Storm-induced turbidity currents on a sediment-starved shelf: Insight from direct monitoring and repeat seabed mapping of upslope migrating bedforms     

Alexandre Normandeau  Daniel Bourgault  Urs Neumeier  Patrick Lajeunesse  Guillaume St-Onge  Louis Gostiaux  Cédric Chavanne 《Sedimentology》2020,67(2):1045-1068

The monitoring of turbidity currents enables accurate internal structure and timing of these flows to be understood. Without monitoring, triggers of turbidity currents often remain hypothetical and are inferred from sedimentary structures of deposits and their age. In this study, the bottom currents within 20 m of the seabed in one of the Pointe-des-Monts (Gulf of St. Lawrence, eastern Canada) submarine canyons were monitored for two consecutive years using Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers. In addition, multibeam bathymetric surveys were carried out during deployment of the Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers and recovery operations. These new surveys, along with previous multibeam surveys carried out over the last decade, revealed that crescentic bedforms have migrated upslope by about 20 to 40 m since 2007, despite the limited supply of sediment on the shelf or river inflow in the region. During the winter of 2017, two turbidity currents with velocities reaching 0·5 m sec⁻¹ and 2·0 m sec⁻¹, respectively, were recorded and were responsible for the rapid (<1 min) upstream migration of crescentic bedforms measured between the autumn surveys of 2016 and 2017. The 200 kg (in water) mooring was also displaced 10 m down-canyon, up the stoss side of a bedform, suggesting that a dense basal layer could be driving the flow during the first minute of the event. Two other weaker turbidity currents with speeds <0·5 m sec⁻¹ occurred, but did not lead to any significant change on the seabed. These four turbidity currents coincided with strong and sustained wind speed >60 km h⁻¹ and higher than normal wave heights. Repeat seabed mapping suggests that the turbidity currents cannot be attributed to a canyon-wall slope failure. Rather, sustained windstorms triggered turbidity currents either by remobilizing limited volumes of sediment on the shelf or by resuspending sediment in the canyon head. Turbidity currents can thus be triggered when the sediment volume available is limited, likely by eroding and incorporating canyon thalweg sediment in the flow, thereby igniting the flow. This process appears to be particularly important for the generation of turbidity currents capable of eroding the lee side of upslope migrating bedforms in sediment-starved environments and might have wider implications for the activity of submarine canyons worldwide. In addition, this study suggests that a large external trigger (in this case storms) is required to initiate turbidity currents in sediment-starved environments, which contrasts with supply-dominated environments where turbidity currents are sometimes recorded without a clear triggering mechanism.  相似文献   

What controls submarine channel development and the morphology of deltas entering deep-water fjords?     

Jenny A. Gales  Peter J. Talling  Matthieu J.B. Cartigny  John Hughes Clarke  Gwyn Lintern  Cooper Stacey  Michael A. Clare 《地球表面变化过程与地形》2019,44(2):535-551

River deltas and associated turbidity current systems produce some of the largest and most rapid sediment accumulations on our planet. These systems bury globally significant volumes of organic carbon and determine the runout distance of potentially hazardous sediment flows and the shape of their deposits. Here we seek to understand the main factors that determine the morphology of turbidity current systems linked to deltas in fjords, and why some locations have well developed submarine channels while others do not. Deltas and associated turbidity current systems are analysed initially in five fjord systems from British Columbia in Canada, and then more widely. This provides the basis for a general classification of delta and turbidity current system types, where rivers enter relatively deep (>200 m) water. Fjord-delta area is found to be strongly bimodal. Avalanching of coarse-grained bedload delivered by steep mountainous rivers produces small Gilbert-type fan deltas, whose steep gradient (11°–25°) approaches the sediment's angle of repose. Bigger fjord-head deltas are associated with much larger and finer-grained rivers. These deltas have much lower gradients (1.5°–10°) that decrease offshore in a near exponential fashion. The lengths of turbidity current channels are highly variable, even in settings fed by rivers with similar discharges. This may be due to resetting of channel systems by delta-top channel avulsions or major offshore landslides, as well as the amount and rate of sediment supplied to the delta front by rivers. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.  相似文献   

Postglacial variability in near‐bottom current speed on the continental shelf off south‐west Spitsbergen          下载免费PDF全文

BEATA STERNAL  WITOLD SZCZUCISKI  MATTHIAS FORWICK  MAREK ZAJĄCZKOWSKI  STANISŁAW LORENC  JOANNA PRZYTARSKA 《第四纪科学杂志》2014,29(8):767-777

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Natural ring structures on the Baikal ice cover: Analysis of experimental data and mathematical modeling     

N.G. Granin  I.B. Mizandrontsev  V.V. Kozlov  E.A. Tsvetova  R.Yu. Gnatovskii  V.V. Blinov  I.A. Aslamov  K.M. Kucher  V.G. Ivanov  A.A. Zhdanov 《Russian Geology and Geophysics》2018,59(11):1514-1525

