Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Variaciones morfológicas y batimétricas de la línea de costa en el estuario del río Chone, producidas por los eventos ENSO

1998; Institut Français d'Études Andines; Volume: 27; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.3406/bifea.1998.1310

2076-5827

Isabel Tutivén Ubilla,

Geological and Tectonic Studies in Latin America

Morphologic and batimetric variations of the coast line in the río Chone estuary, produced by ENSO events El Niño event, accelerate the sedimentation and erosion processes at the Chone estuary. During 1940 (strong El Niño) and 1958 (weak El Niño), there were strong sedimentation processes mainly at the cross section located toward the head. Conversely, toward the mouth, the erosion processes were ahead. The study results were based in the depths behaviour of 6 cross sections located along the estuary. The variations in the coast line were observed from the overlapping bathymetric charts for 1940, 1958, 1961, 1964 and 1979. Also, studies made for others author were used to analyse the changes on the bathymetry and morphology at the Chone estuary. This study and previous ones demonstrated that, when there is El Niño : 1. The sea level rises and makes the waves break more into the shore line. As a result, there is erosion along the north coast of Ecuador where is our study area. 2. The strong rain increases the instability of cliffs located south the Bahía de Caráquez. 3. There is undermining at the slope of the mountains surrounding the estuary. This increases the sediments loads inside the Estuary.