Field Measurements of Sediment Transport Processes in Support of the STRATAFORMShelf Dynamics Study: Progress Report for 1995-1997

摘要

The global objective of the VIMS involvement in the STRATAFORM program continuesto be to improve understanding of the spatially and temporally varying mechanisms that suspend, transport, and deposit sediment on the continental shelf in the vicinity of the mouth of the Eel River specifically and on continental shelves generally. Common objectives of the 1995-1996 and 1996-1997 field campaigns included: (a) to characterize the nature and spatial variability of bed roughness by means of side-scan sonar surveys; and (b) to obtain estimates of time-varying bed stresses over contrasting bottom types at two sites and to evaluate sediment resuspension in response to those stresses by means of bottom boundary layer tripod deployments. Field activities in 1996-1997 were also aimed at supporting the team efforts of the Eel River Plume Study.