Predicting the occurrence of sand banks in the North Sea

Sand banks have a wavelength between 1 and 10 km, and they are up to several tens of meters high. Also, sand banks may have an impact on large-scale human activities that take place in the North Sea like sand mining, shipping, offshore wind farms, etc. Therefore, it is important to know where sand banks occur and what their natural behavior is. Here, we use an idealized model to predict the occurrence of sand banks in the North Sea. The aim of the paper is to research to what extent the model is able to predict the occurrence of sand banks in the North Sea. We apply a sensitivity analysis to optimize the model results for a North Sea environment. The results show that the model correctly predicts whether or not sand banks occur for two thirds of the North Sea area.     

Storm influence on SPM concentrations in a coastal turbidity maximum area with high anthropogenic impact (southern North Sea)

Multi-sensor tripod measurements in the high-turbidity area of the Belgian nearshore zone (southern North Sea) allowed investigating storm effects on near bed suspended particulate matter (SPM) concentrations. The data have shown that during or after a storm the SPM concentration increases significantly and that high concentrated mud suspensions (HCMS) are formed. Under these conditions, about 3 times more mass of SPM was observed in the water column, as compared to calm weather conditions. The following different sources of fine-grained sediments, influencing the SPM concentration signal, have been investigated: wind direction and the advection of water masses; the previous history and occurrence of fluffy layers; freshly deposited mud near the disposal grounds of dredged material, navigation channels and adjacent areas; and the erosion of medium-consolidated mud of Holocene age.     

Sediment characteristics and internal architecture of offshore sand ridges on a tideless continental shelf (western Mediterranean)

An integrated approach combining swath bathymetry, an extensive dataset of vibrocores and high-resolution seismic reflection data was used to assess the origin and evolution of offshore sand ridges on a tideless continental shelf (Gulf of Valencia, western Mediterranean). The sand ridges are located in the mid-outer shelf at 55–85 m water depth, obliquely oriented to the shoreline. They are 1.5 to 7 m high, with a wavelength between 600 and 1,100 m and a mean height-to-wavelength ratio of 0.004. The sand ridges are composed of well-sorted medium sand and are partially covered by a mud layer, evidencing a moribund stage. They overlie an erosion surface that locally crops out at the seafloor and is interpreted as the Holocene wave-ravinement surface. In the sediment cores, this surface corresponds to an erosional lag composed of coarse sand and gravel with pebbles. Small topographic irregularities on this surface are interpreted as shoreline-associated features that may act as the precursor for ridge development. Their preservation within the sand ridges could be related to the hardness of these features. Internally, the sand ridges display high-angle dipping reflections, indicating ridge migration towards the southeast in the direction of the present-day sediment transport direction. The presence of interbedded mud layers, associated with these reflections, indicates intermittent episodes of mud deposition when active. The internal architecture of some small ridges also provides new insights into their transition from an active to moribund state, as evidenced by a change in the geometry of the internal units from progradational to aggradational, finally being overlain by onlapping finer deposits over the flanks and in the troughs. The Gulf of Valencia sand ridge field constitutes a valuable potential sand resource of 22 million m³ of well-sorted medium and coarse sand with limited mud content, which must be preserved as a strategic sand reservoir. © 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A convection-conduction model for analysis of the freeze-thaw conditions in the surrounding rock wall of a tunnel in permafrost regions

The results of simulated tidal current field, wave field and storm-induced current field are employed to interpret the depositional dynamic mechanism of formation and evolution of the radial sand ridges on the Yellow Sea door. The anticlockwise rotary tidal wave to the south of Shandong Peninsula meets the following progressive tidal wave from the South Yellow Sea, forming a radial current field outside Jianggang. This current field provides a necessary dynamic condition for the formation and existence of the radial sand ridges on the Yellow Sea seafloor. The results of simulated “old current field (holocene)” show that there existed a convergent-divergent tidal zone just outside the palaeo-Yangtze River estuary where a palaeo-underwater accumulation was developed. The calculated results from wave models indicate that the wave impact on the topography, under the condition of high water level and strong winds, is significant. The storm current induced by typhoons landing in the Yangtze River estuary and turning away to the sea can have an obvious influence, too, on the sand ridges. The depmitional dynamic mechanism of formation and evolution of the radial sand ridges on the Yellow Sea seafloor is “tidal current-induced formation—storm-induced chang—tidal current-induced recovery”. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 49236120).     

