HR: 09:35h
AN: H31I-07 INVITED     [Abstracts]
TI: River Mixing in the Mississippi River Below the Confluence with the Ohio River
AU: * Rostad, C E
EM: cerostad@usgs.gov
AF: U.S. Geological Survey, WRD, Box 25046, MS 408, Bldg.95 Denver Federal Center, Denver, CO 80225 United States
AU: Rathbun, R E
EM: rrathbun@usgs.gov
AF: U.S. Geological Survey, WRD, Box 25046, MS 408, Bldg.95 Denver Federal Center, Denver, CO 80225 United States
AB: Although river mixing has been modeled and projected, actual data that documents river mixing downstream from major confluences in large river systems has been scarce. In this study, intensive sampling was done at several sites downstream from the confluence of the Mississippi River with the Ohio River. This study on river mixing included Lagrangian sampling at the sampling sites, with individual samples taken at equal width increments along well-documented cross sections at various distances downstream from the confluence, at relatively high flow conditions in the Mississippi River. The Upper Mississippi River was characterized by high conductivity relative to the Ohio River. The Ohio River was characterized by an industrial organic compound, trimethyltriazinetrione, not detected in the Mississippi River. The observed mixing of these components downstream from the confluence was incorporated into current river mixing models for verification. Based on the extensive distance (about 100 miles) needed for adequate mixing observed in this study, representative sampling of large river systems should consider and compensate for lack of rapid lateral mixing downstream from major confluences.
DE: 1009 Geochemical modeling (3610, 8410)
DE: 1090 Field relationships (3690, 8486)
DE: 1856 River channels (0483, 0744)
DE: 1860 Streamflow
DE: 1872 Time series analysis (3270, 4277, 4475)
SC: Hydrology [H]
MN: Fall Meeting 2005