Sill Depth Research Articles

Direct estimates of the Indonesian Throughflow entering the Indian Ocean: 2004–2006

The mean and variable transport of the Indonesian Throughflow (ITF) are determined from full‐depth velocity measurements in the three major exit passages of Lombok Strait, Ombai Strait, and Timor Passage from January 2003 through December 2006. Collectively, these passages convey the full‐depth transport and stratification profile of the ITF from the Pacific Ocean to the Indian Ocean. To first order, the seasonal cycle of transport in the thermocline (∼100–150 m) in all three exit straits is dominated by regional monsoon forcing, with maximum ITF during the southeast monsoon. During the northwest monsoon, the surface transport relaxes in Timor and weakly reverses in Ombai and Lombok, so the main core of the ITF is subsurface. Below the thermocline, semiannual reversals occur in all three straits during the monsoon transitions in response to the passage of Indian Ocean wind‐forced Kelvin waves. However, the reversals occur over different depth levels in each passage reflecting the influence of different sill depths along the coastal waveguide. The seasonal cycle of depth‐integrated transports in Lombok and Ombai are strongly out of phase with Timor Passage, suggesting that the subthermocline flow is largely gated by these Kelvin waves. Despite the different seasonal transport phases, interannual anomalies in all three passages are remarkably similar, particularly during the strong positive Indian Ocean Dipole event in 2006 when transport in the surface layer is toward the Indian Ocean and reversed below. The deep reversals are likely in response to a series of Kelvin waves driven by anomalous zonal winds in the equatorial Indian Ocean. Total mean transport over the 3‐year period is −2.6 Sv in Lombok Strait (i.e., toward the Indian Ocean), −4.9 Sv in Ombai Strait, and −7.5 Sv in Timor Passage. The transport in Timor Passage is nearly twice as large as historical estimates and represents half of the −15 Sv full‐depth ITF transport that enters the Indian Ocean.

Vertical boil propagation from a submerged estuarine sill

Surface disruptions by boils during strong tidal flows over a rocky sill were observed in thermal infrared imagery collected at the Snohomish River estuary in Washington State. Locations of boil disruptions and boil diameters at the surface were quantified and are used to test an idealized model of vertical boil propagation. The model is developed as a two‐dimensional approximation of a three‐dimensional vortex loop, and boil vorticity is derived from the flow shear over the sill. Predictions of boil disruption locations were determined from the modeled vertical velocity, the sill depth, and the over‐sill velocity. Predictions by the vertical velocity model agree well with measured locations (rms difference 3.0 m) and improve by using measured velocity and shear (rms difference 1.8 m). In comparison, a boil‐surfacing model derived from laboratory turbulent mixed‐layer wakes agrees with the measurements only when stratification is insignificant.

Observations of the Fawn Trough Current over the Kerguelen Plateau from instrumented elephant seals

Due to its great meridional extent and relatively shallow depths, the Kerguelen Plateau constitutes a major barrier to the eastward flowing Antarctic Circumpolar Current in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean. While most of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current transport is deflected north of the Kerguelen Islands, the remainder (∼ 50 Sv, 1 Sv = 10 6 m 3 s − 1 ) must pass south of the islands, most probably through the Fawn and Princess Elizabeth Troughs. However, the paucity of finely resolved quasi-synoptic hydrographic data in this remote and infrequently sampled area has limited the progress in our knowledge of the regional circulation. Since 2004, a new approach using elephant seals from the Kerguelen Islands as autonomous oceanographic profilers has provided new information on the hydrography over the Kerguelen Plateau, covering the entire Antarctic Zone between the Polar Front and Antarctica, with a mean along-track resolution of about 25 km. These finely resolved bio-logged data revealed details of a strong northeastward current found across the Fawn Trough (sill depth: 2600 m; 56°S, 78°E). This so-called Fawn Trough Current transports cold Antarctic waters found mostly south of the Elan Bank, between the Ice Limit (58°S) and the Antarctic Divergence (64°S) in the eastern Enderby Basin, toward the Australian–Antarctic Basin. Our analysis also demonstrates that the Deep Western Boundary Current, which carries cold Antarctic water along the eastern flank of the southern Kerguelen Plateau collides with Fawn Trough Current at the outlet of the Fawn Trough sill. In other words, the Fawn Trough constitutes a veritable bottleneck, channelling the quasi-totality of the Antarctic Circumpolar flow found south of the Polar Front. Thanks to the unprecedented fine resolution of seal-borne data, a branch of flow centered at the Winter Water isotherm of 1 °C is also revealed along the northern escarpment of the Elan Bank, and then along the southern edge of Heard Island. Further analysis of different supplementary data reveals a complex circulation pattern in the entire Enderby Basin, with several distinctive branches of flow being strongly controlled by prominent topographic features such as the Southwest Indian Ridge, Conrad Rise, Elan Bank, and Kerguelen Plateau. This newly emerged frontal structure refines considerably previous large-scale circulation schematics of the area.

