Variations in the onset of bottom-water intrusions over the entrance sill of a fjord |
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| Authors: | G A Cannon J R Holbrook D J Pashinski |
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| Institution: | 1. Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 7600 Sand Point Way NE, 98115-0070, Seattle, Washington
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| Abstract: | Puget Sound is a fjord-like estuary and bottom-water intrusions are major circulation features which play a dominant role in the replacement of water below still depth. New observations on the inside and outside of the entrance sill show that, while intrusions occur during neap tides as previously thought, the onset of the intrusions is a results off fluctuations in the horizontal density gradient caused by salinity variations across the sill. Salinity changes outside the sill in the Strait of Juan de Fuca estuary appear to be the result of storms on the Pacific Coast causing reversals of surface flow and variations in deep flow more than 135 km from the coast. Previous observations have shown deep salinity variations midway along the straight, but these are the first to show this effect can penetrate the full length of the Strait causing near-bottom salinity variations of sufficient magnitude to influence flow into Puget Sound. This influence probably occurs from the onset of storms in autumn through subsidence in spring, although occasional large storms occur in summer. Although Puget Sound is more characteristic of a fjord, the simple model calculations here suggest similar processes may occur in lower-layer flow at the mouth of coastal plain estuaries. |
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