Characteristics of the Quequen Salado estuary, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

MARINI, M.F; PICCOLO, M.C.; PERILLO, G.M.E.

Bahía Blanca

Congreso; 4th LOICZ Open Science Meeting; 1999

LOICZ

The Quequén Salado river is located in the south-west of the Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. The river basin is situated in a very important farming zone of the Argentine country. In the area around its mouth the river has developed an important estuary with relevant changes in geomorphology. The objective of the present work is to describe the main characteristics of this estuary. Water temperature, salinity and currents were measured along the estuary in several surveys. Various cross sections were performed obtaining different oceanographic variables to understand the characteristic circulation of the study zone. Meteorological parameters were obtained from a station located in Marisol, a resort town located on side of the estuary. The results of the series of surveys made along the estuary and the surrounding coast show that the river margins are mostly erosive down to the last 5 km of the estuary where depositional features are dominant. The tides are microtidal, with a mean range of 1 m. The estuary is shallow having 2 meters depth at its mouth and 1.6 m near the zone of the limit of the tidal influence. The water column is well mixed with temperatures gradients of 0.75ºC/m. Typical salinity gradients in the water column are 5 m/1. Current velocities vary between 7 cm/s to 18.3 cm/s.