Exploring the potential for internal tides to reshape the continental shelf edge seafloor

Zhang, Weifeng; Cheng, Zhen; Ashton, Andrew D.

doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2021.102575

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…While it has long been known that energetic internal waves exist throughout the world's oceans, only in the last 30 years have researchers begun to capture with sufficient temporal resolution the sporadic resuspension events driven by internal waves (e.g., Churchill et al, 1988;Gardner, 1989). Recent observations and theory suggest that in the shelf environment internal waves may be a key contributor to both instantaneous sediment resuspension (Bonnin et al, 2006;Masunaga et al, 2015) and to the long-term geomorphology (Cacchione et al, 2002;Zhang et al, 2021). Tidally generated internal waves transport energy throughout the ocean away from their source regions (Zaron, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Calibrated Suspended Sediment Observations Beneath Large Amplitude Non‐Linear Internal Waves

et al. 2021

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Internal waves are waves that travel along layers of different density within the ocean. They can travel through the ocean and have the potential to generate strong currents as they move into shallow water on the continental shelf. This process can lift and transport local sea bed sediment if the near-bed currents are strong enough. This process is short-lived, unpredictable, and generally occurs in deeper waters, making high quality observations rare. We present detailed observations of ocean currents and the sediment response during the passage of several large internal waves. The observations were captured on the Northwest Shelf of Australia in 250 m depth for two months in 2017. We used a range of instruments to measure the properties of sediment in the water. These data sets were converted to estimates of suspended sediment mass concentration by calibration. The observed near-bed currents created by internal waves resulted in significant sediment transport, which was trapped in a region close to the sea bed due to density layers.

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