Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (2002) 54, 747759

doi:10.1006/ecss.2001.0873, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on

Factors Influencing Suspended Sediment Flux in the

Upper Gulf of California
L. G. Alvareza and S. E. Jonesb
a

Departamento de Oceanografa Fsica, CICESE, Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico 22860

School of Ocean Sciences, Marine Science Laboratories, Menai Bridge, LL59 5EY, U.K.

Received 17 January 2000 and accepted in revised form 15 June 2001

Few studies exist of sediment dynamics in inverse estuaries, which are characterized by hypersaline water bodies and
associated gravity currents and arise in arid regions where little precipitation and runo combine with a high evaporation.
Observations of velocity, density and suspended sediment concentration profiles have been made using an acoustic
Doppler current profiler, CTD, optical backscatter sensors and water sampling at a shallow water site in the Upper Gulf
of California over a spring to neap tidal cycle. These revealed contrasting dynamic conditions in which gravity current
events produced significant net near-bed suspended sediment fluxes of 25 g m
2 s
1 out of the Gulf during neap tides.
Instantaneous suspended sediment fluxes exceeded 30 g m
2 s
1during spring tides due to tidal resuspension, but net
fluxes were near zero. The baroclinic gravity current is shown to be the dominant mechanism for net flux of suspended
sediment toward deeper waters, at least during quiescent summer conditions. This flux is proposed to be confined within
a wide, western along-Gulf channel. This is consistent with evidence that the Colorado River delta system is exporting
sediments to deeper water after becoming unstable due to switching o of river discharge since 1930.
 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: suspended matter; sediment flux; inverse estuaries; gravity currents; Gulf of California

Introduction
Rivers discharge fresh water and sediments to the
coastal ocean. The resulting estuarine environments
become the pathways through which finer sediments
may reach the open sea. Within an estuary the fine
sediment particles are dispersed along paths determined by water motion. Tidal energy continually
erodes, transports and deposits bed sediments. Thus,
within the classic estuary the suspended particulate
matter (SPM) concentration is generally high even
with little new sediment input (Dyer, 1995). These
low salinity water bodies respond to seasonal fluctuations of freshwater discharge. Extensive research in
shelf seas has been oriented to determine the fate of
the high river runo that occurs during the wet
season. In contrast, dry season estuarine dynamics has
only received attention in recent years. The tropical
estuaries of northern Australia, for instance, are influenced by large seasonal fluctuations in freshwater
discharge (Wolanski, 1988). In arid regions where
little precipitation and runo combine with a high
evaporation rate, hypersaline water bodies develop
called negative estuaries or inverse estuaries. Largescale examples of this are the Persian Gulf, the Red
Sea, the Arabian Sea, the South Australian gulfs and
the Gulf of California (Bowers, 1989; Nunes Vaz
et al., 1990).
02727714/02/040747+13 $35.00/0

In contrast with the classic estuary model, the

inverse estuary in arid regions requires a net flow of
oceanic water toward its head to compensate for the
freshwater loss due to evaporation. The tendency for
salt accumulation inside the inverse estuary requires
an opposing mechanism that removes the high salinity
water. One process involves the sinking of saltier
(denser) water in the shallower areas and its flow
toward the open ocean boundary as a near-bed gravity
current (Nunes Vaz et al., 1990). Gravity current
events have been observed in the Australian inverse
estuaries and in the Upper Gulf of California during
neap tides (Lavn et al., 1998). Among the smallerscale examples, coastal lagoons in arid regions can
also exhibit inverse-estuarine behaviour when high
evaporation causes a net loss of water. In these
so-called anti-estuarine lagoons, the seaward flowing
circulation near the bottom can carry SPM from the
lagoon out to the ocean (Groen, 1967; Postma,
1967). Enhancement of the seaward flux of SPM can
be expected since both gravity currents and high SPM
concentration may develop close to the sea bed
concurrently. Sediment transport under these conditions has not been widely documented, perhaps as a
consequence of the relatively little attention given to
inverse estuaries in the past. The present study reports
measurements of currents and SPM concentrations at
a site in the Upper Gulf of California, a shallow
 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

