Text / A buoyant plume adjacent to a headland-Observations ofthe Elwha River plume

Click here to view text. May contain additional pages.

Get Citation

Have a question about this item?

Contact Owner

Item information.

Title: A buoyant plume adjacent to a headland-Observations ofthe Elwha River plume
Alternative Title: Continental Shelf Research, 2010
Creator: Andrew W. Stevens
Jonathan A. Warrick
Date Created and/or Issued: 2010
Publication Information: Elsevier B.V.
Contributing Institution: UC Riverside, Library, Water Resources Collections and Archives
Collection: Clearinghouse for Dam Removal Information (CDRI)
Rights Information: Copyrighted
Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by copyright beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owner. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.
Description: Scope/Content: Abstract: Small rivers commonly discharge into coastal settings with topographic complexities-such as headlands and islands - but these settings are under represented in river plume studies compared to more simplified, straightcoasts. The Elwha River provides a unique opportunity to study the effects of coastal topography on abuoyant plume, because it discharges into the Strait of Juande Fuca on the western side of its deltaic headland. Hereweshowthatthisheadlandinducesflowseparationandtransienteddiesinthetidally dominatedcurrents(O(100cm/s)),consistentwithotherheadlandsinoscillatoryflow.Theseflow conditionsareobservedtostronglyinfluencethebuoyantriverplume,aspredictedbythe''small-scale'' or ''narrow''dynamicalclassificationusing Garvine's(1995) system. Becauseofthetransienteddiesand the locationoftherivermouthontheheadland,flowimmediatelyoffshoreoftherivermouthisdirected eastwardtwiceasfrequentlyasitiswestward.Thisresultsinabuoyantplumethatismuchmore frequently''bentover''towardtheeastthanthewest.Duringbentoverplumeconditions,theplumewas attachedtotheeasternshorelinewhilehavingadistinct,cuspatefrontalongitswesternmostboundary. The locationofthefrontwasfoundtoberelatedtothemagnitudeanddirectionoflocalflowduringthe precedingO(1h),andincreasesinalongshoreflowresultedindeeperfreshwatermixing,stronger baroclinicanomalies,andstrongerhuggingofthecoast.Duringbentoverplumeconditions,weobserved significantconvergenceofriverplumewatertowardthefrontalboundarywithin1kmoftherivermouth. Theseresultsshowhowcoastaltopographycanstronglyinfluencebuoyantplumebehavior,andthey shouldassistwithunderstandingofinitialcoastalsedimentdispersalpathwaysfromtheElwhaRiver during apendingdamremovalproject.
Scope/Content: Author affiliation: USGS
Type: text
Identifier: ark:/86086/n27p8z0n
1131
Language: English
eng
Subject: Sediment and channel dynamics
Dams
Dam retirement
Place: Elwha River, WA
Elwha Dam
Glines Canyon Dam

About the collections in Calisphere

Learn more about the collections in Calisphere. View our statement on digital primary resources.

Copyright, permissions, and use

If you're wondering about permissions and what you can do with this item, a good starting point is the "rights information" on this page. See our terms of use for more tips.

Share your story

Has Calisphere helped you advance your research, complete a project, or find something meaningful? We'd love to hear about it; please send us a message.