Deep Caribbean Sea warming

Data collected from hydrographic stations occupied within the Venezuelan and Columbian basins of the Caribbean Sea from 1922 through 2003 are analyzed to study the decadal variability of deep temperature in the region. The analysis focuses on waters below the 1815-m sill depth of the Anegada–Jungfern Passage. Relatively dense waters (compared to those in the deep Caribbean) from the North Atlantic spill over this sill to ventilate the deep Caribbean Sea. Deep warming at a rate of over 0.01 °C decade –1 below this sill depth appears to have commenced in the 1970s after a period of relatively constant deep Caribbean Sea temperatures extending at least as far back as the 1920s. Conductivity–temperature–depth station data from World Ocean Circulation Experiment Section A22 along 66°W taken in 1997 and again in 2003 provide an especially precise, albeit geographically limited, estimate of this warming over that 6-year period. They also suggest a small (0.001 PSS-78, about the size of expected measurement biases) deep freshening. The warming is about 10 times larger than the size of geothermal heating in the region, and is of the same magnitude as the average global upper-ocean heat uptake over a recent 50-year period. Together with the freshening, the warming contributes about 0.012 m decade –1 of sea level rise in portions of the Caribbean Sea with bottom depths around 5000 m.

Sensitivity of the Atlantic Ocean circulation to a hydraulic overflow parameterisation in a coarse resolution model: Response of the subpolar gyre

We investigate the sensitivity of a coarse resolution coupled climate model to the representation of the overflows over the Greenland–Scotland ridge. This class of models suffers from a poor representation of the water mass exchange between the Nordic Seas and the North Atlantic, a crucial part of the large-scale oceanic circulation. We revisit the explicit representation of the overflows using a parameterisation by hydraulic constraints and compare it with the enhancement of the overflow transport by artificially deepened passages over the Greenland–Scotland ridge, a common practice in coarse resolution models. Both configurations increase deep water formation in the Nordic Seas and represent the large-scale dynamics of the Atlantic realistically in contrast to a third model version with realistic sill depths but without the explicit overflow transport. The comparison of the hydrography suggests that for the unperturbed equilibrium the Nordic Seas are better represented with the parameterised overflows. As in previous studies, we do not find a stabilising effect of the overflow parameterisation on the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation but merely on the overflow transport. As a consequence the surface air temperature in the Nordic Seas is less sensitive to anomalous surface fresh water forcing. Special attention is paid to changes in the subpolar gyre circulation. We find it sensitive to the overflow transport and the density of these water masses through baroclinic adjustments. The analysis of the governing equations confirms the presence of positive feedbacks inherent to the subpolar gyre and allows us to isolate the influence of the overflows on its dynamics.

