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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2025-1310</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Dense shelf-water and associated sediment transport in the Cap de Creus Canyon and adjacent shelf under mild winter regimes: insights from the 2021&amp;ndash;2022 winter</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Arjona-Camas</surname>
<given-names>Marta</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0862-856X</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Durrieu de Madron</surname>
<given-names>Xavier</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4543-6903</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Bourrin</surname>
<given-names>François</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Fos</surname>
<given-names>Helena</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0009-0001-2135-8461</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Sanchez-Vidal</surname>
<given-names>Anna</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8209-1959</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Amblas</surname>
<given-names>David</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6248-5512</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>GRC Geociències Marines, Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>CEFREM, UMR-5110 CNRS-Université de Perpignan Via Domitia, Perpignan, France</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>28</day>
<month>03</month>
<year>2025</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2025</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>31</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2025 Marta Arjona-Camas et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2025</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-1310/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-1310/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-1310/egusphere-2025-1310.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2025/egusphere-2025-1310/egusphere-2025-1310.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>This study examines dense shelf water cascading (DSWC) and estimates the dense shelf-water and associated sediment transport in the Cap de Creus Canyon (northwestern Mediterranean) during the mild winter of 2021&amp;ndash;2022. The FARDWO-CCC1 multiplatform survey in March 2022 revealed dense shelf waters on the continental shelf, which were transported to the canyon head. These cold, dense, and turbid waters, rich in dissolved oxygen and chlorophyll-a, downwelled along the canyon&amp;rsquo;s southern flank to depths around 350 m. During the observed downwelling event, estimated water and suspended sediment transport within the dense water vein were 0.3 Sv and 10&lt;sup&gt;5&lt;/sup&gt; metric tons, respectively, mainly confined to upper canyon reaches. These transports were low compared to extreme winters, likely due to the influence of freshwater inputs and moderate meteorological winter conditions. Transport magnitudes were higher in the upper canyon section than in the mid-canyon section, where transport was estimated at 0.05 Sv, including around 10&lt;sup&gt;4&lt;/sup&gt; metric tons of sediment. This observation suggests that during mild winters, while most of the dense water either remains on the shelf or the shelf-edge area, or flows southward along the coast, the Cap de Creus Canyon acts only as a partial sink for cascading waters. Mediterranean Sea Physics reanalysis data showed that the cascading season lasted approximately three months, from January to early April 2022, with several cascading pulses within the canyon. The highest dense shelf water transport occurred in mid-March, associated with easterly/south-easterly windstorms. This study confirms that remarkable dense shelf water and sediment transport occurs in the Cap de Creus Canyon, particularly along its southern flank, even during mild winters in absence of deep cascading and limited external forcing. Nevertheless, this phenomenon appears to make a significant contribution to the formation of Western Intermediate Water (WIW) in the region.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="31"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades</funding-source>
<award-id>MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033</award-id>
<award-id>PID2020-114322RB-I00</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>Generalitat de Catalunya</funding-source>
<award-id>2021 SGR 01195</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs3">
<funding-source>Agence Nationale de la Recherche</funding-source>
<award-id>ANR-19-ASMA-0004</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs4">
<funding-source>Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades</funding-source>
<award-id>Margarita Salas Postdoctoral Grant</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
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