Abstract
During the two-year period between March 19T9 and March 1981, continuous measurements of currents, water temperature and salinity, winds, sea level and water pressure were made in the Strait of Juan de Fuca, a fjord-like estuary between Washington State, U.S.A. and Vancouver Island, Canada. These observations along with satellite imagery and CTD surveys show that surface intrusions of less-dense coastal water into the Strait are a major, recurring feature of its general circulation. These intrusions, which are accompanied by reversals in the normally vigorous, two-layer estuarine flow, are correlated with southwesterly coastal winds (conducive to coastal down-welling) and rising sea level at the entrance. These data suggest that a wind-induced, shoreward Ekman flux along the coast pushes less-dense coastal water into the Strait where it feeds a complex, 3-dimensional density driven flow which has been observed to travel as far as 135 km up-strait. The relationship between these baro-clinic events and the along-strait and across-strait sea surface slopes and pressure gradients will be discussed.
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Holbrook, J.R., Cannon, G.A., Kachel, D.G. (1983). Two-Year Observations of Coastal-Fjord Interactions in the Strait of Juan De Fuca. In: Gade, H.G., Edwards, A., Svendsen, H. (eds) Coastal Oceanography. NATO Conference Series, vol 11. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6648-9_23
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-6648-9_23
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