Local flows in the Quequén Grande River Estuary, Argentina

PEREYRA, MARIANA G.; THOMAS, LUIS P; MARINO, BEATRIZ M

Journal of Physics: Conference Series

IOP Publishing Limited

Año: 2009 vol. 166 p. 120081 - 1200810

1742-6588

Quequén Grande River is one of the most important water courses of Buenos Aires Province due to the economic and strategic significance of its estuary, where the populous Quequén-Necochea area and Quequén Port are located. The minor Las Cascadas falls, at 15 km from the place where the river meets the sea is the point where the maximum tidal propagation is detected marking the head of the estuary. Artificial dredging is needed to insure the adequate navigability conditions in the Quequén harbour, which has induced a highly stratified water column in the last 2 km of the estuary. Thus, an abrupt step is established at the head of the harbour, implying a much reduced water circulation and in some cases nonexistent, producing strong reductive and even anoxic conditions. The foot of the step is a sediment and organic matter trap and becomes an interesting place of study. The goal of this article is to present the information obtained with Doppler sonar at the neighborhood of the step, which allows distinguishing local turbidity currents that may influence the deposition patterns of the sediments.