748 L. G. Alvarez and S. E. Jones

31.5N
5

10

Study
area

15

40

31

100

JA
BA

31.4

200

L
CA

20

30

RA
NO
SO

Contours
in metres

IF
OR

A
31.3

NI

29
30

116

115

114

113

35

31.2

40

25

100

25

50

10

20

31.1

San
Felipe
30

31.0

114.9

40

200
35

10 km
30.9
115.0W

45

30

15

W3

114.8

114.7

114.6

114.5

114.4

Wagner
Basin
114.3

114.2

114.1

F 1. The Upper Gulf of California and the bottom configuration in the area under study, o Baja California. The fixed
sampling sites (J and W3) and two CTD along-gulf transects (A and B) are indicated

macrotidal region with inverse estuarine features.

The aim of this work was to investigate the
processes influencing sediment fluxes using intensive
observations made for the first time in this region.
Area of study
The Upper Gulf of California (henceforth called the
Upper Gulf) is located in the northernmost part of the
Gulf of California, bounded by the arid lands of
Sonora and the Baja California peninsula (Figure 1).
It is one of the most dynamic shallow environments in
Mexico due to its large tidal range (7 m) and fast
tidal currents (1 m s
1) during spring tides. Before
1930, the Colorado River supplied freshwater
(20109 m3 yr
1) and sediments (180106
tons yr
1) to the northern end of the Upper Gulf
(Thompson, 1968). Estuarine conditions may have
prevailed then, before human tampering with the river
drainage, as suggested by numerical modelling and
recent surveys made during unusual river discharge
(Carbajal et al., 1997; Lavn & Sanchez, 1999).
The region is less than 40 m deep with irregular
bottom topography. Several 10 to 30 km long ridges
rise 810 m above flat-bottomed, gentle-sloping

troughs aligned parallel to the Gulfs axis. The sea-bed

sediments consist of unconsolidated deposits supplied
by the Colorado River before dams were built.
Textural classification of the bottom surface sediments yields three groups: silt-clay, sand-silt-clay and
sand. Silt-clay predominates o Baja California, north
of San Felipe and between the ridges in the intervening troughs (Thompson, 1968). Finer sediments of
mean grain size 5
7
predominate over the western
half of the Upper Gulf and coarser sediments of
2
4
are found over most of the eastern half
(Carriquiry & Sanchez, 1999). Observations across
the gulf by Garca de Ballesteros and Larroque (1974)
indicated that surface SPM concentrations were
higher near the river mouth with a persistent horizontal gradient to the southeast. This trend was described
earlier by Thompson (1969) based on turbidity patterns. He suggested that tidal currents were the main
conveyor of sediments in this region and that the slight
rotary motion of these currents induced a westward
drift of sediments in suspension.
A sea breeze wind regime prevails near the
coast with magnitude less than 5 m s
1. Maximum
average wind speed in mid-summer is 4 45 m s
1.
Synoptic wind events lasting 25 days occur with a