Two overflows in the Northern Gulf of California

Two overflows, originating at sills in the northern Gulf of California, are marked by strong average downstream slopes of 17 and 4%. Near‐bottom stratification upstream of both sills is relatively strong, but the near‐bottom water is very well mixed downstream of the sills. The homogenization of a thick bottom layer downstream, albeit close to the sills, is indicative of very strong mixing. Waters in the downstream basins are well ventilated with relatively high oxygen concentrations. These hydrographic patterns were observed during three different seasons. Time series of temperature, salinity, and potential density show that water, flowing over the sills, is essentially subsurface, subtropical water from the Pacific Ocean. The time series also indicate that water is nearly always denser at the sills compared to water in the downstream basins, despite the two‐fold (∼800 m) and more than three‐fold (∼1500 m) increase in depth. The long‐term (more than a year) average current at both sills is bottom intensified with maximum average speeds of 33 and 17 cm/s. There are also strong tidal currents at the sills, although the subinertial currents near the bottom are quite persistent with nearly no flow reversals. Transports, estimated exclusively with the mean flow, are about 0.08 and 0.09 Sv (1 Sv = 1× 106, m3/s), which agree well with previous estimates based on shorter time series and a lower vertical resolution. These results indicate that the deep water at both downstream basins are renewed by these overflows, which enter at sill depths ≤400 m and are capable of reaching the deepest part of both basins. The overflows appear to be responsible for the main mechanisms that transform subsurface, subtropical water into Gulf of California water.

Relation between the wind stress curl in the North Atlantic and the Atlantic inflow to the Nordic Seas

In this study an isopycnic coordinate ocean model has been used to investigate the relationships between the North Atlantic wind stress curl (WSC) and the inflow of Atlantic water to the Nordic Seas. For the period 1995–2001, there is a maximum in the correlation between the zonally averaged WSC at 55°N and the inflow with a 15‐month time lag, capturing a relation already found in observational data. In the model this relation is linked to the mixing along the western flank of the Rockall Bank (56°N, 15°W). For the period 1995–2001 the atmospheric forcing in the northeastern North Atlantic is relatively weak, and the depth of the mixed layer is shallower than the sill depths of the Greenland‐Scotland Ridge (GSR). Slowly moving, baroclinic disturbances caused by anomalies in the wind forcing will then be transmitted into the Nordic Seas where they are recorded as anomalous volume transports in the Norwegian Atlantic Current. In contrast, for the pentad prior to this period the atmospheric forcing is much more intense, and generates mixing well below sill depths of the GSR for all winters. Baroclinic disturbances forced by variations in the atmospheric forcing will then tend to follow f/H contours that do not enter the Nordic Seas, and the 15‐month lagged relations between the wind and the volume transports will vanish. Recent observational data support this view.

Seasonal abundance and vertical distribution of siphonophores in western Norwegian fjords

Seasonal abundance of siphonophores in Korsfjord and Fanafjord was studied by net sampling. Nanomia cara, Lensia conoidea and Dimophyes arctica were dominant species present throughout the year. Abundance of N. cara colonies peaked in late May and early June. Low numbers of relatively large colonies and high numbers of siphonulae were observed during winter. Dimophyes arctica and L. conoidea had a generation shift in March, when large over-wintering and small young polygastric colonies co-existed briefly before the former disappeared. Abundances were lowest during winter, and eudoxids were consistently more numerous than polygastric colonies for both species. Maximum abundances of polygastric D. arctica and L. conoidea occurred in early May and late June, respectively. Lensia conoidea may have more than one annual generation in Korsfjord. Vertical distributions of siphonophores were studied with an remotely operated vehicle in nine fjords. The distributions of agalmatid physonects, probably mostly N. cara, differed significantly between the fjords, with the weighted mean depths of the distributions ranging from 99 to 412 m. Results from Sognefjord suggested diel vertical migration. The bulk of the adult colonies in each fjord occurred below sill depth. Siphonophores were not observed at localities known to host persistent populations of Periphylla periphylla.

Sill dynamics and fjord deep water renewal: Idealized modeling study

Fjord exchange circulation and its response to abrupt changes in forcing is examined by means of an idealized modeling experiment. Puget Sound, a fjord-type estuary in western North America (State of Washington), is the main context for this study. Parameters of the idealized model are representative of the entrance sill at Admiralty Inlet and the Main Basin of Puget Sound. Sensitivity to some of the model parameters relevant to a 3D realistic model is discussed. An idealized tidal forcing with fortnightly modulation drives a qualitatively realistic cycle of exchange circulation while the other boundary conditions are kept fixed in time. The cycle is characterized by fortnightly pulses of deep water intrusions with a sharp front at the leading edge and reversed circulation cells below the sill depth developing between the intrusions. This basic state is then perturbed and response of the circulation to abrupt changes in oceanic salinity and river discharge is examined.

