Tectonic core of a sedimentary drift: a potential ridge propagation feature beneath the Blake Outer Ridge     

Dayton Dove  Steven C. Jaume  Erin Beutel 《Marine Geophysical Researches》2007,28(1):1-11

The Blake Outer Ridge is a 480–kilometer long linear sedimentary drift ridge striking perpendicular to the North American coastline. By modeling free-air gravity anomalies we tested for the presence of a crustal feature that may control the location and orientation of the Blake Outer Ridge. Most of our crustal density models that match observed gravity anomalies require an increase in oceanic crustal thickness of 1–3 km on the southwest side of the Blake Outer Ridge relative to the northeast side. Most of these models also require 1–4 km of crustal thinning in zone 20–30 km southwest of the crest of the Blake Outer Ridge. Although these features are consistent with the structure of oceanic fracture zones, the Blake Outer Ridge is not parallel to adjacent known fracture zones. Magnetic anomalies suggest that the ocean crust beneath this feature formed during a period of mid-ocean ridge reorganization, and that the Blake Outer Ridge may be built upon the bathymetric expression of an oblique extensional feature associated with ridge propagation. It is likely that the orientation of this trough acted as a catalyst for sediment deposition with the start of the Western Boundary Undercurrent in the mid-Oligocene.  相似文献   

Jellyfish patch formation investigated by aerial photography and drifter experiment     

Shinya Magome  Tomohiro Yamashita  Takeshi Kohama  Atsushi Kaneda  Yuichi Hayami  Satoru Takahashi  Hidetaka Takeoka 《Journal of Oceanography》2007,63(5):761-773

Jellyfish patch formation is investigated by conducting a drifter experiment combined with aerial photography of a sustained patch of the moon jellyfish in Hokezu Bay, Japan. Jellyfish patches are aggregations of individuals that are caused by a combination of swimming (active influence) and advection by currents (passive influence). The drifter experiment involved the injection of 49 drifters around a distinct surface patch of jellyfish within an area of approximately 300 m × 300 m. The drifters’ motion, caused only by the passive influence, was recorded in a series of 38 aerial photographs taken over approximately 1 h. The ambient uniform current field larger than the patch scale was estimated from the movement of the centroid position of drifters, while the distribution of horizontal divergence and relative vorticity around the patch was estimated from the time-derivative in areas of triangles formed by the drifters. The centroid positions of both drifters and patches moved stably toward the bay head at different speeds. The difference vector between the patch and drifter centroids was directed to the sun, and was opposite to the ambient current. The distributions of vorticity and divergence around patches exhibited inhomogeneity within the patch scale, and the drifters in this nonuniform current field aggregated near the convergence area within 1 h. The results suggest that horizontal patch formation is predominantly influenced by passive factors at the surface of Hokezu Bay. Furthermore, the upward swimming against downwelling may make sustained patch in surface layer.  相似文献   

Biodiversity of meiofauna in the intertidal khe nhan mudflat,can gio mangrove forest,vietnam with special emphasis on free living nematodes     

Quang Ngo Xuan  Ann Vanreusel  Nguyen Vu Thanh  Nic Smol 《Ocean Science Journal》2007,42(3):135-152

The ecological aspect of meiofaunal communities in Can Gio mangrove forest, Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam has not been investigated before. The composition, distribution, density and biodiversity of meiofaunal communities were studied along an intertidal transect at the Khe Nhan mudflat. Each time, three replicate samples were collected in four stations along a transect following the water line from low tide level up to the mangrove forest edge. In total, 18 meiofaunal taxa were found with the dominant taxa belonging to Nematoda, Copepoda, Sarcomastigophora and Polychaeta. The densities of meiofauna ranged from 1156 inds/10 cm² to 2082 inds/10 cm². The increase in densities from the mangrove forest edge towards the low water line was significant. Along the mudflat transect, the biodiversity (expressed by different indices) was relatively high at different taxonomic levels but did not vary significantly along the mudflat except for taxa richness. Eighty nematode genera belonging to 24 families with Comesomatidae having the highest abundance 33.8 % were found.Theristus andNeochromadora decreased in densities from the lower water line towards the mangrove forest edge, whileParacomesoma andHopperia are typical and more abundant at the middle of the mudflat.Halalaimus increased from high on the mudflat to the low water line.  相似文献   

