Low-frequency damping of a moored semisubmersible obtained from simulated extinction tests and mean wave drift forces

Low-frequency damping of a moored semisubmersible drilling platform was obtained from numerical extinction tests simulated in still water and in regular waves and from mean wave drift forces calculated at zero forward speed. The influence of drag forces was represented by the modified Morison equation. The platform as used for the 18th ITTC Comparative Mooring Study was analyzed in irregular beam waves. The computed time series of sway as well as the corresponding sway response spectrum compared favourably with model test measurements, demonstrating that this procedure to determine low-frequency damping can be effective.     

Fluctuation of transports and Sea level in the western boundary region of the tropical Pacific Ocean

Large fluctuation in transport of the Equatorial Countercurrent flowing eastward from the western boundary is not the direct result of fluctuation in transport of the North Equatorial Current, but rather relates to fluctuation of sea level anomaly in the Philippine Sea.     

The seasonal cycle of arsenic in estuarine and nearshore waters of the South Atlantic Bight

Arsenic concentrations vary with season on the continental shelf of the South Atlantic Bight. During periods of high winds in the winter and early spring, inorganic arsenic concentrations are reduced to as little as 20% of typical open ocean concentrations by sorption onto resuspended sediments or incorporation into phytoplankton. In the early fall, arsenic sequestered in sediments in the spring is regenerated and returned to the water column, creating elevated arsenic concentrations in the nearshore zone that are up to 50% greater than open ocean concentrations. Arsenic in the adjacent estuaries is nearly conservative over the seasonal cycle, although its distribution in the estuaries is greatly affected by the seasonal changes in arsenic concentrations in the nearshore waters.     

Was a carbon balance measured in the equatorial Pacific during JGOFS?

The likelihood that the carbon fluxes measured as part of the US-JGOFS field program in the equatorial Pacific ocean (EgPac) during 1992 yielded a balanced carbon budget for the surface ocean was determined. The major carbon fluxes incorporated into a surface carbon budget were: new production, particulate organic carbon (POC) and dissolved organic carbon (DOC) export, CaC0₃ export, C0₂ gas evasion, dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) supply, and the time rate of charge. The ratio of the measured concentration gradients of DOC and DIC provided a constraint on the ratio of POC/DOC export. Uncertainties of ±30–50% for individual carbon flux measurements reduce the likelihood that a carbon balance can be measured during a JGOFS process-type study. As a benchmark, carbon fluxes were prescribed to yield a hypothetical surface carbon budget that was, on average, balanced. Given the typical errors in the individual carbon fluxes, however, there was only about a 30% chance that this hypothetical budget could be measured to be balanced to ±50%. Using this benchmark, it was determined that there was a 95 % chance that the carbon flux measurements yielded a surface DIC budget balanced (to ±50%) during El Nino conditions in boreal spring 1992, when the total organic carbon export rate was - 5 mmol C m-2 day- 1 and the POC export was 3 mmol C m⁻² day⁻¹. In boreal fall 1992, during cold period conditions, there was a 70% chance that the surface carbon DIC budget was balanced when the total organic carbon export rate was 20 mmol C m⁻² day⁻¹ and export was -13 mmol C m-2 day-'. The DOC to DIC concentration gradient ratio of - -0.15, measured in depth profiles down to 100m and in surface waters, was used as an important constraint that most (> 70%) of the organic carbon exported from the euphotic zone was POC rather than DOC. If a balanced surface DIC budget was used to test the compatibility of individual carbon fluxes measured during EgPac, then a three- to four-fold increase in total and particulate organic carbon export between spring and fall is indicated. This increase was not reflected in the POC loss rates measured by drifting sediment trap collections or estimated by²³⁴Th deficiencies coupled with the C/Th measured on suspended particles.     

Mechanisms controlling the temporal variation of the sea ice edge in the Southern Ocean

This paper examines the mechanism controlling the short time-scale variation of sea ice cover over the Southern Ocean. Sea ice concentration and ice velocity datasets derived from images of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I) are employed to reveal this mechanism. The contribution of both dynamic and thermodynamic processes to the change in ice edge location is examined by comparing the meridional velocity of ice edge displacement and sea ice drift. In the winter expansion phase, the thermodynamic process of new ice production off the ice edge plays an important role in daily advances of ice cover, whereas daily retreats are mostly due to southward ice drift. On the other hand, both advance and retreat of ice edges in the spring contraction phase are mostly caused by the dynamic process of the ice drift. Based on the above mechanism and the linear relation between the degree of ice production at the ice edge and northward wind speed, the seasonal advance of ice cover can be roughly reproduced using the meridional velocity of ice drift at the ice edge.     

