2024-03-29T09:30:33Zhttp://digital.csic.es/dspace-oai/requestoai:digital.csic.es:10261/1586252020-12-10T15:59:59Zcom_10261_126com_10261_8com_10261_123col_10261_379col_10261_376
00925njm 22002777a 4500
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Gasser, Marc
author
Pelegrí, Josep Lluís
author
Emelianov, Mikhail
author
Gràcia, Eulàlia
author
Pastor, Marcos
author
Sánchez, R.
author
2017-09
The Mediterranean Water leaves the western end of the Strait of Gibraltar as a bottom wedge of salty and warm waters flowing down the continental slope. The salinity of the onset Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) is so high that leads to water much denser (initially in excess of 1.5 kg m¿3) than the overlying central waters. During much of its initial descent, the MOW retains large salinity anomalies ¿ causing density anomalies that induce its gravity current character ¿ and relatively high westward speeds ¿ causing a substantial Coriolis force over long portions of its course. We use hydrographic data from six cruises (a total of 1176 stations) plus velocity data from two cruises, together with high-resolution bathymetric data, to track the preferential MOW pathways from the Strait of Gibraltar into the western Gulf of Cadiz and to examine the relation of these pathways to the bottom topography. A methodology for tributary systems in drainage basins, modified to account for the Coriolis force, emphasizes the good agreement between the observed trajectories and those expected from a topographically-constrained flow. Both contour avenues and cross-slope channels are important and have complementary roles steering the MOW along the upper and middle continental slope before discharging as a neutrally buoyant flow into the western Gulf of Cadiz. Our results show that the interaction between bottom flow and topography sets the path and final equilibrium depths of the modern MOW. Furthermore, they support the hypothesis that, as a result of the high erosive power of the bottom flow and changes in bottom-water speed, the MOW pathways and mixing rates have changed in the geological past
Progress in Oceanography 157: 47-71 (2017)
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/158625
10.1016/j.pocean.2017.05.015
Topographic steering
Strait of Gibraltar
Mediterranean outflow water
Bottom drainage system
Along-slope contour avenues
Down-slope erosional channels
Gulf of Cadiz
Tracking the Mediterranean outflow in the Gulf of Cadiz