Suspended sediment flux in the Gulf of California 749

northwesterly direction in winter and southeasterly

direction in summer. These monsoon-type winds may
reach 13 16 m s
1 in winter and 510 m s
1 in
summer (Gayman, 1969; Green 1969; DelgadoGonzalez et al., 1994). This wind regime generates the
low, steep, short-period waves typical of the northern
Gulf. Significant wave height is only 03 10 m with
a period of 24 s due to limited fetch and wind
duration. Southern swells may arrive 210 times a
year, mainly in late spring, with wave height 115 m
and period 4 7 s. These events last only 624 h
(Gayman, 1969).
Numerical modelling studies, supported by hydrographic observations indicate that tidal mixing is
responsible for the generally vertically homogeneous
character in the shallow areas of the Upper Gulf
(Argote et al., 1995). The vertically mixed waters
extend southeast to depths between 30 and 60 m
where a thermal front has been regarded as the
boundary (Durazo-Arvizu, 1989; Argote et al., 1998).
Indirect evidence suggests that a cyclonic
residual circulation is generated in the Upper Gulf
(Hendrickson, 1973; Hernandez-Ayon et al., 1993). A
similar pattern was reported by Marinone (1997),
through numerical modelling of the tidal residual
currents, and also by Carriquiry and Sanchez (1999),
based on calculated sediment transport pathways. The
patterns of suspended sediment plumes observed in
satellite images have been attributed to the eect of
this residual circulation. Carbajal et al., (1997) have
speculated that the transport of sediments to deeper
basins takes place through the mechanism of residual
currents.
Hydrographic surveys and current measurements
reported by Lavn et al. (1998) have revealed that the
Upper Gulf normally behaves like an inverse estuary,
in which salinity and density increase toward the head
throughout the year, despite reversal of the temperature gradient from summer to winter. As in other
inverse estuaries, the horizontal density gradients in
the shallow coastal areas of the Upper Gulf are
sustained by intense vertical mixing during spring
tides. During neap tides the decrease in mixing allows,
given the horizontal contrast of density, the onset of
gravity currents: the warmer but saltier and denser
water (t =02) in the shallow, well-mixed regions
flows underneath the colder, fresher and lighter oshore water with a down-slope component and just
near the bed. The same authors reported that the
velocity at 1 and 6 m above the bed was to the
southeast, flowing out of the Upper Gulf at
01 m s
1, similar to geostrophically adjusted
speeds of gravity currents observed in Australian Gulfs
(Nunes & Lennon, 1987).

Observations
The main data set consists of velocity measurements
made during a 15-day deployment of a bottommounted SonTek Acoustic Doppler Profiler (ADP)
in waters 25 m deep. The velocity record consists of
consecutive 5-min averages from 05 m depth bins .
In addition to currents, the sea level, near-bottom
temperature and backscattered acoustic signal
strength were recorded by the ADP. The site (W3) is
located on the western side of the Upper Gulf, 20 km
o the coast of Baja California, and 25 km northwest
of San Felipe, as shown in Figure 1. The mooring was
set inside an 8-km wide trough with the shallow
coastal shelf on the west and a narrow ridge rising
810 m on the east. This long, gently sloping channel
reaches Wagner Basin 40 km to the southeast of the
measurement site.
Vertical profiles were obtained with a Sea-Bird
CTD fitted with a Sea-Tech 10-cm path length transmissometer and a Seapoint optical backscatter sensor
(OBS). Casts were made on board the R/V Francisco
de Ulloa along transects and every half an hour near
the ADP (site W3) over fixed periods. These time
series lasted 48 h during spring tides and only 15 h
during neaps due to poor weather. Water samples
from CTD-mounted bottles were used to measure
SPM concentration by filtering a known volume of the
water sample and by dierential weighing of the dried
filters. Forty-two samples were collected less than
09 km from the ADP site, and the directly measured
SPM concentration range appeared to encompass
most of the spring to neap tide variation observed in
this area.
Additional CTD and OBS profiles were measured
during a preliminary survey in June 1996 in the same
area (site J shown in Figure 1), under spring and
neap tide conditions. The hydrography and current
measurements at 1 and 6 m above the sea bed have
been described by Lavn et al. (1998).

