Plume processes, sediment dispersal, and deposition on the Eel River shelf for a simulated flood event.


These animations were presented in

"Dispersal of flood sediment by oceanographic currents and energetic waves"; Courtney Harris, W. Rockwell Geyer, and Rich Signell, AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting, January 2000, San Antonio, Texas

The simulations are for a 6-day flood event, with peak discharge of 10K m3/s. Winds are strong and from the south for the first three days and then die off for the remainder of the event.
Simulations made using ECOM-SED from Hydroqual.

Plume Dynamics


The left panel shows the freshwater plume's structure. The right panel the amount of suspended sediment in the surface. The red arrows are depth-averaged velocity. The big-then-small red arrow on the upper right of the sediment-panel represents the strength and direction of the wind stress.

Sediment Dynamics


The left panel is the near-bed suspended sediment concentration, with contour lines ranging from 10mg/L to 10g/L. The middle panel is depth-integrated suspended sediment with contour lines ranging from 1mm to 10cm. The right panel is depth of sediment deposition, with contour lines ranging from 1mm to 10cm.
These are in "flc" format. See Rich Signell's guide to fli/flc if you need help viewing them.
The URL of this page is http://crusty.er.usgs.gov/~ckharris
Last modified: February, 2000.
For comments and questions, contact Courtney Harris (email)