The influence of nearshore sand bank dynamics on shoreline evolution in a macrotidal coastal environment,Calais, northern France

Analyses of shoreline and bathymetry change near Calais, northern coast of France, showed that shoreline evolution during the 20th century was strongly related with shoreface and nearshore bathymetry variations. Coastal erosion generally corresponds to areas of nearshore seabed lowering while shoreline progradation is essentially associated with areas of seafloor aggradation, notably east of Calais where an extensive sand flat experienced seaward shoreline displacement up to more than 300 m between 1949 and 2000. Mapping of bathymetry changes since 1911 revealed that significant variation in nearshore morphology was caused by the onshore and alongshore migration of a prominent tidal sand bank that eventually welded to the shore. Comparison of bathymetry data showed that the volume of the bank increased by about 10×10⁷ m³ during the 20th century, indicating that the bank was acting as a sediment sink for some of the sand transiting alongshore in the coastal zone. Several lines of evidence show that the bank also represented a major sediment source for the prograding tidal flat, supplying significant amounts of sand to the accreting upper beach. Simulation of wave propagation using the SWAN wave model (Booij et al., 1999) suggests that the onshore movement of the sand bank resulted in a decrease of wave energy in the nearshore zone, leading to more dissipative conditions. Such conditions would have increased nearshore sediment supply, favoring aeolian dune development on the upper beach and shoreline progradation. Our results suggest that the onshore migration of nearshore sand banks may represent one of the most important, and possibly the primary mechanism responsible for supplying marine sand to beaches and coastal dunes in this macrotidal coastal environment.     

A study of dissipation of wind-waves by mud at Cassino Beach,Brazil: Prediction and inversion

The impact of a non-rigid seafloor on the wave climate at Cassino Beach, Brazil, May–June 2005 is studied using field measurements and a numerical wave model. The measurements consist of wave data at four locations; rheology and mud thickness from grab samples; and an estimate of the horizontal distribution of mud based on echo-soundings. The dissipation of waves by a non-rigid bottom is represented in the wave model by treating the mud layer as a viscous fluid. Applied for 431 time periods, the model without this type of dissipation has a strong tendency to overpredict nearshore wave energy, except during a period of large storm waves. Two model variations which include this dissipation have a modest tendency to underpredict the nearshore wave energy. An inversion methodology is developed and applied to infer an alternate mud distribution which, when used with the wave model, yields the observed waveheights.     

Towed vehicle observations of thin layer structure and a low-salinity intrusion in Northern Monterey Bay,CA

Thin phytoplankton layers are common features in the coastal environment; however sampling these fine-scale optical features across broad horizontal scales remains a challenge. To investigate the horizontal spatial structure of thin phytoplankton layers, we performed an overnight survey in northern Monterey Bay, CA, USA using a SeaSciences Acrobat towed-vehicle. Physical and optical measurements were collected between the surface and near-bottom-depths along four parallel, across-shore transects. Three coherent chlorophyll features were observed: (1) a broad, sub-surface patch at the offshore end, (2) a near-surface patch at the nearshore end, and (3) a deep patch located between the nearshore and offshore patches. The offshore and nearshore patch were separated by a change in seafloor slope and a region of compressed, shoaling isopycnals. Both the offshore and nearshore features were located at the pycnocline, had similar optical properties, and were co-located with a low-salinity intrusion. The deep chlorophyll patch had associated physical and optical properties that were distinct from the patches at the pycnocline. The results from this study further underscore the heterogeneous horizontal spatial structure of thin layers and also add to the growing evidence suggesting that low-salinity intrusions may be strongly linked to the formation of thin phytoplankton layers over the northern shelf of Monterey Bay.     