Baroclinic Buoyancy-Inertia Joint Stability Parameter     

Hideo Kawai 《Journal of Oceanography》2005,61(2):235-246

At present, the barotropic buoyant stability parameter has been derived from a vertical virtual displacement of a water parcel. The barotropic inertial stability parameter in the eccentrically cyclogeostrophic, basic current field was derived in 2003 from a horizontal cross-stream virtual displacement of a parcel. By expressing acceleration of a parcel due to a virtual displacement, which is arbitrarily sloping within a vertical section across the basic current, in terms of natural coordinates, we derived the vertical component of baroclinic buoyant stability parameter B ₂ ², the horizontal component of baroclinic inertial stability parameter I ₂ ², the baroclinic joint stability parameter J ², its buoyant component B ² and its inertial component I ². B ² is far greater than I ₂ ², and when neglecting relative vorticity except for vertical shear, a downward convex curve of J ² plotted against the slope of a virtual displacement follows a trend of B ² curve. If a parcel displaces along a horizontal surface or an isopycnal surface, however, B ² vanishes, and J ² becomes equal to I ². Actual parcel is apt to displace not only along the bottom slope, but also along the sea surface and an isopycnal interfacial surface, which is approximately equivalent to an isentropic surface, preferred by lateral mixing and exchange of momentum. Such actual displacement makes B ² vanishing, and grants I ² an important role. The present analysis of I ² examining effects due to curvature and horizontal and vertical shear vorticities are useful in deepening our understanding of baroclinic instability in actual oceanic streams.  相似文献   

Preconditioned Optimizing Utility for Large-dimensional analyses (POpULar)     

Yosuke Fujii 《Journal of Oceanography》2005,61(1):167-181

I present the derivation of the Preconditioned Optimizing Utility for Large-dimensional analyses (POpULar), which is developed for adopting a non-diagonal background error covariance matrix in nonlinear variational analyses (i.e., analyses employing a non-quadratic cost function). POpULar is based on the idea of a linear preconditioned conjugate gradient method widely adopted in ocean data assimilation systems. POpULar uses the background error covariance matrix as a preconditioner without any decomposition of the matrix. This preconditioning accelerates the convergence. Moreover, the inverse of the matrix is not required. POpULar therefore allows us easily to handle the correlations among deviations of control variables (i.e., the variables which will be analyzed) from their background in nonlinear problems. In order to demonstrate the usefulness of POpULar, we illustrate two effects which are often neglected in studies of ocean data assimilation before. One is the effect of correlations among the deviations of control variables in an adjoint analysis. The other is the nonlinear effect of sea surface dynamic height calculation required when sea surface height observation is employed in a three-dimensional ocean analysis. As the results, these effects are not so small to neglect.  相似文献   

Shoreline variability via empirical orthogonal function analysis: Part I temporal and spatial characteristics     

Jon K. Miller  Robert G. Dean 《Coastal Engineering》2007

Empirical orthogonal functions (EOFs) or principal components were used to extract the significant modes of shoreline variability from several data sets collected at three very different locations. Although EOFs have proven to be a valuable tool in the analysis of nearshore data, most applications have focused on the ability of the technique to describe cross-shore or profile variability. Here however, EOFs were used to help identify the dominant modes of longshore shoreline variability at Duck, North Carolina, the Gold Coast, Australia, and at several locations within the Columbia River Littoral Cell in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. In part one of this analysis, characteristic patterns of shoreline variability identified by the EOF analysis are described in detail. At each site, the dominant modes consisting of the first four eigenfunctions were found to describe nearly 95% of the total shoreline variability. At both Duck and the Gold Coast, several interesting longshore periodic features suggestive of sand waves were identified, while boundary effects related to natural headlands and navigational structures/entrances dominated the Pacific Northwest data sets.  相似文献   

Summer distribution and geochemical composition of suspended-particulate matter in the east china sea     

Jia-Jang Hung  Chia-Lin Chan  Gong-Ching Gong 《Journal of Oceanography》2007,63(2):189-202

The distribution and geochemical composition of suspended-particulate matter (SPM) in the East China Sea (ECS) were investigated during the summer period of high continental runoff to elucidate SPM sources, distribution and cross-shelf transport. The spatial variability of SPM distribution (0.3–6.5 mg l⁻¹) and geochemical composition (POC, Al, Si, Fe, Mn, Ca, Mg and K) in the ECS was pronounced during summer when the continental fluxes of freshwater and terrestrial materials were highest during the year. Under the influences of Changjiang runoff, Kuroshio intrusion, surface production and bottom resuspension, the distribution generally showed strong gradients decreasing seaward for both biogenic and lithogenic materials. Particulate organic carbon was enriched in surface water (mean ∼18%) due to the influence of biological productivity, and was diluted by resuspended and/or laterally-transported materials in bottom water (mean 9.4%). The abundance of lithogenic elements (Al, Si, Fe, Mn) increased toward the bottom, and the distribution correlations were highly significant. Particulate CaCO₃ distribution provided evidence that the SPM of the bottom water in the northern part of the study area was likely mixed with sediments originally derived from Huanghe. A distinct benthic nepheloid layer (BNL) was present in all seaward transects of the ECS shelf. Sediment resuspension may be caused by tidal fluctuation and other forcing and be regarded as the principal agent in the formation of BNL. This BNL was likely responsible for the transport of biogenic and lithogenic particles across or along the ECS shelf. Total inventories of SPM, POC and PN are 46, 2.8 and 0.4 Tg, respectively, measured over the total area of 0.45 × 10⁶ km² of the ECS shelf. Their mean residence times are about 27, 13 and 11 days, respectively. The inventory of SPM in the water column was higher in the northernmost and southernmost transects and lower in the middle transects, reflecting the influences of terrestrial inputs from Changjiang and/or resuspended materials from Huanghe deposits in the north and perhaps from Minjiang and/or Taiwan’s rivers in the south. The distribution and transport patterns of SPM and geochemical elements strongly indicate that continental sources and cross-shelf transport modulate ECS particulate matter in summer.  相似文献   

