Ryan Portner
Postdoctoral Fellow
Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute
7700 Sandholdt Road
Moss Landing, CA 95039
Phone: (831) 775-1826
Fax: (831) 775-1620
email: rportner[at]mbari.org
I am interested in the controls that tectonism and volcanism have on subaqueous mass gravity flow processes. Whether it be deep marine to terrestrial exhumation of the lower crust, or explosive subaqueous volcanism, igneous and metamorphic source rocks are eventually transported into a sedimentary basin. My research focuses on the generation, fragmentation, transport and deposition of that detritus and its record of the source terrane evolution. To do this I utilize an interdisciplinary approach that involves petrography, measured stratigraphic and core sections, geologic mapping, geochemical analysis, and geochronology.
Volcaniclastic particle transport and dispersal from deep-sea eruptions, and their record of eruptive and magmatic controls will be my primary research focus here at MBARI. This will be done by taking vertical stratigraphic measurements supplemented by high resolution sampling and lithofacies mapping of in-situ oceanic crust. Such detail from undeformed deposits will be compared with volcaniclastic rocks within subaerially exposed sections of oceanic crust (i.e. ophiolites).