Foraminiferal evidence of submarine sediment transport and deposition by backwash during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami

Micropaleontological analysis of nearshore to offshore sediments recovered from the southwestern coast of Thailand was performed to clarify the submarine processes of sediment transport and deposition during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The distribution pattern of benthic foraminifers showed seaward migration after the tsunami event. Agglutinated foraminifers, which are characteristic of an intertidal brackish environment, were identified in the post-tsunami samples from foreshore to offshore zones. These suggest that sediments originally distributed in foreshore to nearshore zones were transported offshore due to the tsunami backwash. On the other hand, the distribution pattern of planktonic and benthic species living in offshore zones showed slight evidence of landward migration by the tsunami. This suggests that landward redistribution of sediments by the tsunami run-up did not occur in the offshore seafloor of the study area. Our results and a review of previous studies provide an interpretation of submarine sedimentation by tsunamis. It is possible that tsunami backwashes induce sediment flows that transport a large amount of coastal materials seaward. Thus, traces of paleotsunami backwashes can be identified in offshore sedimentary environments as the accumulation of allochthonous materials. This can be recognized as changes in benthic foraminiferal assemblages.     

An analysis of wave dissipation at the Hendijan mud coast, the Persian Gulf

Effects of non-rigid muddy bed on the wave climate at the Hendijan coast along the northwestern part of the Persian Gulf have been examined through field measurements and numerical wave transformation modeling. The field survey included measurements of wave characteristics at an offshore and a nearshore station, and mud sampling to obtain the thickness of the fluid mud layer and its rheological properties. Comparisons of wave spectra at the two stations show energy dissipation along the wave trajectory with higher dissipation in the wave period band around 6?s, because depending on the site a given frequency band tends to be more effective in wave–mud interaction. Dissipation induced by the non-rigid bed is introduced into the REF/DIF wave transformation model through the application of viscoelastic constitutive equations for fluid mud. Numerical outputs of the nearshore wave height, for which the viscoelastic parameters included in the model were obtained independently from oscillatory frequency-sweep tests, are found to be comparable with measured values at the nearshore station. This implies that the model is useful for estimating the design wave conditions in the study area.     

Characterization of a mud deposit offshore of the Patos Lagoon,southern Brazil

Rapid deposition of mud on the beach along the shoreface of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil dramatically influences the normal operations in the littoral zone. In the surf zone, fluid and suspended mud opposes water-wave movement and dissipates water-wave energy; on the beach, mud limits trafficability. As part of a multinational, multidisciplinary program to evaluate the influence of mud strength, density and viscosity on water-wave attenuation, sediments were evaluated in situ or collected for evaluation from an area offshore of Cassino Beach, slightly south of the Patos Lagoon mouth. Shear strength of deposited sediments ranged from 0.6 kPa at the seafloor to 3.4 kPa at ∼1 m below the seafloor. Mud sediments were also collected to simulate the in situ response of fluid mud to shear stresses. For this determination, rheological evaluations were made using a strain-controlled Couette viscometer on numerous remixed samples that ranged in density from 1.05 to 1.30 g/cm³. It was determined that this mud is a non-ideal Bingham material in that it has a true initial yield stress as well as a upper Bingham yield stress. Initial yield stress ranged from 0.59 to 2.62 Pa, upper Bingham yield stress ranged from 1.05 to 7.6 Pa. Apparent viscosity ranged from 0.02 to 4.7 Pa s with the highest viscosities occurring between the two yield stresses. Sediment strength in the remixed samples is 2 to 3 orders of magnitude lower than the horizontal shear strength of the sediment bed as determined by shear vane or predicted from penetrometer measurements. This difference is partially due to the fact that rheological evaluations are made on fully remixed sediments, whereas horizontal shear strength is determined within relatively undisturbed sediments. Similar values of viscosity and shear strength are comparable to those determined for mud in other coastal areas where fluid mud deposits occur.     

