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Dense Shelf Water Cascading and Associated Bedforms

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Abstract

Sea-atmosphere interactions play an important role in oceanographic processes at various spatial and temporal scales. In the world oceans, several regions are key spots of intense air-sea interactions which considerably affect the heat and water budgets. An example of this is the formation of dense waters by cooling, evaporation or freezing over continental shelf regions. Dense shelf waters can eventually cascade to greater depths over the continental slope, being occasionally channelized through submarine canyons, until they reach an equilibrium depth of equal density. The enhanced current velocities associated with this oceanographic process are capable of generating erosive and depositional bedforms along the dense water pathways.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Marine Sciences (ICM-CSIC), Passeig Marítim de la Barceloneta, 37-49, 08003, Barcelona, Spain

    Pere Puig

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  1. Pere Puig
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Correspondence to Pere Puig .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Geology, Institut de Ciences del Mar (ICM-CSIC) Marine Geology, Barcelona, Spain

    Jorge Guillén

  2. Corazón de María, Instituto Español de Oceanografia, Madrid, Spain

    Juan Acosta

  3. Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università "La Sapienza" Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Rome, Italy

    Francesco Latino Chiocci

  4. Geology-Physics, Instituto de Ciencias del Mar (CSIC) Geology-Physics, Barcelona, Spain

    Albert Palanques

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Puig, P. (2017). Dense Shelf Water Cascading and Associated Bedforms. In: Guillén, J., Acosta, J., Chiocci, F., Palanques, A. (eds) Atlas of Bedforms in the Western Mediterranean. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33940-5_7

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