EarthRef.org Digital Archive (ERDA) -- A review of physical oceanographic processes at seamounts

Description
Ocean conditions at seamounts depend on topography, on ambient stratification, on latitude, and on the strength and periodicity of flows that sweep each object. Geometrical considerations include seamount summit size, shape, and proximity to the sea surface, as well as flank slope and overall water depth. Flow impinging on a seamount can be steady, quasi-steady as might be caused by meso-scale eddies, oscillatory with tidal flows being prominent, or intermittent as in wind-driven flows with inertial response. A wide range of flow, hydrographic, and turbulent energy responses at and around seamounts is consequently possible. In this keynote presentation by William Lavelle during the First SBN Workshop the basic physical oceanographic features at seamounts are identified and related to topographic and environmental factors. Emphasis is given to numerical model results. Steady and tidally forced circulation both can lead to time-mean flows that are trapped around the seamount summit. In the case of tidal forcing, a short recirculation cell typically drives flow downward toward and radially outward from the center of the seamount apex. That flow is related to time-mean temperature anomalies, i.e. cold domes, that are often observed above the summit.

Project -- Meetings and Workshops -- SBN Workshops
The goal of the Seamount Biogeosciences Network (SBN) is to bring together all the diverse science disciplines involved in seamount research, to communicate about and discuss seamount science, and to explore innovative ways to network amongst the diverse communities working on seamounts.