Fluidization of mud in estuaries

Abstract

The South Alligator River, located in the Northern Territory, Australia, is a macrotidal estuary with suspended sediment concentration values reaching 10 g 1−1 In September 1986, in the dry season, the estuary was well mixed in temperature and salinity. While the vertical gradients in suspended sediment concentration were small at flood tides, for most of the ebb tide duration a lutocline separated a clear upper layer from an extremely turbid bottom layer, both layers being of comparable thickness. The tidal evolution of the suspended sediment concentration is consistent with that computed by a numerical model based on the equation of conservation of mass of suspended sediment. In this model, sediment is entrained from the bottom and mixed vertically upward by eddy diffusion, but through a Richardson number dependence, sediment‐induced buoyancy effects inhibit vertical mixing. The final depth of the turbid layer can be readily estimated analytically as a result of a balance between the rate of kinetic energy input and the buoyancy flux determined by the particle fall velocity. The presence of a lutocline helps form mud banks on the inner side of a meander.