Caught in the act: the 20 December 2001 gravity flow event in Monterey Canyon

A sediment gravity flow descended through the axis of Monterey Canyon on 20 December 2001 at 13:35 Pacific standard time. The timing of this event is documented by a current-meter package which recorded an 11.9-dbar pressure increase in less than 10 min and was found 550 m down-canyon from its deployment site, buried completely within a >70-cm-thick gravity flow deposit. This event is believed to have started in less than 290 m of water because an instrument at this location was also lost at the same time. A 178-cm core collected after the event from the axis of the canyon at 1,297-m water depth contained fresh, greenish, chlorophyll-rich organic material at 32-cm sub-bottom depth, suggesting the event extended to this water depth. The only trigger identified for this mass movement event appears to be moderate sea and surf conditions. Thus, gravity flow events of this magnitude do not require an exceptional triggering event.     

Second-order drift force response of offshore guyed towers

An iterative frequency domain method of analysis is presented for determining the response behaviour of Guyed Offshore Towers to low-frequency, second-order wave drift forces generated in a random sea environment. For the response analysis, the tower is idealized as a shear beam with a rotational spring at the bottom support. The guylines are replaced by a non-linear spring. The second-order drift force is considered to be proportional to the square of the wave elevation and is simulated using a drift force coefficient and the time history of a slowly varying wave envelope in random sea. The responses due to drift forces are obtained in frequency domain by incorporating the non-linearities produced due to non-linear guy lines. An example problem is solved under different random sea states to compare the response behaviour of the tower obtained by the second-order wave force, the first-order wave force and a combination of the two.     

Physico-chemical and mineralogical studies on cochin marine clays

Large deposits of marine clays are encountered all along the Indian coastal belt. These clays are pleistocene to recent in origin, are considered to be young, and were deposited in a salt or brackish environment. These clays are very soft in consistency with low in-situ strength and high compressibility. The properties of these soil deposits depend mainly on the clay minerals present. In the present investigation, the mineralogical studies of some Cochin marine clays were carried out using XRD technique. The physical and chemical properties of these deposits were also reported. The test results were compared with some earlier reported works on marine clays.     

Coupled dynamics of tethered buoy systems

The three-dimensional coupled behavior during the interaction of buoys with their mooring systems is numerically analyzed. A time-domain model was developed to predict the response of a tethered buoy subject to hydrodynamic loadings. External loadings include hydrodynamic forces, tethers tensions, wind loadings and weight. System nonlinearities include large rotational and translational motions, and non-conservative fluid loadings. The mooring problem is formulated as a combined nonlinear initial-value and two-point-boundary-value problem which is directly integrated both in time and space. Buoy equations of motion are derived using small Eulerian angles. Coupling between rotational and translational degrees of freedom is included and coupling between the buoy and cable is effected by adopting the buoy equations of motion as boundary conditions at one end for the mooring problem. Numerical examples are provided to validate the formulation and solution technique; predicted responses of three types of buoy (sphere, spar, and disc) are compared with experimental results.     

The Contribution of Secondary Space to Benthic Taxon Richness of a Coral Reef: Colonisation of Dendrostrea frons (Mollusca)

Abstract. The reef‐dwelling oyster Dendrostrea frons occupied only a small proportion of space in coral reefs of the Quirimba Archipelago, Mozambique, but supported a disproportionately high variety of taxa. Assemblages on primary (substratum), secondary (dead coral heads) and ephemeral secondary space (D. frons shells) of similar area were compared across 5 depths (5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 m) and at four taxonomic levels (species, genus, class and phylum). Differences between the taxonomic richness of each type of space differed with both taxonomic level considered and depth. Of the three categories of space considered, ephemeral secondary space had the most taxa at all levels with the maximum at 10 – 15 m. Despite being small in space and time, animal externa, such as shells of D. frons, may provide important niches for particular organisms at many taxonomic levels.     

Turbulent structure of the subsurface layer of the sea according to the data of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Sigma-1</Emphasis> measuring complex

We present the results of experimental investigations of the characteristics of turbulence in the layer of wave-induced mixing. The data on the fluctuations of velocity, temperature, and conductivity are obtained with the help of a Sigma-1 measuring complex. The computed values of the dissipation rate of turbulent energy are compared with different models proposed for the subsurface layer. It is shown that the available models fail to guarantee satisfactory agreement of the numerical results with the experimental data for the layer of active wave action and, in particular, in the presence of swell. This leads us to the conclusion concerning the necessity of parametrization and assimilation of more complete data on the state of the sea surface, the structure of currents, and the surface layer of the atmosphere in the models. __________ Translated from Morskoi Gidrofizicheskii Zhurnal, No. 2, pp. 15–28, March–April, 2007.     

