PMEL Publications Abstract

FY 1976

Preliminary results of coincident current meter and sediment transport observations for wintertime conditions on the Long Island Inner Shelf

Lavelle, J.W., P.E. Gadd, G.C. Han, D.A. Mayer, W.L. Stubblefield, D.J.P. Swift, R.L. Charnell, H.R. Brashear, F.N. Case, K.W. Haff, and C.W. Kunselman

Geophys. Res. Lett., 3(2), doi: 10.1029/GL003i002p00097, 97–100 (1976)

We have observed late fall and winter bedload sediment transport and the overlying current field in ridge and swale topography on the inner continental shelf south of Long Island, and can report movement of bed material at a water depth of 20 m to a distance of approximately 1500 m after several storm events. Movement over an 11-week observation period was longshore and oblique to the ridge crest at the experimental site. Currents were also predominately longshore, but long term averages demonstrate that a vertical shear existed in the fluid motion. Although the number of sediment transport "events" suggested by the current meter data is nearly balanced in eastward and westward directions, both estimates of transport from current speeds and sand tracer dispersion patterns show that several westward flowing events dominated the transport during a two and one-half month period. A quantitative upper bound of 31 cm/sec on the threshold velocity for sediment movement in this size range is also set by the data.

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