Local diurnal upwelling driven by sea breezes in northern Monterey Bay

Sea breezes often have significant impacts on nearshore physical and biological processes. We document the effects of a diurnal sea breeze on the nearshore thermal structure and circulation of northern Monterey Bay, California, using an array of moorings during the summer upwelling season in 2006. Moorings were equipped with thermistors and Acoustic Doppler Current Profilers (ADCPs) to measure temperature and currents along the inner shelf in the bay. Temperature and current data were characteristic of traditional regional scale upwelling conditions along the central California coast during the study period. However, large diurnal fluctuations in temperature (up to 5 °C) were observed at all moorings inshore of the 60-m isobath. Examination of tidal, current, temperature, and wind records revealed that the observed temperature fluctuations were the result of local diurnal upwelling, and not a result of nearshore mixing events. Westerly diurnal sea breezes led to offshore Ekman transport of surface waters. Resulting currents in the upper mixed layer were up to 0.10 m s⁻¹ directed offshore during the afternoon upwelling period. Surface water temperatures rapidly decreased in response to offshore advection of surface waters and upwelling of cold, subsurface water, despite occurring in the mid-afternoon during the period of highest solar heat flux. Surface waters then warmed again during the night and early morning as winds relaxed and the upwelling shadow moved back to shore due to an unbalanced onshore pressure gradient. Examination of season-long, moored time series showed that local diurnal upwelling is a common, persistent feature in this location. Local diurnal upwelling may supply nutrients to nearshore kelp beds, and transport larvae to nearshore habitats.     

The mixed-bed glacial landform imprint of the North Sea Lobe in the western North Sea

During the last glacial cycle an intriguing feature of the British-Irish Ice Sheet was the North Sea Lobe (NSL); fed from the Firth of Forth and which flowed south and parallel to the English east coast. The controls on the formation and behaviour of the NSL have long been debated, but in the southern North Sea recent work suggests the NSL formed a dynamic, oscillating terrestrial margin operating over a deforming bed. Further north, however, little is known of the behaviour of the NSL or under what conditions it operated. This paper analyses new acoustic, sedimentary and geomorphic data in order to evaluate the glacial landsystem imprint and deglacial history of the NSL offshore from NE England. Subglacial tills (AF2/3) form a discontinuous mosaic interspersed with bedrock outcrops across the seafloor, with the partial excavation and advection of subglacial sediment during both advance and retreat producing mega-scale glacial lineations and grounding zone wedges. The resultant ‘mixed-bed’ glacial landsystem is the product of a dynamic switch from a terrestrial piedmont-lobe margin with a net surplus of sediment to a partially erosive, quasi-stable, marine-terminating, ice stream lobe as the NSL withdrew northwards. Glaciomarine sediments (AF4) drape the underlying subglacial mixed-bed imprint and point to a switch to tidewater conditions between 19.9 and 16.5 ka cal BP as the North Sea became inundated. The dominant controls on NSL recession during this period were changing ice flux through the Firth of Forth ice stream onset zone and water depths at the grounding line; the development of the mixed-bed landsystem being a response to grounding line instability. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Monitoring the effects of disposal of fine sediments from maintenance dredging on suspended particulate matter concentration in the Belgian nearshore area (southern North Sea)

The impact of continuous disposal of fine-grained sediments from maintenance dredging works on the suspended particulate matter concentration in a shallow nearshore turbidity maximum was investigated during dredging experiment (port of Zeebrugge, southern North Sea). Before, during and after the experiment monitoring of SPM concentration using OBS and ADV altimetry was carried out at a location 5 km west of the disposal site. A statistical analysis, based on the concept of populations and sub-sampling, was applied to evaluate the effect. The data revealed that the SPM concentration near the bed was on average more than two times higher during the dredging experiment. The disposed material was mainly transported in the benthic layer and resulted in a long-term increase of SPM concentration and formation of fluid mud layers. The study shows that SPM concentration can be used as an indicator of environmental changes if representative time series are available.     