Hydrophysical studies and mathematical modeling of ring structures during ice cover on Lake Baikal have shown that their existence at the stage of ice cover degradation is due to anticyclonic currents. Such currents can be generated as a result of local upwelling, which we associate with the rise of methane hydrates from the top layer of bottom sediments and their dissociation. Analysis of satellite images shows that the radii of ice rings range from 1300 to 2400 m, which is close to the baroclinic Rossby radius. The measured ice thicknesses in the area of the rings are in agreement with model calculations. Deep water renewal in Lake Baikal can also be associated with the rise of hydrates.  相似文献   

On the Importance of High-Resolution in Large-Scale Ocean Models     

Eric P.CHASSIGNET  Xiaobiao XU 《大气科学进展》2021,38(10):1621-1634

Eddying global ocean models are now routinely used for ocean prediction, and the value-added of a better representation of the observed ocean variability and western boundary currents at that resolution is currently being evaluated in climate models. This overview article begins with a brief summary of the impact on ocean model biases of resolving eddies in several global ocean–sea ice numerical simulations. Then, a series of North and Equatorial Atlantic configurations are used to show that an increase of the horizontal resolution from eddy-resolving to submesoscale-enabled together with the inclusion of high-resolution bathymetry and tides significantly improve the models' abilities to represent the observed ocean variability and western boundary currents. However, the computational cost of these simulations is extremely large, and for these simulations to become routine, close collaborations with computer scientists are essential to ensure that numerical codes can take full advantage of the latest computing architecture.  相似文献   

Nonlinear pulsations of horizontal jets     

《Dynamics of Atmospheres and Oceans》2021

A shallow-water model with horizontally nonuniform density is used to study the dynamics of jet flows that arise under the influence of buoyancy and the Coriolis force. Within this approach, the jet is described by a self-similar compactly-localized solution and interpreted as a band of shear flow having a temperature contrast with the ambient fluid. In addition to stationary states, the dynamics of such jets admit cyclonic rotation with a constant angular velocity and transverse nonlinear pulsations. The phase portrait corresponding to this model shows that regimes with pulsating jets develop along closed trajectories bounded by the separatrix loop. The theory predicts that the period for warm jet pulsations is longer than the inertial oscillation period caused by the Earth’s rotation, while for cold jet pulsations, it is shorter. Thus, only warm jets can have a noticeable effect on the atmospheric dynamics in the synoptic range. In particular, they may well be responsible for additional spectral peaks that appear in this range of wind speed fluctuations.  相似文献   

印度河扇水道堤岸外侧更新世沉积物波发育特征与形成过程分析^*          下载免费PDF全文

浩克  纪友亮  张胜久  刘炎鑫  Khurram Shahzad  Saad Ahmed Mashwani  刘笑语  姜燕 《古地理学报》2022,24(2):389-404

印度河扇更新世发育的沉积物波结构复杂、形态多样,其形成过程的认识程度低。本次研究通过高分辨率地震数据和地震解释技术,研究了印度河扇沉积物波的波长、形态、波峰变化等形态特征;阐述了沉积物波与沉积物变形特征的差异、识别了两者的区分标志;总结了水道堤岸斜坡和区域斜坡上沉积物波的分布规律;在此基础上,讨论了沉积物波的形成机理和控制因素,分析了沉积物波的形成过程,并建立了印度河扇沉积物波的形成模式。研究表明: (1)研究区沉积物波波长平均为486.84 m,最大1473 m;波高在10~60 m之间,平均30 m。(2)沉积物波的形态有对称型和非对称型,其迁移方式有上坡迁移型、加积型和下坡迁移型;沉积物波主要发育在水道堤岸的斜坡上,在区域斜坡上也发育少量的沉积物波,这2种沉积物波波脊的走向差异很大,水道堤岸斜坡上的沉积物波主要分布于水道凹岸堤岸的外侧,距离水道越远其规模(波长、波高)越小,波脊走向近于NE-SW方向,与水道的走向平行或斜交;区域斜坡上的沉积物波波脊的走向多为NW-SE向,平行于区域斜坡的走向,离源区越远规模越大。(3)水道堤岸斜坡上的沉积物波是由水道型浊流在离心力的作用下,溢出水道的凹岸,在堤岸外侧的斜坡上沉积形成的,堤岸斜坡的角度对沉积物波的发育规模影响不大,浊流的强度和输沙量对其规模影响大;区域斜坡上发育的沉积物波是由顺坡而下的非水道化的浊流沉积形成;滑塌变形造成的起伏地貌以及早期沉积物波的存在,也都影响了后期沉积物波的发育。  相似文献   