Paleoceanography of the mid-Pleistocene South China Sea

High-frequency fluctuations in paleoenvironmental proxies from the South China Sea, including stable isotopes and abundance of planktonic foraminifers, nannofossils, radiolarians, and palynomorphs, reveal a dynamic local response to the stepwise development of the mid-Pleistocene climate transition (MPT). These proxies indicate a dramatic drop in sea surface temperature (SST) at about 900 ka, the first largest SST decrease in the region during the Quaternary. Estimated winter SST declined from 24–25 °C to 17–18 °C in the northern and from 26–27 °C to 23–24 °C in the southern South China Sea. Subsequent changes in the thermocline depth and faunal–floral turnovers imply a period of about 300 ka in the final stage of the MPT. Winter monsoons increased at ∼900 ka and reached a maximum strength toward the end of the MPT when summer monsoons also strengthened in interglacials. As a result, thermal gradient between the northern and southern South China Sea increased substantially, with stronger winter monsoon influence in the north and warm and saline conditions in the south especially during glacial periods. These N–S paleoceanographic contrasts indicate an initial establishment of the modern-styled semi-enclosed South China Sea about 900 ka ago when passages in the south started to become completely exposed during glacial lowstands. Coupled with deep water cooling and ventilation, uplift of the sill depth in the Bashi Strait to near the present-2400 m during this period caused sudden decline and extinction of Pacific Deep Water benthic foraminifers in the isolated deep sea basin. Together with data from the oceanic western Pacific, these results further imply a considerable weakening of the western Pacific warm pool during MIS 23-22 and in subsequent glacial periods. While the MPT may have invoked high latitude processes especially an increased ice volume, tropical processes more likely have facilitated the restoration of heat and energy to the western Pacific in each interglacial rebound. Planktonic δ 13C maxima on eccentricity periocities leading major cooling events during the Quaternary indicate the important role of global carbon reservoir changes due to low as well as high latitude processes in past climate change.

Formation and export of dense shelf water from the Adélie Depression, East Antarctica

Coastal polynyas in the Adélie Depression are an important source of Antarctic Bottom Water to the Australian‐Antarctic Basin. We present time series (April 1998 to May 1999 and August 1999 to February 2000) of data from temperature‐salinity sensors, in both the Adélie Depression and the known outflow region of the Adélie Sill, to describe the annual cycle of shelf water densities. From April through September, salinification beneath the polynya produces dense shelf waters. During September–October, shelf water densities in the depression peak at 27.94 kg m−3, and the cooling and freshening signature of Ice Shelf Water is observed north of Buchanan Bay. In November–December, shelf water densities decrease as intrusions of warm and relatively fresh modified Circumpolar Deep Water enter east of the Adélie Sill. From January–March the surface layer is conditioned by the cooling of the atmosphere, which overturns the upper water column. At the Adélie Sill, observed daily mean currents were approximately 10 cm s−1 with intense instantaneous currents greater than 50 cm s−1 at the sill depth. Using an idealized outflow region with a rectangular cross‐sectional area (6 × 106 m2), we present the first estimates of shelf water export by potential density class. Assuming shelf water with a minimum density of 27.88 kg m−3 has sufficient negative buoyancy for downslope mixing and a fourfold volume increase (1:3 mixing ratio) from entrainment, the dense shelf water export of 0.1–0.5 Sv results in an annual average production of bottom water in this region of between 0.4 and 2.0 Sv. The wide range in bottom water estimate results from data limitations, and a narrowing of this range requires further mooring observations.

Aspiration and outflow of the intermediate water in the East/Japan Sea through the Tsugaru Strait

Outflow of the intermediate water in the East/Japan Sea through the Tsugaru Strait is inferred from the fact that profiling floats deployed below the sill depth in the central East/Japan Sea moved out to the Northwest Pacific Ocean through the Strait. Careful analysis of the float trajectories reveals that profiling floats parked at 350m, 700m, and 800m could be uplifted from depths below the sill of the Tsugaru Strait and moved over the 140m deep sill with a probability close to 100%. Application of an analytical model for the Bernoulli suction shows that intermediate waters can be aspirated over the sill depth of the Tsugaru Strait in late winter.

