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    Bathymetric controls on sediment transport in the Hudson River estuary : lateral asymmetry and frontal trapping

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    2012JC008124.pdf (4.990Mb)
    Date
    2012-10-17
    Author
    Ralston, David K.  Concept link
    Geyer, W. Rockwell  Concept link
    Warner, John C.  Concept link
    Metadata
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    Citable URI
    https://hdl.handle.net/1912/5585
    As published
    https://doi.org/10.1029/2012JC008124
    DOI
    10.1029/2012JC008124
    Keyword
     Estuarine turbidity maximum; Lateral sediment distribution; Salinity fronts; Sediment flux; Sediment trapping; Stratification 
    Abstract
    Analyses of field observations and numerical model results have identified that sediment transport in the Hudson River estuary is laterally segregated between channel and shoals, features frontal trapping at multiple locations along the estuary, and varies significantly over the spring-neap tidal cycle. Lateral gradients in depth, and therefore baroclinic pressure gradient and stratification, control the lateral distribution of sediment transport. Within the saline estuary, sediment fluxes are strongly landward in the channel and seaward on the shoals. At multiple locations, bottom salinity fronts form at bathymetric transitions in width or depth. Sediment convergences near the fronts create local maxima in suspended-sediment concentration and deposition, providing a general mechanism for creation of secondary estuarine turbidity maxima at bathymetric transitions. The lateral bathymetry also affects the spring-neap cycle of sediment suspension and deposition. In regions with broad, shallow shoals, the shoals are erosional and the channel is depositional during neap tides, with the opposite pattern during spring tides. Narrower, deeper shoals are depositional during neaps and erosional during springs. In each case, the lateral transfer is from regions of higher to lower bed stress, and depends on the elevation of the pycnocline relative to the bed. Collectively, the results indicate that lateral and along-channel gradients in bathymetry and thus stratification, bed stress, and sediment flux lead to an unsteady, heterogeneous distribution of sediment transport and trapping along the estuary rather than trapping solely at a turbidity maximum at the limit of the salinity intrusion.
    Description
    Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Geophysical Research 117 (2012): C10013, doi:10.1029/2012JC008124.
    Collections
    • Sediment Transport
    • Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering (AOP&E)
    Suggested Citation
    Journal of Geophysical Research 117 (2012): C10013
     

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