Tidally Driven Dispersion of a Deep-Sea Sediment Plume Originating from Seafloor Disturbance in the DISCOL Area (SE-Pacific Ocean)

The purpose of the study was to measure in situ the background suspended particulate matter concentration (SPMC) in the DISCOL area (SE Pacific) and its increase due to mechanical mobilization of the seabed. The disturbance experiment imitated future manganese nodule exploitations and was designed to measure the sediment plume generated by such activities. In the direct vicinity of the disturbance, landers equipped with acoustic and optical sensors measured the current velocities and the SPMC. The SPMC at the disturbance was easily up to 10 mg/L and thus about 200 times higher than the background concentration. The downstream sediment plume, measured by the lander, had a SPMC of about 1 mg/L. After tide reversal, the sediment plume was recorded a second time. A sediment transport model reproduced the plume dispersion. After rapid settling of the coarser fraction, a plume of hardly settling fine particles remained in suspension (and no deposition–resuspension cycles). The transport was controlled by the tides and by the vertical velocity component that resulted from bathymetrical differences. The plume may continue to disperse up to 100+ days (up to hundreds of km) depending on the particle size and until background concentration is reached.

Rectified tidal transport in Lofoten–Vesterålen, northern Norway

Vestfjorden in northern Norway, a major spawning ground for the northeast Arctic cod, is sheltered from the continental shelf and open ocean by the Lofoten–Vesterålen archipelago. The archipelago, however, is well known for hosting strong and vigorous tidal currents in its many straits, currents that can produce significant time-mean tracer transport from Vestfjorden to the shelf outside. We use a purely tidally driven unstructured-grid ocean model to look into non-linear tidal dynamics and the associated tracer transport through the archipelago. Of particular interest are two processes: tidal pumping through the straits and tidal rectification around islands. The most prominent tracer transport is caused by tidal pumping through the short and strongly non-linear straits Nordlandsflaget and Moskstraumen near the southern tip of the archipelago. Here, tracers from Vestfjorden are transported tens of kilometers westward out on the outer shelf. Further north, weaker yet notable tidal pumping also takes place through the longer straits Nappstraumen and Gimsøystraumen. The other main transport route out of Vestfjorden is south of the island of Røst. Here, the transport is primarily due to tracer advection by rectified anticyclonic currents around the island. There is also an anticyclonic circulation cell around the island group Mosken–Værøy, and both cells have flow speeds up to 0.2 m s−1, magnitudes similar to the observed background currents in the region. These high-resolution simulations thus emphasize the importance of non-linear tidal dynamics for transport of floating particles, like cod eggs and larvae, in the region.

TOI-2109: An Ultrahot Gas Giant on a 16 hr Orbit

We report the discovery of an ultrahot Jupiter with an extremely short orbital period of 0.67247414 ± 0.00000028 days (∼16 hr). The 1.347 ± 0.047 R Jup planet, initially identified by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) mission, orbits TOI-2109 (TIC 392476080)—a T eff ∼ 6500 K F-type star with a mass of 1.447 ± 0.077 M ☉, a radius of 1.698 ± 0.060 R ☉, and a rotational velocity of v sin i * = 81.9 ± 1.7 km s−1. The planetary nature of TOI-2109b was confirmed through radial-velocity measurements, which yielded a planet mass of 5.02 ± 0.75 M Jup. Analysis of the Doppler shadow in spectroscopic transit observations indicates a well-aligned system, with a sky-projected obliquity of λ = 1.°7 ± 1.°7. From the TESS full-orbit light curve, we measured a secondary eclipse depth of 731 ± 46 ppm, as well as phase-curve variations from the planet’s longitudinal brightness modulation and ellipsoidal distortion of the host star. Combining the TESS-band occultation measurement with a K s -band secondary eclipse depth (2012 ± 80 ppm) derived from ground-based observations, we find that the dayside emission of TOI-2109b is consistent with a brightness temperature of 3631 ± 69 K, making it the second hottest exoplanet hitherto discovered. By virtue of its extreme irradiation and strong planet–star gravitational interaction, TOI-2109b is an exceptionally promising target for intensive follow-up studies using current and near-future telescope facilities to probe for orbital decay, detect tidally driven atmospheric escape, and assess the impacts of H2 dissociation and recombination on the global heat transport.

Rectified tidal transport in Lofoten-Vesterålen, Northern Norway

Vestfjorden in Northern Norway, a major spawning ground for the Northeast Arctic cod, is sheltered from the continental shelf and open ocean by the Lofoten-Vesterålen archipelago. The archipelago, however, is well known for hosting strong and vigorous tidal currents in its many straits, currents that can produce significant time-mean tracer transport from Vestfjorden to the shelf outside. We use a purely tidally-driven unstructured-grid ocean model to look into the nonlinear tidal dynamics and the associated tracer transport through the archipelago. Of particular interest are two processes: tidal pumping through the straits and tidal rectification around islands. The most prominent tracer transport is caused by tidal pumping through the short and strongly nonlinear straits Nordlandsflaget and Moskstraumen near the southern tip of the archipelago. Here tracers from Vestfjorden are transported tens of kilometers westward out on the outer shelf. Further north, weaker yet notable tidal pumping also takes place through the longer straits Nappstraumen and Gimsøystraumen. The other main transport route out of Vestfjorden is south of the island of Røst. Here the transport is primarily due to tracer advection by rectified anticyclonic currents around the island. There is also an anticyclonic circulation cell around the islands of Mosken-Værøy, and both cells have have flow speeds up to 0.2 m/s, magnitudes similar to the observed background currents in the region. These high-resolution simulations thus emphasize the importance of nonlinear tidal dynamics for transport of cod eggs and larvae in the region.

A tidally driven estuary close to an amphidromy

This paper describes the implementation of a high-resolution three-dimensional model of the estuary “Sundalagið Norður”. This estuary is bound by narrow sills in both ends and has a large semidiurnal tidal variation. The proximity to an amphidromic region, results in a periodically varying difference in sea level height between both ends of the estuary, which generates strong semidiurnal tidal currents across the sills. The available observational data support the model results. The model results verify the dominance of tidal forcing with semidiurnally varying volume fluxes into and out of the estuary. The amplitudes of these fluxes vary in strength with the fortnightly variation between spring and neap tides. More surprisingly, the model also indicates a strong fortnightly variation of net fluxes averaged over 25 hours reducing both diurnal and semidiurnal tidal currents. These variations are caused by fortnightly variations in sea level difference between both ends of the estuary, which are verified by comparison with observed sea level variations. This rather surprising result implies that exchanges within the estuary and with its surroundings vary systematically; typically with one week of net northward flow followed by one week of net southward flow. This variation also appears to affect the mixing processes in the estuary and should be taken into account in planning development or activities. More observational data would be beneficial to validate the model more thoroughly and we recommend that a dedicated experiment with combined observations and numerical modeling is implemented.

Tides on a Snowball

<p>The severe “Snowball Earth” glaciations proposed to have existed during the Cryogenian period (720 to 635 million years ago) coincided with the breakup of one supercontinent (Rodinia) and assembly of another (Pannotia). The presence of extensive continental ice sheets should theoretically lead to a tidally energetic Snowball ocean due to the reduced ocean depth, as was the case during the last glaciations, but the theory of the supertidal cycle suggests that the supercontinent paleogeography should lead to weak tides because the surrounding ocean is too large to host tidal resonances. So which theory is correct? Using an established numerical global tidal model and 22 paleogeographic reconstructions spanning 750-600Ma, we show that the Cryogenian ocean hosted diminished tidal amplitudes and associated energy dissipation rates, reaching 10-50% of today’s rates, during the Snowball glaciations. In contrast, the tides were more energetic during the ice-free periods, and we propose that the near-absence of Cryogenian tidal processes may have been one contributor to the prolonged glaciations if these were near-global. These results also constrain lunar distance and orbital evolution throughout the Cryogenian and highlight that simulations of past oceans should include explicit tidally driven mixing processes.</p>