An evaporation-driven salinity maximum zone in Australian tropical estuaries
Abstract
The distribution of temperature and salinity in three tropical Australian estuaries was measured in October 1983 in the hot dry season. As a result of evaporation, a salinity maximum zone exists near the mouth of the river, where downwelling occurs, and a classical and an inverse internal estuarine circulation prevail, respectively, upstream and downstream of the salinity maximum zone. The zone of salinity maximum can be thought of as a high salinity plug inhibiting so much the mixing of estuarine and ocean waters that in some cases freshwater dose not reach the ocean.
- Publication:
-
Estuarine Coastal and Shelf Science
- Pub Date:
- April 1986
- DOI:
- 10.1016/0272-7714(86)90065-X
- Bibcode:
- 1986ECSS...22..415W