江苏海岸中部近岸冬季潮汐和潮流特征     

王逸涵  王韫玮  于谦  蔡辉  高抒 《海洋科学》2019,43(10):66-74

南黄海西侧的江苏海岸近岸区域,素以地形复杂、潮流强劲、悬沙输运剧烈著称,但是较长期的同步潮位和潮流观测数据仍然缺乏,尤其是在近岸(20 km)浅水(20 m)区域。2014年1月在大丰港附近开展了连续潮位和潮流观测,获得的数据揭示了一系列特征。此地潮汐潮流为正规半日潮,浅水分潮显著。平均潮差为3.05 m,最显著的两个分潮为M2和S2分潮,振幅分别为1.45 m和0.52 m。潮流最显著的半日分潮M2分潮和最显著的浅水分潮M4分潮在沿岸方向上振幅分别为0.84m/s和0.12m/s,在跨岸方向上振幅分别为0.24 m/s和0.01 m/s,沿岸方向占绝对优势。潮波的沿岸传播介于前进波和驻波之间,驻波的特征稍强。M2分潮潮流椭圆最大流(长轴)方向为南偏东7.4°。存在冬季沿岸向北的余流,垂向平均值的大小为2.2 cm/s。以上潮汐潮流特征为该区域海洋物质输运研究提供了基础资料。  相似文献   

港湾中海啸流的模拟及其时空演变特征对输入条件不确定性的响应分析          下载免费PDF全文

王培涛  闪迪  侯京明  王岗  高义  任智源  范婷婷  王宗辰  王君成 《地球物理学报》2018,61(4):1325-1340

一直以来，海啸波特征作为表征海啸潜在破坏性的参数指标得到了广泛应用，特别是针对近场极端海啸事件造成的灾害来说，这种表征具有较好的适用性.然而总结分析历史海啸事件造成的损失发现：在远场近岸及港湾系统中，海啸诱导的强流却是造成损失的主要原因.陆架或港湾振荡导致海啸波幅快速升降诱发强流，可能促使港工设施受到威胁及损害，进而对海啸预警服务及海事应急管理提出了新的挑战.因此，全面理解与评估海啸在港湾中诱发的灾害特征，探索港湾中海啸流的数值模拟方法，发展针对港湾尺度的海啸预警服务指导产品尤为迫切.受限于海啸流验证数据的缺乏及准确模拟海啸流技术方法的诸多不确定性，大部分海啸数值模拟研究工作主要是针对水位特征的研究及验证，可能导致对港湾中海啸灾害危险性认识的曲解与低估.本研究基于非线性浅水方程，针对夏威夷群岛三个典型港湾建立了精细化海啸数值模型（空间分辨率达到10 m），并联合有限断层破裂模型计算分析了日本东北地震海啸在三个港湾及其邻近区域的海啸特征，波、流计算结果与实测结果吻合较好，精细化的海啸港湾模型模拟结果可信.模拟发现港湾中较小的波幅，同样可以产生强流.综合分析日本东北地震海啸波、流特征对输入条件不确定性的响应结果发现：港湾中海啸波-流能量的空间分布特征差异较大，这与港湾系统中海啸波的驻波特性相关；相比海啸波幅空间特征，海啸流特征具有更强的空间敏感性；海啸流时空分布特征对输入条件的不确定性响应比海啸波幅对这些不确定性的响应更强，海啸流的模拟与预报更有挑战性；不确定性对海啸流计算精度的影响会进一步传导放大港湾海啸流危险性的评估及对港工设施产生的应力作用的误差，合理的输入条件对海啸流的精确模拟至关重要.最后，希望通过本文的研究可以从海啸波-流特征角度更加全面认识近岸海啸灾害特征，拓展海啸预警服务的广度与深度，从而为灾害应急管理部门提供更加科学合理的辅助决策产品.  相似文献   

Ocean current estimation using a Multi-Model Ensemble Kalman Filter during the Grand Lagrangian Deployment experiment (GLAD)     

《Ocean Modelling》2015

In the summer and fall of 2012, during the GLAD experiment in the Gulf of Mexico, the Consortium for Advanced Research on Transport of Hydrocarbon in the Environment (CARTHE) used several ocean models to assist the deployment of more than 300 surface drifters. The Navy Coastal Ocean Model (NCOM) at 1 km and 3 km resolutions, the US Navy operational NCOM at 3 km resolution (AMSEAS), and two versions of the Hybrid Coordinates Ocean Model (HYCOM) set at 4 km were running daily and delivering 72-h range forecasts. They all assimilated remote sensing and local profile data but they were not assimilating the drifter’s observations. This work presents a non-intrusive methodology named Multi-Model Ensemble Kalman Filter that allows assimilating the local drifter data into such a set of models, to produce improved ocean currents forecasts. The filter is to be used when several modeling systems or ensembles are available and/or observations are not entirely handled by the operational data assimilation process. It allows using generic in situ measurements over short time windows to improve the predictability of local ocean dynamics and associated high-resolution parameters of interest for which a forward model exists (e.g. oil spill plumes). Results can be used for operational applications or to derive enhanced background fields for other data assimilation systems, thus providing an expedite method to non-intrusively assimilate local observations of variables with complex operators. Results for the GLAD experiment show the method can improve water velocity predictions along the observed drifter trajectories, hence enhancing the skills of the models to predict individual trajectories.  相似文献