Print Email Facebook Twitter Cross-shore transport of nearshore sediment by river plume frontal pumping Title Cross-shore transport of nearshore sediment by river plume frontal pumping Author Horner-Devine, Alexander R. (University of Washington) Pietrzak, J.D. (TU Delft Environmental Fluid Mechanics) Souza, Alejandro J. (National Oceanography Center) McKeon, Margaret A. (University of Washington) Meirelles, Saulo (TU Delft Coastal Engineering) Henriquez, M. (TU Delft Coastal Engineering) Flores, Raúl P. (University of Washington; Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María) Rijnsburger, S. (TU Delft Environmental Fluid Mechanics) Date 2017-06-28 Abstract We present a new mechanism for cross-shore transport of fine sediment from the nearshore to the inner shelf resulting from the onshore propagation of river plume fronts. Onshore frontal propagation is observed in moorings and radar images, which show that fronts penetrate onshore through the nearshore and surf zone, almost to the waterline. During frontal passage a two-layer counterrotating velocity field characteristic of tidal straining is immediately set up, generating a net offshore flow beneath the plume. The seaward flow at depth carries with it high suspended sediment concentrations, which appear to have been generated by wave resuspension in the nearshore region. These observations describe a mechanism by which vertical density stratification can drive exchange of material between the nearshore region and the inner shelf. To our knowledge these are the first observations of this frontal pumping mechanism, which is expected to play an important role in sediment transport near river mouths. Subject cross-shore transportfrontsRhineriver plumesedimentsurf zone To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:2f3d16d8-12eb-4543-85bd-74fd53407277 DOI https://doi.org/10.1002/2017GL073378 Embargo date 2018-01-01 ISSN 0094-8276 Source Geophysical Research Letters, 44 (12), 6343-6351 Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2017 Alexander R. Horner-Devine, J.D. Pietrzak, Alejandro J. Souza, Margaret A. McKeon, Saulo Meirelles, M. Henriquez, Raúl P. Flores, S. Rijnsburger Files PDF Horner_Devine_et_al_2017_ ... etters.pdf 980.5 KB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:2f3d16d8-12eb-4543-85bd-74fd53407277/datastream/OBJ/view