Erosion and Sedimentation from the 17 July, 1998 Papua New Guinea Tsunami

— This paper describes erosion and sedimentation associated with the 17 July 1998 Papua New Guinea tsunami. Observed within two months of the tsunami, distinct deposits of a layer averaging 8-cm thick of gray sand rested on a brown muddy soil. In most cases the sand is normally graded, with more coarse sand near the base and fine sand at the top. In some cases the deposit contains rip-up clasts of muddy soil and in some locations it has a mud cap. Detailed measurements of coastal topography, tsunami flow height and direction indicators, and deposit thickness were made in the field, and samples of the deposit were collected for grain-size analysis in the laboratory. Four shore-normal transects were examined in detail to assess the shore-normal and along shore distribution of the tsunami deposit. Near the shoreline, the tsunami eroded approximately 10–25 cm of sand from the beach and berm. The sandy layer deposited by the tsunami began 50–150 m inland from the shoreline and extended across the coastal plain to within about 40 m of the limit of inundation; a total distance of up to 750 m from the beach. As much as 2/3 of the sand in the deposit originated from offshore. Across most of the coastal plain the deposit thickness and mean grain size varied little. In the along-shore direction the deposit thickness varied with the tsunami wave height; both largest near the entrance to Sissano Lagoon.     

A model for the early evolution of the Irish continental margin

It has been suggested that Porcupine Ridge, west of Ireland, represents a continental fragment displaced westwards relative to Europe at an early stage in the opening of the North Atlantic. This hypothesis presents difficulties, particularly in relation to the magnetic evidence for the onset of seafloor spreading at these latitudes. However, the structure of the Irish continental margin, so far as it is known, appears consistent with a westward rotation of Porcupine Ridge by some 23°; and there are still grounds for supposing that the adjacent Rockall Trough may represent a locus of Mesozoic seafloor spreading with which the rotation could have been associated.     

基于HVSR的DONET1海底地震动场地效应研究

为基于谱比方法研究海底地震动场地效应,选取日本DONET1台网的20个海底台站2014—2021年记录的1634组地震数据,对其进行筛选和处理后,利用水平与竖向谱比(HVSR)方法考虑不同布设对海底5组节点台站(KMA、KMB、KMC、KMD、KME)谱比特征的影响.研究结果表明:KMA与KME节点台站具有相似的场地特...     

结合遗传算法的LVQ神经网络在声学底质分类中的应用

学习向量量化（Learning Vector Quantization,LVQ）神经网络在声学底质分类中具有广泛应用. 常用的LVQ神经网络存在神经元未被充分利用以及算法对初值敏感的问题,影响底质分类精度. 本文提出采用遗传算法（Genetic Algorithms,GA）优化神经网络的初始值,将GA与LVQ神经网络结合起来,迅速得到最佳的神经网络初始权值向量,实现对海底基岩、砾石、砂、细砂以及泥等底质类型的快速、准确识别. 将其应用于青岛胶州湾海区底质分类识别研究中,通过与标准的LVQ神经网络的分类结果进行比较表明,该方法在分类速度以及精度上都有了较大提高.     

Sediment dynamics in an offshore tidal channel in the southern Yellow Sea

The geomorphology of the southern Yellow Sea（SYS） is characterized by offshore radial sand ridges（RSR）.An offshore tidal channel（KSY Channel） is located perpendicular to the coast,comprised of a main and a tributary channel separated by a submarine sand ridge（KSY Sand Ridge） extending seaward.In order to investigate the interactions among water flow,sediment transport,and topography,current velocity and suspended sediment concentration（SSC） were observed at 11 anchor stations along KSY Channel in RSR during a spring tide cycle.High resolution bottom topography was also surveyed.Residual currents and tidally averaged suspended sediment fluxes were calculated and analyzed by using the decomposition method.Results suggested that the water currents became stronger landward but with asymmetrical current speed and temporal duration of flood and ebb tides.Residual currents showed landward water transport in the nearshore channel and a clockwise circulation around the KSY Sand Ridge.Tidally-averaged SSC also increased landward along the channel.The main mechanisms controlling SSC variations were resuspension and horizontal advection,with spatial and temporal variations in the channel,which also contributed to sediment redistribution between channels and sand ridges.Residual flow transport and the tidal pumping effect dominated the suspended sediment flux in the KSY Channel.The KSY Sand Ridge had a potential southward migration due to the interaction between water flow,sediment transport,and topography.     

