Laura Torresan
I design, coordinate, and create content for the Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center web site and the Coastal and Marine Hazards and Resources Program web site. I am also the assistant editor of the newsletter “Sound Waves," which features coastal and marine research news from across the USGS.
Biography
Science and Products
Featured Photos and Videos
Keep watching this page for more photos from our scientists!
Science Posters
The USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center created posters about each of these completed research projects. Here, the posters are presented along with additional information.
Should Englebright Dam Be Removed?
Information about the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center's study from 2001-2004, on Englebright Dam and the science behind its removal.
Giant Hawaiian Underwater Landslides
Information about the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center's studies of giant underwater landslides in 1986 and 1988.
Data report: geology of reef-front carbonate sediment deposits around Oahu, Hawaii
This Open-File Report presents data and derivative products from an investigation of carbonate sediment deposits on the reef front in four areas around the island of Oahu, Hawaii - in Kailua Bay off Oahu's windward (east) side, off the leeward (west) coast from Makua to Kahe Point, off the north coast from Waimea to Camp Erdman, and off the south...
Hampton, Monty A.; Blay, Charles T.; Murray, Christopher; Torresan, Laura Z.; Frazee, Cathy S.; Richmond, Bruce M.; Fletcher, Charles H.
Sedimentation and bathymetric change in San Pablo Bay, 1856-1983
A long-term perspective of erosion and deposition in San Francisco Bay is vital to understanding and managing wetland change, harbor and channel siltation, and other sediment-related phenomena such as particle and particle-associated substance (pollutants, trace metals, etc.) transport and deposition. A quantitative comparison of historical...
Jaffe, Bruce E.; Smith, Richard E.; Torresan, Laura Zink
Conglomerates of the upper middle Eocene to lower Miocene Sespe Formation along the Santa Ynez Fault; implications for the geologic history of the eastern Santa Maria Basin area, California. Reconnaissance bulk-rock and clay mineralogies of argillaceous Great Valley an Franciscan strata, Santa Maria Basin Province, California
Howard, Jeffrey L.; Pollastro, Richard M.; McLean, Hugh; Zink, Laura L.
Final report; acoustic mapping of dredged material disposal sites and deposits in Mamala Bay, Honolulu, Hawaii
Torresan, Michael E.; Hampton, M.A.; Gowen, M.H.; Barber, J.H.; Zink, L.L.; Chase, T.E.; Wong, F.L.; Gann, J.T.; Dartnell, Peter
Photo Roundup - January-March 2020
A selection of coastal and marine images from across the USGS
Recent Fieldwork - January-March 2020
In the first quarter of 2020, USGS scientists surveyed mangrove coral habitats in Florida, set up instruments in American Samoa to study coral reef damage, collected data from the Gulf of Mexico, San Francisco and Stanford, California, and Washington state.
The Challenges of Arctic Fieldwork
On a far-away island along Alaska’s North Slope coast, conducting fieldwork can be challenging.
Recent Coastal and Marine Fieldwork - October-December 2019
USGS scientists visited numerous locations to set up and remove long-term monitoring instruments, to collect samples, and to monitor and map beaches, rivers, marshes, ocean habitats, and offshore areas. Here’s a quick overview of some fieldwork by our scientists.
Sound Waves Newsletter - December 2018-January 2019
Learn how USGS scientists are trying to better understand erosion on Alaska's arctic coast,
Sound Waves Newsletter - October-November 2018
Coastal and Marine Research from Across the USGS
Sound Waves Newsletter - September 2018
Elwha River is still changing 5 years after two dams were removed, interagency drone pilots assist USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory in monitoring and mapping efforts of the Kīlauea eruption, DOI award goes to Elwha River Science Team for their work to understand and explain the effects of dam removal on the Elwha River in Washington, and more in this September 2018 issue of Sound Waves...
Sound Waves Newsletter - August 2018
Estuarine sediment needs thwarted by invasive plants, raising awareness in schools about natural hazards, new geographer/marine ecologist at USGS in Santa Cruz, new report on how the bend in a fault helped shape the Big Sur coast, and more in this August 2018 issue of Sound Waves.
Sound Waves Newsletter - July 2018
Imaging a fault to learn more about tectonic plate motion and improve understanding of hazards, two researchers from the USGS in Santa Cruz, California win the USGS Excellence in Leadership Award, Fulbright Scholar joins geohazards project at the USGS in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and more in this July 2018 issue of Sound Waves.
Sound Waves Newsletter - June 2018
USGS hurricane response in 2017 helps prepare for 2018 season, and USGS researchers are ready; a special, USGS-led tsunami hazards issue of the journal Marine Geology receives award as one of the top three most-cited issues in 2016 and 2017; a USGS researcher visits South Korea to share expertise on offshore mapping; and more in this June 2018 issue of Sound Waves.
Sound Waves Newsletter - March 2018
Learn about how polluted groundwater threatens coral reefs, what rocks from deep in the soutwestern Atlantic Ocean tell us about geologic history and mineral resources, why Florida is the perfect place to study regional-scale ocean acidification, and more in this March 2018 issue of Sound Waves.
Sound Waves Newsletter - February 2018
Researchers find giant grooves on the tectonic plates that form a subduction zone, impacts of climate change may make many low-lying Pacific islands uninhabitable in 20 years, how two recent earthquakes did not trigger larger tsunamis, a new data catalog that makes it easier to find coastal and marine data sets, and more in this February 2018 issue of Sound Waves.