HR: 0800h
AN: OS51A-07    [Abstracts]
TI: Numerical Study of the Circulation and Sediment Transport in the Region of the Southeast American Shelf Under the Influence of the Plata River and the Patos Lagoon
AU: * Mello, R L
EM: raquellm@io.usp.br
AF: Universidade de Sao Paulo, Praca do Oceanografico,191 sala 200 - Cidade Universitaria, Sao Paulo, SP 05508030, Brazil
AU: Campos, E J
EM: edmo@io.usp.br
AF: Universidade de Sao Paulo, Praca do Oceanografico,191 sala 200 - Cidade Universitaria, Sao Paulo, SP 05508030, Brazil
AB: In the past few years, there has been an increasing interest in the dynamics of the plume formed by waters of the Plata River and the Patos-Mirim Lagoon System. This is due to the impacts of these low-salinity waters on physical, chemical and biological processes in this region. In this work will be present modeling results of sediment transport along the continental shelf between Mar Del Plata (~ 40°S) and Cabo Frio (~ 22°S), in which we explore the impacts of the discharge on the sediment concentration along the shelf. The model used is the ECOMSED (Estuarine and Coastal Ocean Model and SEDiment transport model), in an implementation that presents variable horizontal resolution, with 40 km in the far region and 7 km resolution near the mouth of the Plata River. The vertical resolution has 21 sigma levels. In the preliminary results, we were able to reproduce a standing region that was referred by Framiñan et al. (1996) as the Maximum Turbidity Front. In general, however, part of the sediments are transported out of the estuary onto the adjacent continental shelf. Due the influence of southwest winds, the plume flows more to northeast around the coast up to low latitudes (~ 20°S). In our study we expect to correlate the impact of this northward extension of the plume on the sediment concentration on the shelf.
DE: 4534 Hydrodynamic modeling
DE: 4558 Sediment transport (1862)
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2007 Joint Assembly