Analysis of data
Velocity
After rejection of near surface ADP data due to signal
reflection or signal-to-noise ratio reduction, useful
velocity bins started at 12 m above the sea bed and
extended up to 16 m. This range represents 60% of
the water column at mean sea level. The velocity
components were projected along the principal
axes corresponding to the directions of maximum
variance and its perpendicular. These directions

750 L. G. Alvarez and S. E. Jones

T 1. Calibration of the optical backscatter sensors
against filtered SPM samples. C (mg l
1), V (volts)

2
log C = 1.1186 + 0.0245 A
2
R = 0.80

1.9

Date

Linear fit equation

R2

Data points

June 1996
August 1997

C=072+9200 V
C=344+1603 V

099
092

5
371

1.8
1.7
log C

1.6
1.5
1.4

coincide with the along-Gulf

orientations, respectively.

and

across-Gulf

1.3
1.2
1.1

Optical backscatter
The voltage V of the CTD-mounted OBS was converted to SPM concentration C (mg l
1) by calibration against filtered water samples. These samples
were obtained throughout the Upper Gulf in the
August 1997 intensive cruise. During the preliminary
cruise in June 1996, a near-bottom water sample was
brought on board for calibrating the OBS under
laboratory conditions. Results of the least squares fits
are given in Table 1. Time series of the vertical
profiles of SPM concentrations were then obtained
every half-hour at sites W3 and J during spring and
neap tides.
Acoustic signal strength
The ADP stored the raw acoustic signal strength
backscattered from particulate matter in the water.
After conversion to decibels, the signal strength was
corrected for water sound absorption and geometric
spreading of the acoustic beams (SonTek Technical
Notes, 1997). The corrected signal strength from the
three beams was averaged and normalized by the
minimum value of the data set. Corrected signal
strength from selected range cells between 3 and 15 m
above the transducers was extracted at suitable times.
These values were compared to SPM concentrations measured from water samples collected at corresponding times and depths. A linear regression
procedure yielded the calibration curve:
log10C=111860070+(0024500040)A,
where C is the concentration of SPM in mg l
1 and A
is the corrected return signal strength in decibels. The
regression parameters are given with 95% confidence
intervals. Figure 2 shows the SPM concentration
values and the regression line that accounted for 80%
of the variance in the data.
Close to the transducers, within the so-called
near-field range, a complex acoustic beam pattern

10
15
20
Acoustic strength (dB)

25

30

F 2. Measured SPM concentration vs ADP signal

strength (circles). The regression line (solid line) is shown
with the 68% confidence interval (dotted lines).

develops. It deviates from the spherical spreading of

the far-field, in which the acoustic signal strength is
inversely proportional to the range (r) from the transducers. The boundary between the near-field and the
far-field backscatter regions is at a distance r=2/
(Sontek Technical Notes, 1998), where  is the transducer radius and  is the acoustic wavelength. For the
ADP used, r is 125 m. Thorne et al. (1996) have
applied a factor of 2 which in our case yielded the first
three bins within the near-field. Since the suspended
sediment samples for calibration were collected in the
far-field region, only signal strength values measured
27 m from the sea-bed and above were used for
estimating SPM concentrations and fluxes. Instantaneous horizontal fluxes between 27 and 107 m
above the sea-bed were obtained as the product of
velocity times SPM concentration (C) at 05 m increments. Vertically integrated instantaneous fluxes were
z2

calculated by numerically integrating Cdz, where

z1

z1=27 m and z2=107 m above the sea-bed, with

05 m increments. Further calculations yielded instantaneous and time averages of along-gulf (principal
axis) and across-gulf fluxes during spring and neap
tides and over the full fortnightly cycle.

Results
Variable winds less than 6 m s
1 prevailed during the
15-day deployment period (1227 August, 1997).
Direction changed from NW to SE within a few hours
but the most frequent were southerly winds, blowing
over 80% of the time. Moderate southerly wind events

Suspended sediment flux in the Gulf of California 751

610 m s
1, lasting 1 day, occurred during neap

tides on 12 August, and again on 14, 23 and 24
August. Maximum period and wave height, visually
estimated, were 45 s and 1 m respectively, during
these events.

1996, at site J (Figure 5). The high concentrations

were observed within 6 m from the sea bed, with a
20 mg l
1 maximum near the bed. A weak resuspension is evident when currents were stronger, flowing
out from the Upper Gulf.