Vertical transport of particulate organic matter regulated by fjord topography

The deepwater in many areas with restricted water exchange suffers from low oxygen concentrations due to degradation of organic matter. The objective of this study was to investigate how topography may influence the vertical transport, Fc, of particulate organic matter, POM, to the deepwater. A conceptual/analytical model for Fc was developed covering the combination of the three possible sources of POM/nutrients to an enclosed area; the coastal water, local supply, and nutrient rich local deepwater. The mathematical formulation of the conceptual model includes several factors describing to which degree various physical mechanisms in the fjord are influencing Fc. The model consists of submodels for the different sources of POM/nutrients. A one‐dimensional process oriented numerical model was used to test the conceptual model. Restricted water exchange with the coastal water led to decreased import of POM and thereby decreased vertical transport, Fc, of coastal POM. The contribution to Fc by local input of nutrients to the surface layer was described by a function of the residence time of the water above sill level, Tsw and the time Tp it takes for POM produced in the surface layer to settle below sill level. The recirculation of POM produced due to basin water renewals was shown to be a function of several factors: The relation between the depth of photic zone, Hp and the sill depth, Ht, the vertical velocity of the rising nutrient rich water mass versus the settling velocity of POM, etc. The results based on the conceptual submodels agreed well with the results from the process oriented numerical model. Methods to identify the trophic state of coastal waters, and also simple models to calculate the effect of a local point source, can be found in literature. However, using the model developed in this paper the effects of nutrient enrichment from different sources can be quantified in a simple and more efficient way than earlier. The model can thus be used to categorise areas with respect to sensitivity to local and large scale eutrophication, which is an important step towards better management and more sustainable exploitation of the coastal zone.

Potential Vorticity Constraint on the Flow between Two Basins

Abstract This paper examines the role of potential vorticity (PV) balance in source- and sink-driven flows between two basins. As shown in previous studies, PV advection into a basin, say a positive PV advection, requires a negative frictional torque to maintain a steady PV balance. This sense of torque may be provided by a cyclonic boundary current within the basin. The PV advection through a channel is due almost entirely to advection of planetary PV, f/H, where f is the Coriolis parameter and H is the column thickness. Therefore a localized change of depth, and thus H in the channel, directly affects the PV transport and will result in a basinwide change of the circulation pattern. For example, if the channel depth is made shallower while holding the transport fixed, the PV advection is then increased and the result may be a strong recirculation within the basin, as much as two orders of magnitude greater than the transport through the channel. When the basins are connected by two channels at different latitudes or with different sill depths, the throughflow is found to be divided between the two channels in a way that satisfies the integral constraint for flow around an island. The partition of the flow between two channels appears to be such as to minimize the net frictional torque. In still another set of experiments, the large-scale pressure difference (layer thickness) between the basins is specified and held fixed, while the throughflow is allowed to vary in response to changes in the frictional torque. The interbasin transport is strongly influenced by the length of the boundary or the magnitude of the viscosity in the sense that a greater PV frictional torque allows a greater PV transport and vice versa. This result is counterintuitive, if it is assumed that the throughflow is determined by viscous drag within the channel but is a straightforward consequence of the basin-scale PV balance. Thus, the important frictional effect in these experiments is on the basin-scale flow and not on the channel scale.

Bathymetry and deep-water exchange across the central Lomonosov Ridge at 88–89°N

Seafloor mapping of the central Lomonosov Ridge using a multibeam echo-sounder during the Beringia/Healy–Oden Trans-Arctic Expedition (HOTRAX) 2005 shows that a channel across the ridge has a substantially shallower sill depth than the ∼2500 m indicated in present bathymetric maps. The multibeam survey along the ridge crest shows a maximum sill depth of about 1870 m. A previously hypothesized exchange of deep water from the Amundsen Basin to the Makarov Basin in this area is not confirmed. On the contrary, evidence of a deep-water flow from the Makarov to the Amundsen Basin was observed, indicating the existence of a new pathway for Canadian Basin Deep Water toward the Atlantic Ocean. Sediment data show extensive current activity along the ridge crest and along the rim of a local Intra Basin within the ridge structure.