Three cletodid copepods of the genera<Emphasis Type="Italic">limnocletodes</Emphasis> and<Emphasis Type="Italic">kollerua</Emphasis> (harpacticoida,cletodidae) from coastal marshes and estuaries in south Korea     

Ji Min Lee  Cheon Young Chang 《Ocean Science Journal》2007,42(4):255-267

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The Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front: physical and biological coupling at South Georgia     

Peter Ward  Mick Whitehouse  Mike Meredith  Eugene Murphy  Rachael Shreeve  Rebecca Korb  Jon Watkins  Sally Thorpe  Rachel Woodd-Walker  Andrew Brierley  Nathan Cunningham  Sharon Grant  Doug Bone 《Deep Sea Research Part I: Oceanographic Research Papers》2002,49(12):139

The coupling of physics and biology was examined along a 160 km long transect running out from the north coast of South Georgia Island and crossing the Southern Antarctic Circumpolar Current Front (SACCF) during late December 2000. Surface and near surface potential TS properties indicated the presence of three water types: a near-shore group of stations characterised by water which became progressively warmer and fresher closer to South Georgia, an offshore grouping in which sea surface temperatures and those at the winter water level were relatively warm (1.8°C and 0.5°C, respectively), and a third in which surface and winter water temperatures were cooler and reflected the presence of the SACCF. The transect bisected the SACCF twice, revealing that it was flowing in opposite directions, north-westward closest to South Georgia and south-eastwards at its furthest point from the island. The innermost limb was a narrow intense feature located just off the shelf break in 2000–3500 m of water and in which rapid surface baroclinic velocities (up to 35 cm s⁻¹) were encountered. Offshore in the outermost limb, shown subsequently to be a mesoscale eddy that had meandered south from the retroflected limb of the SACCF, flow was broader and slower with peak velocities around 20 cm s⁻¹. Chlorophyll a biomass was generally low (<1 mg m⁻³) over much of the transect but increased dramatically in the region of the innermost limb of the SACCF, where a deepening of the surface mixed layer was coincident with a subsurface chlorophyll maximum (7.4 mg m⁻³) and elevated concentrations down to 100 m. The bloom was coincident with depleted nutrient concentrations, particularly silicate, nitrate and phosphate, and although ammonium concentrations were locally depleted the bloom lay within an elevated band (up to 1.5 mmol m⁻³) associated with the frontal jet. Increased zooplankton abundance, higher copepod body carbon mass and egg production rates all showed a strong spatial integrity with the front. The population structure of the copepods Calanoides acutus and Rhincalanus gigas at stations within the front suggested that rather than simply resulting from entrainment and concentration within the jet, increased copepod abundance was the result of development in situ. Estimates of bloom duration, based on silicate and carbon budget calculations, set the likely duration between 82 and 122 d, a figure supported by the development schedule of the two copepod species. Given this timescale, model outputs from FRAM and OCCAM indicated that particles that occurred on the north side of South Georgia in December would have been in the central-southern Scotia Sea 2–3 months earlier, probably in sea ice affected regions.  相似文献   

Co–rich Mn crusts from the Magellan Seamount cluster: the long journey through time     

Geoffrey P. Glasby  Xiangwen Ren  Xuefa Shi  Irina A. Pulyaeva 《Geo-Marine Letters》2007,27(5):315-323

The Magellan seamounts began forming as large submarine shield volcanoes south of the equator during the Cretaceous. These volcanoes formed as a cluster on the small Pacific plate in a period when tectonic stress was absent. Thermal subsidence of the seafloor led to sinking of these volcanoes and the formation of guyots as the seamounts crossed the equatorial South Pacific (10–0°S) sequentially and ocean surface temperatures became too high for calcareous organisms to survive. Guyot formation was completed between about 59 and 45 Ma and the guyots became phosphatized at about 39–34 and 27–21 Ma. Ferromanganese crusts began formation as proto-crusts on the seamounts and guyots of the Magellan Seamount cluster towards the end of the Cretaceous up to 55 Ma after the formation of the seamounts themselves. The chemical composition of these crusts evolved over time in a series of steps in response to changes in global climate and ocean circulation. The great thickness of these crusts (up to 15–20 cm) reflects their very long period of growth. The high Co contents of the outer parts of the crusts are a consequence of the increasing deep circulation of the ocean and the resulting deepening of the oxygen minimum zone with time. Growth of the Co-rich Mn crusts in the Magellan Seamount cluster can be considered to be the culmination of a long journey through time.  相似文献