Internal waves pump waters in and out of a deep coastal embayment of a large lake

Abstract

AbstractLarge internal waves are a ubiquitous feature of many thermally stratified lakes, and result in oscillating baroclinic flows that pump water into and out of deep coastal embayments. In the long, narrow, and deep Kempenfelt Bay of Lake Simcoe, we show that stratification and circulation were coupled, so that movements of the thermocline can effectively flush the embayment much faster than hydraulic residence time from river input alone. Internal currents were driven by long‐period internal waves and resulted in large horizontal excursion lengths of several kilometers, which could drive exchange of embayment waters with the main basin. If the embayments are long, wide, and deep, Coriolis forces also deflect the internal wave to follow the coastline on the right‐hand side in the direction of travel as a Kelvin‐type wave, resulting in a net cyclonic circulation in the embayment. This residual counterclockwise flow further facilitated flushing of Kempenfelt Bay. For the summer of 2015, we estimate that forced and free internal wave dynamics alone resulted in a seasonally averaged flushing timescale as short as 17 ± 6 d for the surface mixed layer, and of 13.5 ± 5 d for the hypolimnetic waters of Kempenfelt Bay. Kempenfelt Bay is representative of many long, deep, and narrow embayments found in the Laurentian Great Lakes and arctic fjords. The exchange processes investigated here are relevant for determining the dynamics of water quality parameters used as indicators to evaluate lake health and fish habitat.