Breaking of a tidal internal wave on a steep shelf as inferred from temperature measurements

The structure, evolution, and breaking of a tidal internal wave on a steep shelf are discussed on the basis of the data of temperature measurements. The bottom slope at the measurement site is close to the critical slope for a tidal wave. The tidal wave and other waves are inclined coastward. The tidal-wave amplitude increases monotonically with increasing horizon depth. The tidal wave is nonlinear in amplitude and turns over on the outer shelf. On the inner shelf, the internal wave is close in shape to rectangular and generates harmonics of its own. The harmonics make the tidal wave steeper and form solitary rises similar to bilateral bores. All these features ensure a more rapid sink for the internal-tide energy.     

Trends in the solubility of iron,aluminium, manganese and phosphorus in aerosol collected over the Atlantic Ocean

The solubility of iron, aluminium, manganese and phosphorus has been determined in aerosol samples collected between 49°N and 52°S during three cruises conducted in the Atlantic Ocean as part of the European Union funded IRONAGES programme. Solubilities (defined at pH 4.7) determined for Fe and Al in samples of Saharan dust were significantly lower (medians 1.7% and 3.0%, respectively) than the solubilities of these metals in aerosols from other source regions (whole dataset medians 5.2% and 9.0%, respectively). Mn solubility also varied with aerosol source, but the median solubility of Mn in Saharan dust was very similar to the median for the dataset as a whole (55% and 56%, respectively). The observed solubility of aerosol P was ∼ 32%, with P solubility in Saharan aerosol perhaps as low as 10%. Laboratory studies have indicated that aerosol Fe solubility is enhanced by acid processing. No relationship could be found between Fe solubility and the concentrations of acid species (non-seasalt SO₄²⁻, NO₃⁻) nor the net acidity of the aerosol, so we are unable to confirm that this process is significant in the atmosphere. In terms of the supply of soluble Fe to oceanic ecosystems on a global scale, the observed higher solubility for Fe in non-Saharan aerosols is probably not significant because the Sahara is easily the dominant source of Fe to the Atlantic. On a smaller scale however, higher solubility for aerosol Fe may alter our understanding of Fe cycling in regions such as the remote Southern Ocean.     

Experimental study of the breaking limit of multi-directional random waves passing over an impermeable submerged breakwater

This study investigates experimentally the breaking wave height of multi-directional random waves passing over an impermeable submerged breakwater. Experiments have been conducted in a three-dimensional wave basin equipped with a multi-directional random wave generator. A special type of wave gauge has been newly devised to record the water surface elevations in the breaker zone as accurately as possible. The records are analyzed to estimate the location and limit of wave breaking. Comparisons have also been made with the results of regular waves. The influence of the incident wave conditions on the breaking wave height normalized by the breakwater dimensions has been investigated. Empirical formulae have been presented to estimate the breaking limit of multi-directional random waves based on the experimental records. The formulae have been tested and found to work well not only for multi-directional random waves, but for regular waves as well.     

Geochemical cycling in the Hooghly estuary, India

U–Th decay series isotopes, δ¹⁸O and Si measurements in the river estuarine waters and sediments of the polluted Hooghly estuary as well as the surface waters of the Bay of Bengal, its high salinity end member, are reported. Dissolved Si indicates that there are probably two mixing regimes, dissolved U behaviour is nonconservative and δ¹⁸O behaves conservatively in the overall estuarine region. Isotopes of reactive elements, viz. ²³⁴Th and ²¹⁰Po, are removed from the estuarine waters in <2 days and <1 month, respectively, which is due to high suspended matter (30–301 mg l⁻¹). ²²⁸Ra and ²²⁶Ra are profusely released into the estuarine waters in the low to mid-salinity regions.As expected, the opposite trend is observed in the case of estuarine sediments and suspended matter. Reactive isotopes of Th, ²¹⁰Pb and ²¹⁰Po are enriched, whereas Ra isotopes are depleted with respect to their parent nuclides in the estuarine sediments and suspended matter. ²³²Th/Al ratio appears well suited to study the distribution and mixing of the bed load sediments of the Ganga–Brahmaputra (G–B) and the Hooghly rivers with those from other rivers on the Bay of Bengal floor.