The authors consider the flow in a semienclosed sea, or basin, subjected to a destabilizing surface buoyancy flux and separated from a large adjoining reservoir by a sill. A series of numerical experiments were conducted to quantify the energetics of the flow within the basin, that is, the amount of kinetic and potential energy stored within the basin and the rate at which these quantities are ...

The McMurdo Dry Valleys magmatic system, Antarctica, provides a world-class example of pervasive lateral magma flow on a continental scale. The lowermost intrusion (Basement Sill) offers detailed sections through the now frozen particle microstructure of a congested magma slurry. We simulated the flow regime in two and three dimensions using numerical models built on a finite-element mesh deriv...

Numerous martian impact craters have been heavily modified by processes restricted to the crater interior. A common expression of this modification is the presence of extensive fractures arranged in a concentric plan and typically forming moats that engulf the old crater wall. Although similar styles of modification occur on the moon, martian floor-fractured craters display a greater diversity ...

We discuss here the evolution of vorticity and potential vorticity (PV) for a bottom current crossing a marine channel in shallow-water approximation, focusing on the effect of friction and mixing. The purpose of this research is indeed to investigate the role of friction and vertical entrainment on vorticity and PV spatial evolution in channels or straits when along-channel morphology variatio...

Data collected during a 12-day cruise in July 2009 served to examine the structure of the nascent Mediterranean Outflow Water (MOW) immediately west of the Espartel Sill, the westernmost sill in the Strait of Gibraltar. The MOW is characterized by high salinities (>37.0 and reaching 38.3) and high velocities (exceeding 1 m s at 100 m above the seafloor), and follows a submerged valley along a 3...

The Lombok Strait separates the Indonesian islands Bali and Lombok and is the second most important strait through which water is exchanged between the Pacific Ocean and the Indian Ocean. The south end of the Lombok Strait is split by a small island and on each side of the island are rugged sills with an average depth of about 200 m. On the sill, tidal current speeds up to ±3.5 m/s are encounte...

The energy exchange between internal waves and barotropic currents over inclined bottom topography is studied theoretically and in the framework of the numerical model. The energy balance equation derived for a continuously stratified fluid predicts that energy can either be transferred toward or away from the internal wave depending on the direction of propagation of both the wave and current....