Teaching Associate (2008-2016) University of Arizona, Department of Geosciences
NSF Graduate Research Fellow (2009-2014)
Geoscience Intern (summer 2013) ExxonMobil Exploration Company, Houston, Texas

Publications

​PUBLISHED

Goughnour, R.L., Murray, K.E., Karlstrom, L., Biasi, J., Cox, S.E., O’Sullivan, P., and Finney, B., 2025, Co-inversion of multiple thermochronometers and a paleomagnetic thermometer at a Columbia River flood basalt feeder dike (Oregon, USA) demonstrates the sensitivity of thermal history results to diverse data constraints, Geosphere, doi:10.1130/ges02836.1.

Murray, K.E., Niemi, N.A., and Clark, M.K., 2025, Evidence for the Neoproterozoic Rifting of Rodinia in the Rocky Mountain Front Range: Tectonics, v. 44, doi:10.1029/2023tc008216.

Abbey, A.L, Wildman, M., Stevens Goddard, A.L., Murray, K.E., 2023, Thermal history modeling techniques and interpretation strategies: Applications using QTQt, Geosphere, v. 19, no. 2, p. 493-530 doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/GES02528.1

Murray, K.E., Stevens Goddard, A.L., Abbey, A.L, Wildman, M., 2022, Thermal history modeling techniques and interpretation strategies: Applications using HeFTy, Geosphere, v. 18, p. 1622–1642, doi:10.1130/ges02500.1.

​Jimenez-Rodriquez, S., Dettinger, M., Quade, J., Murray, K.E., Paleoaltimetry of the western Andes in northern Chile (~18.5-19.5°S), American Journal of Science, vol. 321, no. 5, p. 491-533. doi: 10.2475/05.2021.01.

​Murray, K.E., Reiners, P.W., Thomson, S.N., Robert, X., and Whipple, K.X., 2019, The thermochronologic record of erosion and magmatism in the Canyonlands region of the Colorado Plateau, American Journal of Science, vol. 319, no. 5, p. 339-380. doi: 10.2475/05.2019.01​

Karlstrom, L. Murray, K.E., and Reiners, P.W., 2019, Bayesian Markov-Chain Monte Carlo inversion of low-temperature thermochronology around two 8-10 m wide Columbia River Flood Basalt dikes, Frontiers in Earth Science, vol. 7, no. 90, doi.org/10.3389/feart.2019.00090.

Murray, K.E., Braun, J, and Reiners, P.W., 2018, Toward robust interpretations of low-temperature thermochronology in magmatic terranes, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems. doi: 10.1029/2018GC007595.

​Bloch, E., Ibañez-Mejia, M., Murray, K.E., Vervoort, J., and Müntener, O., 2017, ​Recent crustal foundering in the Northern Volcanic Zone of the Andean arc: Petrological insights from the roots of a modern subduction zone: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 476, p. 47-58.

​Murray, K.E., Reiners, P.W., Thomson, S.N., 2016, Rapid Pliocene-Pleistocene erosion of the central Colorado Plateau documented by apatite thermochronology from the Henry Mountains: Geology. v. 44, no. 6, p. 483-486, doi:10.1130/G37733.1.

Loope, D., Kettler, R., Murray, K.E., Pederson, J., and Reiners, P., 2016, Sandstones and Utah’s canyon country: Deposition, diagenesis, exhumation, and landscape evolution, in Keller, S.M. and Morgan, M.L., eds., Unfolding the Geology of the West: Geological Society of America Field Guide 44, p. 41-71, doi:10.1130/2016.0044(02).

Murray, K.E., Ducea, M.N., Schoenbohm, L., 2015, Foundering-driven lithospheric melting: the source of central Andean mafic lavas on the Puna plateau (22˚S - 27˚S), in DeCelles, P.G., Ducea, M.N., Carrapa, B., and Kapp, P.A., eds., Geodynamics of a Cordilleran Orogenic System: The Central Andes of Argentina and Northern Chile: Geological Society of America Memoir 212, p. 139–166, doi:10.1130/2015.1212(08).

Quade, J., Dettinger, M.P., Carrapa, B., DeCelles, P.G., Murray, K.E., Huntington, K.A., Cartwright, A., Canavan, R., Gehrels, G., Clementz, M., 2015, Growth of the central Andes, 22˚S - 26˚S, in DeCelles, P.G., Ducea, M.N., Carrapa, B., and Kapp, P.A., eds., Geodynamics of a Cordilleran Orogenic System: The Central Andes of Argentina and Northern Chile: Geological Society of America Memoir 212, p. 277-308, doi:10.1130/2015.1212(15).

Reiners, P.W., Thomson, S.N., Vernon, A., Willett, S.D., Zattin, M., Einhorn, J., Gehrels, G., Quade, J. Pearson, D., Murray, K.E., Cavazza, W., 2015, Low-temperature thermochronologic trends across the central Andes, 21˚S - 28 °S, in DeCelles, P.G., Ducea, M.N., Carrapa, B., and Kapp, P.A., eds., Geodynamics of a Cordilleran Orogenic System: The Central Andes of Argentina and Northern Chile: Geological Society of America Memoir 212, p. 215-249, doi:10.1130/2015.1212(12).

Murray, K.E., Orme, D.A., Reiners, P.W., 2014, Effects of U-Th-rich grain boundary phases on apatite helium ages: Chemical Geology. v. 390, p. 135-151, doi:10.1016/j.chemgeo.2014.09.02.

Braun, J., Simon-Labric, T., Murray, K.E., Reiners, P.W., 2014, Topographic relief driven by variations in surface rock density: Nature Geoscience, v. 7, p. 534–540, doi:10.1038/ngeo2171.

Simon-Labric, T., Brocard, G.Y., Reiners, P.W., van der Beek, P.A., Teyssier, C., Shuster, D.L., Murray, K.E., Whitney, D.L., 2014, Low-temperature thermochronologic signature of range-divide migration and breaching in the North Cascades: Lithosphere, doi:10.1130/L382.1

Ducea, M.N., Seclaman, A.C., Murray, K.E., Jianu, D., Schoenbohm, L.M., 2013, Mantle-drip magmatism beneath the Altiplano-Puna plateau, central Andes: Geology, v. 41, no. 8, p. 915-918, doi: 10.1130/G34509.1

​Quade, J., Reiners, P., Placzek, C., Matmon, A., Pepper, M., Ojha, L., and Murray, K.E., 2012, Seismicity and the strange rubbing boulders of the Atacama Desert, northern Chile: Geology, v. 40, no. 9, p. 851–854, doi: 10.1130/G33162.

Lackey, J.S., Erdmann, S., Hark, J.S., Nowak, R.M., Murray, K.E., Clarke, D.B., and Valley, J.W., 2011, Tracing garnet origins in granitoid rocks by oxygen isotope analysis: Examples from the South Mountain batholith, Nova Scotia: The Canadian Mineralogist, v. 49, p. 417-439.

Barbeau, D.L., Davis, J., Murray, K.E., Valencia, V., Gehrels, G.E., Zahid, K.M., Gombosi, D.J., 2009, Detrital-zircon geochronology of the metasedimentary rocks of northwestern Graham Land: Antarctic Science, v. 22, n. 1, p. 65-78.

Barbeau, D.L., Olivero, E.B., Swanson-Hysell, N.L., Zahid, K.M., Murray, K.E., Gehrels, G.E., 2009,  Detrital-zircon geochronology of the eastern Magallanes foreland basin: Implications for Eocene kinematics of the northern Scotia Arc and Drake Passage: Earth and Planetary Science Letters, v. 284, p. 489-503.