Dr. Ken Ferrier, Assistant Professor in Earth & Atmospheric Sciences has received a two year grant from the American Chemical Society.  The research project being sponsored is titled: Sensitivity of Sea Level to Sediment Erosion and Deposition in Massive Sedimentary Systems

From the abstract:

As sea level rises and falls, the shorelines where rivers meet the ocean migrate landward and

seaward. This influences the locations of sedimentary deposits and organic carbon burial, as

well as the grain size of the deposited sediment. In this manner, changes in sea level regulate the

development of hydrocarbon reservoirs within marine sedimentary deposits. Understanding the

development of hydrocarbon reservoirs therefore requires a comprehensive understanding of the

processes that drive sea-level change.

The goal of the proposed research is to quantify sea-level responses to massive fluvial

sediment fluxes.

Biography:

Dr. Ken Ferrier is an assistant professor of geology in the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at Georgia Tech. He holds an AB in Physics from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in Earth and Planetary Science from the University of California, Berkeley. At Georgia Tech, he teaches undergraduate and graduate students and also conducts research on a number of processes that shape the Earth’s surface.  At present, his group’s research is centered on two broad themes: 1) The topographic and chemical evolution of the Earth’s surface; and 2) sea level dynamics.