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https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3603
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3603
26 Nov 2024
 | 26 Nov 2024

A global summary of seafloor topography influenced by internal-wave induced turbulent water mixing

Hans van Haren and Henk de Haas

Abstract. Turbulent water motions are important for the exchange of momentum, heat, nutrients, and suspended matter including sediments in the deep-sea that is generally stably stratified in density. To maintain ocean-density stratification, an irreversible diapycnal turbulent transport is needed. The geological shape and texture of marine topography is important for water mixing as most of deep-sea turbulence is generated via breaking internal waves at sloping seafloors. For example, slopes of semidiurnal internal tidal characteristics can ‘critically’ match the mean seafloor slope. In this paper, the concept of critical slopes is revisited from a global internal wave-turbulence viewpoint using seafloor topography- and moored high-resolution temperature sensor data. Observations suggest that turbulence generation via internal wave breaking at 5±1.5 % of all seafloors is sufficient to maintain ocean-density stratification. However most, >90 %, turbulence contribution is found at supercritical, rather than the more limited critical, slopes measured at 1'-scales that cover about 50 % of seafloors at water depths < 2000 m. Internal tides (~60 %) dominate over near-inertial waves (~40 %), which is confirmed from comparison of NE-Atlantic data with East-Mediterranean data (no tides). Seafloor-elevation spectra show a wavenumber (k) fall-off rate of k-3, which is steeper than previously found. The fall-off rate is even steeper, resulting in less elevation-variance, in a one-order-of-magnitude bandwidth around kT=0.5 cycle-per-km. The corresponding length is equivalent to the internal tidal excursion. The reduction in seafloor-elevation variance seems associated with seafloor-erosion by internal wave breaking. Potential robustness of the seafloor-internal wave interaction is discussed.

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Journal article(s) based on this preprint

25 Jun 2025
A global summary of seafloor topography influenced by internal-wave-induced turbulent water mixing
Hans van Haren and Henk de Haas
Ocean Sci., 21, 1125–1140, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-1125-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-1125-2025, 2025
Short summary
Hans van Haren and Henk de Haas

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-3603', Anonymous Referee #1, 04 Jan 2025
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Hans van Haren, 23 Jan 2025
  • RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-3603', Anonymous Referee #2, 24 Jan 2025
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Hans van Haren, 10 Feb 2025

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor | : Report abuse
  • RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-3603', Anonymous Referee #1, 04 Jan 2025
    • AC1: 'Reply on RC1', Hans van Haren, 23 Jan 2025
  • RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-3603', Anonymous Referee #2, 24 Jan 2025
    • AC2: 'Reply on RC2', Hans van Haren, 10 Feb 2025

Peer review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision | EF: Editorial file upload
AR by Hans van Haren on behalf of the Authors (11 Feb 2025)  Author's response   Author's tracked changes   Manuscript 
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (12 Feb 2025) by Karen J. Heywood
RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (18 Mar 2025)
ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (26 Mar 2025) by Karen J. Heywood
AR by Hans van Haren on behalf of the Authors (31 Mar 2025)  Author's response   Author's tracked changes   Manuscript 
ED: Publish as is (31 Mar 2025) by Karen J. Heywood
AR by Hans van Haren on behalf of the Authors (01 Apr 2025)

Journal article(s) based on this preprint

25 Jun 2025
A global summary of seafloor topography influenced by internal-wave-induced turbulent water mixing
Hans van Haren and Henk de Haas
Ocean Sci., 21, 1125–1140, https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-1125-2025,https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-1125-2025, 2025
Short summary
Hans van Haren and Henk de Haas
Hans van Haren and Henk de Haas

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Short summary
Turbulent water motions are important for the exchange of momentum, heat, nutrients, and suspended matter in the deep-sea. The shape of marine topography influences most water turbulence via breaking internal waves at ‘critically’ sloping seafloors. In this paper, the concept of critical slopes is revisited from a global internal wave-turbulence viewpoint using seafloor topography- and moored temperature sensor data. Potential robustness of the seafloor-internal wave interaction is discussed.
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