Deepwater Ventilation and Stratification in the Neogene South China Sea

Combined data of physical property, benthic foraminifera, and stable isotopes from ODP Sites 1148, 1146, and 1143 are used to discuss deep water evolution in the South China Sea (SCS) since the Early Miocene. The results indicate that 3 lithostratigraphic units, respectively corresponding to 21–17 Ma, 15-10 Ma, and 10-5 Ma with positive red parameter ( a *) marking the red brown sediment color represent 3 periods of deep water ventilation. The first 2 periods show a closer link to contemporary production of the Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) and Northern Component Water (NCW), indicating a free connection of deep waters between the SCS and the open ocean before 10 Ma. After 10 Ma, red parameter dropped but stayed higher than the modern value ( a *=0), the CaCO 3 percentage difference between Site 1148 from a lower deepwater setting and Site 1146 from an upper deepwater setting enlarged significantly, and benthic species which prefer oxygen-rich bottom conditions dramatically decreased. Coupled with a major negative excursion of benthic δ 13 at ∼10 Ma, these parameters may denote a weakening in the control of the SCS deep water by the open ocean. Probably they mark the birth of a local deep water due to shallow waterways or rise of sill depths during the course of sea basin closing from south to east by the west-moving Philippine Arc after the end of SCS seafloor spreading at 16-15 Ma. However, it took another 5 Ma before the dissolved oxygen approached close to the modern level. Although the oxygen level continued to stabilize, several Pacific Bottom Water (PBW) and Pacific Deep Water (PDW) marker species rapidly increased since ∼6 Ma, followed by a dramatic escalation in planktonic fragmentation which indicates high dissolution especially after ∼5 Ma. The period of 5-3 Ma saw the strongest stratified deepwater in the then SCS, as indicated by up to 40% CaCO 3 difference between Sites 1148 and 1146. Apart from a strengthening PDW as a result of global cooling and ice cap buildup on northern high latitudes, a deepening sea basin due to stronger subduction eastward may also have triggered the influx of more corrosive waters from the deep western Pacific. Since 3 Ma, the evolution of the SCS deep water entered a modern phase, as characterized by relative stable 10% CaCO 3 difference between the two sites and increase in infaunal benthic species which prefer a low oxygenated environment. The subsequent reduction of PBW and PDW marker species at about 1.2 Ma and 0.9 Ma and another significant negative excursion of benthic d3C to a Neogene minimum at −0.9 Ma together convey a clear message that the PBW largely disappeared and the PDW considerably weakened in the Mid-Pleistocene SCS. Therefore, the true modern mode SCS deep water started to form only during the “Mid-Pleistocene climatic transition” probably due to the rise of sill depths under the Bashi Strait.

Paleo-Tsushima Water and its effect on surface water properties in the East Sea during the last glacial maximum: Revisited

The semi-enclosed deep marginal East Sea is known by limited sill flow and low sea-surface salinity during the last glacial maximum (LGM) when sea level was about 130 m lower than the present level. Although three straits (the Tsugaru, the Soya and the Tartar) with shallower than 130 m sills were completely closed, the Korea Strait with a maximum sill depth of 140 m seems to have persisted as a partial connection to the East Sea, allowing a sill flow. The volume transport at the Korea Strait during the LGM is estimated at approximately 0.3–1.1×10 12 m 3/yr, by using bathymetry, seismic reflection profiles and current data. The low sea-surface salinity has been explained by the East China Sea Coast Water (ECSCW) and high precipitation. However, the existing geological observations indicate that precipitation was reduced in the glacial East Sea. The high-resolution numerical simulation results predict that evaporation (2.16 mm/day) exceeded precipitation (1.43 mm/day), further suggesting net evaporation (evaporation minus precipitation) rates (0.2×10 12 m 3/yr) over the LGM East Sea. This signifies that the precipitation was not the factor lowering surface paleosalinity and that the paleo-Tsushima Water carried a huge amount of freshwater from the ECSCW than previously expected. The calculated surplus evaporation (0.2×10 12 m 3/yr) and sill flow (0.3–1.1×10 12 m 3/yr) are not identical, but they could be oceanographically considered as similar. The comparison between both values implies that most of the throughflow ultimately escaped the East Sea through the evaporation process during the LGM. The regional sea level in the almost isolated East Sea might be largely maintained by a rough balance between incoming throughflow and outgoing evaporation during the LGM. The geographic restriction due to lowered sea level and lower surface salinity by limited vertical mixing in the glacial East Sea are analogous to modern oceanographic features in the Black Sea.

