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Storm-generated current in La Jolla Submarine Canyon, California

1973; Elsevier BV; Volume: 15; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/0025-3227(73)90018-2

1872-6151

Francis P. Shepard, Neil F. Marshall,

Marine and environmental studies

Current meters were operating in La Jolla Submarine Canyon at 200 m depth during a period of high seas and onshore winds up to 62 km/h (34 knots). The meters were subsequently extracted from a kelp tangle by use of a deep-diving vehicle 0.5 km downcanyon from their emplacement position. The records show a downcanyon speed up to 50 cm/sec, considerably higher than any of our numerous earlier measurements. This was followed by an abrupt termination of data, evidently due to being engulfed in seaward-moving kelp masses. The record may provide evidence of the initial stages of a turbidity current. The conditions for such a current were provided by the piling up of water at the canyon head by the unusually strong onshore wind.