The Levant Slumps and the Phoenician Structures: collapse features along the continental margin of the southeastern Mediterranean Sea

Two distinct series of slumps deform the upper part of the sedimentary sequence along the continental margin of the Levant. One series is found along the base of the continental slope, where it overlies the disrupted eastern edge of the Messinian evaporites. The second series of slumps transects the continental margin from the shelf break to the Levant Basin. It seemed that the two series were triggered by two unrelated, though contemporaneous, processes. The shore-parallel slumps were initiated by basinwards flow of the Messinian salt, that carried along the overlying Plio-Quaternary sediments. Seawater that percolated along the detachment faults dissolved the underlying salt to form distinctly disrupted structures. The slope-normal slumps are located on top of large canyons that cut into the pre-Messinian sedimentary rocks. A layer of salt is found in the canyons, and the Plio-Quaternary sediments were deposited on that layer. The slumps are bounded by large, NW-trending faults where post-Messinian faulted offset was measured. We presume that the flow of the salt in the canyons also drives the slope-normal slumps. Thus thin-skinned halokynetic processes generated the composite post-Tortonian structural patterns of the Levant margin. The Phoenician Structures are a prime example of the collapse of a distal continental margin due to the dissolution of a massive salt layer.     

Estimates of the characteristics of the horizontal turbulent exchange in the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean

Estimates of the characteristics of the horizontal turbulent exchange (coefficients of horizontal exchange, scales of deviations of the velocity of geostrophic currents from the background flows, and horizontal scales of perturbations) in the upper ocean layer were obtained on the basis of the data of expeditions held in 1978 and 1980 in the northwestern part of the Pacific Ocean. It is shown that the characteristics of the horizontal turbulent exchange strongly depend on the structure of the background flows, and one of the causes of their variability is related to tropical cyclones. A tendency to a decrease (to different degrees) of the turbulent coefficients in the wake of a tropical cyclone is noted.     

On the relevance of iron adsorption to container materials in small-volume experiments on iron marine chemistry: Fe-aided assessment of capacity, affinity and kinetics

Iron chemistry in seawater has been extensively studied in the laboratory, mostly in small-volume sample bottles. However, little has been reported about iron wall sorption in these bottles. In this paper, radio-iron ⁵⁵Fe was used to assess iron wall adsorption, both in terms of capacity, affinity and kinetics. Various bottle materials were tested. Iron sorption increased from polyethylene/polycarbonate to polymethylmetacrylate (PMMA)/high-density polyethylene/polytetrafluoroethylene to glass/quartz, reaching equilibrium in a 25–70 h period. PMMA was studied in more detail: ferric iron (Fe(III)) adsorbed on the walls of the bottles, whereas ferrous iron (Fe(II)) did not. Considering that in seawater the inorganic iron pool mostly consists of ferric iron, the wall will be a factor that needs to be considered in bottle experiments.The present data indicate that for PMMA with specific surface (S)-to-volume (V) ratio S/V, both iron capacity (42 ± 16 × 10^− 9 mol/m² or 1.7 × 10^− 9 mol/L recalculated for the S/V-specific PMMA bottles used) and affinity (log K_Fe'W = 11.0 ± 0.3 m²/mol or 12.4 ± 0.3 L/mol, recalculated for the S/V-specific PMMA bottles used) are of similar magnitude as the iron capacity and -affinity of the natural ligands in the presently used seawater and thus cannot be ignored.Calculation of rate constants for association and dissociation of both Fe'L (iron bound to natural occurring organic ligands) and Fe'W (iron adsorbed on the wall of vessels) suggests that the two iron complexes are also of rather similar kinetics, with rate constants for dissociation in the order of 10 ⁻⁴–10^− 5 L/s and rate constants for association in the order of 10⁸ L/(mol s). This makes that iron wall sorption should be seriously considered in small-volume experiments, both in assessments of shorter-term dynamics and in end-point observations in equilibrium conditions. Therefore, the present data strongly advocate making use of iron mass balances throughout in experiments in smaller volume set-ups on marine iron (bio) chemistry.