On the magnitude of upwelling fluxes in shelf-break canyons

A hydrodynamic model is employed to derive the magnitude of on-shelf fluxes through a shelf-break canyon for a wide range of canyon sizes and ambient oceanic conditions. Predicted canyon-upwelling fluxes are of the order of 0.05–0.1 Sv (1 Sv=1 million m 3/s), being several orders of magnitude greate...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Continental shelf research 2007-10, Vol.27 (17), p.2211-2223
Main Author: Kampf, J
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Numerical models
Physical oceanography
Submarine canyons
Upwelling
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Summary:A hydrodynamic model is employed to derive the magnitude of on-shelf fluxes through a shelf-break canyon for a wide range of canyon sizes and ambient oceanic conditions. Predicted canyon-upwelling fluxes are of the order of 0.05–0.1 Sv (1 Sv=1 million m 3/s), being several orders of magnitude greater than upslope fluxes in the bottom Ekman layer on the ambient continental slope. On the basis of ∼150 simulations conducted, a bulk formula of upwelling flux in a submarine canyon is derived. For typical conditions, the upwelling flux varies quadratically with forcing strength (speed of incident flow), linearly with canyon depth, and is inversely proportional to the buoyancy frequency of the density stratification inside the canyon. Other parameters such as density stratification above shelf-break depth and bottom friction are found to have minor influences on the resultant canyon-upwelling flux.
ISSN:0278-4343
1873-6955
DOI:10.1016/j.csr.2007.05.010