Torbjörn Törnqvist
Vokes Geology Professor
Biography
Professor Törnqvist is a coastal geoscientist whose research is motivated by the alarming deterioration of Louisiana's coastal wetlands.
He and his research group use the late Quaternary geologic record to better understand the evolution of fluvial, deltaic, and coastal environments as a function of external forcings, primarily sea-level and climate change. Sea-level rise is an issue of particular interest, and Törnqvist takes advantage of the unique sedimentary record along the U.S. Gulf Coast to reconstruct changes in sea level in the recent geologic past, with the ultimate goal to enable better predictions for the future. A significant portion of his work focuses on coastal subsidence and many of his studies aim to better inform coastal restoration strategies.
Törnqvist has been widely quoted in the media, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, PBS Newshour, CNN, and CBS News.
Education
Utrecht University
Utrecht University
Links
Media Appearances
Watch the warming ocean devour Alaska’s coast in this striking time-lapse video
But there are massive differences, notes Torbjorn Tornqvist, a coastal geologist at Tulane University who studies the region...
Louisiana's coast can't be rebuilt fast enough, 'difficult choices' loom, Tulane study says
Torbjörn Törnqvist, a geology professor at Tulane and co-author of the study, said the state will have to place the diversion structures in areas with the greatest potential to build land and protect highly populated areas, rather than create multiple diversions along the entire shoreline.
“Difficult choices will have to be made about where to locate these diversions,” he said in a news release...
Scientists say the rapid sinking of Louisiana’s coast already counts as a ‘worst case scenario’
A new paper, published Wednesday in the Geological Society of America’s bulletin GSA Today, includes an updated map of the Louisiana coastline and the rate at which it’s sinking into the sea, a process scientists call “subsidence,” which occurs in addition to the climate change-caused process of sea-level rise. The new map suggests that, on average, the Louisiana coast is sinking at a rate of about 9 millimeters, or just over a third of an inch, per year — a faster rate than previous studies have suggested, according to the authors.
“I think it’s a point worth making that we are finding here that what people recently have considered worst case scenarios are actually conditions that we already see right now,” said Torbjörn Törnqvist, a geologist at Tulane University and a co-author on the new paper.
Tulane Today Mentions
Louisiana wetlands struggling with sea-level rise four times the global average
New map highlights sinking Louisiana coast
Mississippi mud may hold hope for Louisiana coast
Tulane researchers contribute to national report on Gulf Coast
Tulane study says seas may be rising faster than thought
Global river deltas increasingly shaped by humans, study says
Mississippi Delta marshes in a state of irreversible collapse, Tulane study shows
In the News
New York Times: Athletes in a Ravaged Louisiana Town Try to Run Back to Normalcy
Reuters: As Ida-hit Port Fourchon rebuilds, disappearing wetlands threaten its future
Biloxi Sun Herald: The Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe is losing homes to erosion on the Gulf Coast
Scientific American: On the Louisiana Coast, an Indigenous Community Loses Homes to Erosion
Biz New Orleans: Scientists Express Support for Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion
