Short-term changes in seafloor character due to flood-derived hyperpycnal discharge: Typhoon Mindulle, Taiwan, July 2004
- 1School of Marine Science, College of William and Mary, Gloucester Point, Virginia 23062, USA
- 2Institute of Oceanography, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan
- 3Research Center for Environmental Change, Academia Sinica, Taipei 115, Taiwan
- 4Department of Marine, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, USA
- 5Institute of Oceanography, National Taiwan University, Taipei 106, Taiwan
Abstract
During Typhoon Mindulle in early July 2004, the Choshui River (central-western Taiwan) discharged ∼72 Mt of sediment to the eastern Taiwan Strait; peak concentrations were ≥200 g/L, ∼35%–40% of which was sand. Box-core samples and CHIRP (compressed high-intensity radar pulse) sonar records taken just before and after the typhoon indicate that the hyper-pycnal sediment was first deposited adjacent to the mouth of the Choshui, subsequently re suspended and transported northward (via the Taiwan Warm Current), and redeposited as a patchy coastal band of mud-dominated sediment that reached thicknesses of 1–2 m within megaripples. Within a month most of the mud was gone, probably continuing its northward transit, but more mud appeared in late August in response to Typhoon Aere. Following autumn and winter storms, the entire nearshore area was again sand dominated by early spring.
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- Accepted 5 April 2007.
- Received 8 February 2007.
- Revision received 29 March 2007.
- The Geological Society of America, Inc.