Efficient algorithms for finding sills in digital topographic maps

In stratified geophysical flows, the energetically optimal exchange of dense fluid across a topographic barrier generally takes place at the deepest unblocked connection, which is typically a saddle point (sill). The flow at or near a sill is often hydraulically controlled, in which case the sill is called a controlling sill. Oceanographic examples include overflows of newly formed dense water at high latitudes as well as sills in channels connecting major ocean basins, such as the Strait of Gibraltar. Controlling sills are usually associated with strong flows, making them ideal sites for monitoring transport and hydrographic variability. The locations and depths of controlling sills also provide strong constraints for the downstream hydrographic properties below sill depth. Here, two algorithms for finding sills in digital topographic maps are presented. The first approximates the sill height to arbitrary precision in O ( k ) steps, where k is the number of data points in the map. The second algorithm, which requires O ( k log k ) steps, additionally returns the sill location. Several tests carried out with realistic problems from physical oceanography reveal that the second algorithm runs faster in practice, even though its worst case behavior is worse.

Scavenging of 230Th in the Sulu Sea

Abstract Thorium-230 concentrations were determined in the Sulu Sea, a small 5000 m deep basin surrounded by the Philippine and Malaysian Islands, and the South China Sea. The mid-water of South China Sea flows into the Sulu Sea through the Mindoro Strait (sill depth 420 m). Thorium-230 concentrations in deep waters at two stations (PA-1 in the Sulu Sea and PA-11 in the South China Sea) are considerably lower than those in the open ocean (average concentrations below sill depth: 0.49 dpm/m 3 (PA-1), 0.79 dpm/m 3 (PA-11)). The low concentration and homogeneity of 230 Th in deep water below sill depth are consistent with the trend of other semi-closed basins such as the Japan Sea. We also measured 232 Th concentration in the Sulu Sea. From these data, terrigenous 230 Th was calculated to be 19% of the measured 230 Th in the basin. The most probable explanation for the 230 Th deficit in the deep water of the Sulu Sea is an enhanced scavenging effect by the particles supplied from the seafloor. Using a simple box model, the amount of 230 Th scavenged by particles supplied from the seafloor is calculated to be 0.052 dpm/m 3 /y.

Frequency and sources of basin floor turbidites in alfonso basin, Gulf of California, Mexico: Products of slope failures

Alfonso Basin is a small margin basin formed by extensional tectonics in the actively rifting, seismically active Gulf of California. The basin is centered at 24°40′ N and 110° 38′ W, and is a closed depression (maximum depth 420 m) with an effective sill depth of about 320 m (deepest sill), a width of 20 km and length of 25 km. Basin floor area below a depth of 350 m is about 260 km 2. The climate is arid to semiarid but was wetter during the early (ca. 10,000–7000 Calendar years Before Present [BP]) and middle Holocene (ca. 7000–4000 Cal. Years BP). Basin-wide turbidity currents reach the floor of Alfonso Basin at centennial to millennial intervals. The peninsular drainages tributary to the basin are small and have maximum flood discharges of the order of 10 4m 3. The basin-floor turbidites thicker than 1 cm have volumes of the order of 10 6m 3 to 10 8m 3 and require a much larger source. The largest turbidite seen in our cores is ca. 1 m thick in the central basin floor and was deposited 4900 Calendar Years Before Present (BP). Two smaller major events occurred about 1500 and 2800 Cal. Years BP. Seismicity over the past century of record shows a clustering of larger epicenters along faults forming the eastern Gulf side of Alfonso Basin. In that period there have been four earthquakes with magnitudes above 7.0 but all are distant from the basin. Frequency of such earthquakes in the basin vicinity is probably millennial. It is concluded that the basin-wide turbidites thicker than 1 cm must be generated by slope failures on the eastern side of the basin at roughly millennial intervals. The thin flood turbidites have a peninsular source at centennial frequencies.