The impact of floods and storms on the acoustic reflectivity of the inner continental shelf: A modeling assessment

Flood deposition and storm reworking of sediments on the inner shelf can change the mixture of grain sizes on the seabed and thus its porosity, bulk density, bulk compressional velocity and reflectivity. Whether these changes are significant enough to be detectable by repeat sub-bottom sonar surveys, however, is uncertain. Here the question is addressed through numerical modeling. Episodic flooding of a large versus small river over the course of a century are modeled with HYDROTREND using the drainage basin characteristics of the Po and Pescara Rivers (respectively). A similarly long stochastic record of storms offshore of both rivers is simulated from the statistics of a long-term mooring recording of waves in the western Adriatic Sea. These time series are then input to the stratigraphic model SEDFLUX2D, which simulates flood deposition and storm reworking on the inner shelf beyond the river mouths. Finally, annual changes in seabed reflectivity across these shelf regions are computed from bulk densities output by SEDFLUX2D and compressional sound speeds computed from mean seafloor grain size using the analytical model of Buckingham [1997. Theory of acoustic attenuation, dispersion, and pulse propagation in unconsolidated granular materials including marine sediments. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 102, 2579–2596; 1998. Theory of compressional and shear waves in fluidlike marine sediments. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 103, 288–299; 2000. Wave propagation, stress relaxation, and grain-tograin shearing in saturated, unconsolidated marine sediments. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 108, 2796–2815]. The modeling predicts reflectivities that change from <12 dB for sands on the innermost shelf to >9 dB for muds farther offshore, values that agree with reflectivity measurements for these sediment types. On local scales of ∼100 m, however, maximum changes in reflectivity are <0.5 dB. So are most annual changes in reflectivity over all water depths modeled (i.e., 0–35 m). Given that signal differences need to be ⩾2–3 dB to be resolved, the results suggest that grain-size induced changes in reflectivity caused by floods and storms will rarely be detectable by most current sub-bottom sonars.     

Beach erosion and recovery during consecutive storms at a steep‐sloping,meso‐tidal beach

This study analyses beach morphological change during six consecutive storms acting on the meso‐tidal Faro Beach (south Portugal) between 15 December 2009 and 7 January 2010. Morphological change of the sub‐aerial beach profile was monitored through frequent topographic surveys across 11 transects. Measurements of the surf/swash zone dimensions, nearshore bar dynamics, and wave run‐up were extracted from time averaged and timestack coastal images, and wave and tidal data were obtained from offshore stations. All the information combined suggests that during consecutive storm events, the antecedent morphological state can initially be the dominant controlling factor of beach response; while the hydrodynamic forcing, and especially the tide and surge levels, become more important during the later stages of a storm period. The dataset also reveals the dynamic nature of steep‐sloping beaches, since sub‐aerial beach volume reductions up to 30 m³/m were followed by intertidal area recovery (–2 < z < 3 m) with rates reaching ~10 m³/m. However, the observed cumulative dune erosion and profile pivoting imply that storms, even of regular intensity, can have a dramatic impact when they occur in groups. Nearshore bars seemed to respond to temporal scales more related to storm sequences than to individual events. The formation of a prominent crescentic offshore bar at ~200 m from the shoreline appeared to reverse the previous offshore migration trend of the inner bar, which was gradually shifted close to the seaward swash zone boundary. The partially understood nearshore bar processes appeared to be critical for storm wave attenuation in the surf zone; and were considered mainly responsible for the poor interpretation of the observed beach behaviour on the grounds of standard, non‐dimensional, morphological parameters. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.