Background
Posamentier was born in Manhattan in New York City, the son of Austrian-Jewish immigrants.
Posamentier was born in Manhattan in New York City, the son of Austrian-Jewish immigrants.
He received his Bachelor of Science in geology in 1970 at the City College of New New York In 1973 he earned his Master of Arts in geology and in 1975 his Doctor of Philosophy, both from Syracuse.
He helped pioneer and develop the modern approach to sequence stratigraphy, blending the disciplines of sedimentology, stratigraphy, and depositional systems analysis, largely within the context of oil and gas exploration. During the past decade he pioneered and popularized the discipline of seismic geomorphology, which, when integrated with seismic stratigraphy, leverages both 2D and 3D seismic data to better understand the paleogeographic distribution of lithologies. Posamentier is partially colorblind and prefers to view his seismic data in grayscale.
After a brief career in academia at Rider University (Assistant Professor of Geology (1974–1979), Posamentier joined the oil and gas industry, working for assorted leading oil and gas firms.
In early 2014 he retired from Chevron Corporation in Houston, Texas, but he continues to consult for the industry. He is the brother of Alfred South. Posamentier, a notable American educator.