Hydrographic setting

CTD transects

Spring-tide time series of temperature, salinity and

sigma-t profiles are shown in Figure 3 which only
displays a 15 h interval. The temperature, salinity and
density variation is small (302308 C, 362364,
and 223227 sigma-t units, respectively). The nearly
vertical isolines indicate that well mixed conditions
prevailed from near the bottom to near the surface.
Slight stratification involving a vertical temperature
rise of 05 C was observed close to the surface during
most of the daylight hours, possibly the eect of solar
heating. This increase in temperature reflects a transient buoyant layer near the surface, as revealed by the
sigma-t structure.
The neap-tide time series, despite being limited to
15 h, shows contrasting patterns especially close to the
sea bed (Figure 4). A denser near-bottom layer 58 m
thick was overlaid by an almost homogeneous less
dense water. The near-bed water was up to 05 C
warmer and 06 more saline than the upper layer. The
density changed 0203 sigma-t units across a 2-m
thick interface that displayed a wave-like pattern. At
the end of the series the interface spread upward over
most of the water column. The weakening of the
vertical density gradient at the end coincided with the
onset of strong southerly winds and rough seas that
prevented longer observations.

Figure 1 shows the location of two CTD along-gulf

transects made in this area, 1 to 2 days after the neap
tides. Transect A was made along the depression in
which the time series were obtained. Transect B was
made along the next depression further East, to
depths of about 100 m, at the edge of Wagner Basin.
Salinity, sigma-t and SPM distributions are given in
Figure 6. These transects were made at dierent
stages of the tide. However, both transects show
higher values toward the shallow depths in the head of
the Upper Gulf. Denser, more saline and turbid water
remained close to the sea-bed. At a depth of 50 m this
water left the bottom and intruded into the ambient
fluid, with a sigma-t value near 224, as shown in
Figure 6(b). The high salinity and turbid water that
became detached from the sea-bed could be traced as
a subsurface maximum to at least 10 km away from
the point of detachment.

SPM concentration
High SPM concentrations were found near the seabed, decreasing upwards, as shown in Figures 3 and 4.
This indicates that the source of SPM was the sea-bed
sediment resuspended by the tidal currents. The
maximum concentration during spring tides reached
85 mg l
1 close to the sea-bed (Figure 3), while near
surface values were 5 mg l
1. The highest near-bed
concentrations were only 25 mg l
1 during neap tides
(Figure 4). The spring-tide time series show a clear
tidal resuspension signal in which periodic concentration peaks coinciding with maximum flow extended
over most of the water column. A dierent pattern is
evident in the 15-h time series during neap tides: the
high SPM concentration layer was constrained to a
near-bottom layer, 58 m thick, showing only a weak
resuspension signal. Similar conditions prevailed during the 2-day long neap tide SPM observations of June

Currents
Currents were mainly tidal, semidiurnal and nearly
unidirectional, with the principal axis trending NW to
SE. Velocity was modulated fortnightly, reaching
amplitudes of 08 m s
1 during spring tides, and
decreasing to 01 m s
1 during neap tides. The
velocity gradually decreased toward the sea-bed
within an oscillatory bottom boundary layer. The tidal
current reversal nearly vanished during neap tides at
the beginning and again at the end of the fortnight
cycle. The outcome was net outflow from the Upper
Gulf (negative velocity) within a layer 78 m thick,
next to the sea-bed. This outstanding feature of the
flow was due to a gravity current flowing alongchannel with its core centred 45 m above the bottom.
The speed at the core varied between near zero and
02 m s
1 over at least four semidiurnal cycles.
SPM fluxes
At levels between 27 and 107 m above the sea-bed,
instantaneous along-gulf SPM fluxes based on the
ADP backscattered signal reached 30 g m
2 s
1
during spring tides and 
6 g m
2 s
1 during neap
tides. The time series of instantaneous SPM fluxes
display a marked springneap modulation at all the

752 L. G. Alvarez and S. E. Jones

30
25

.7

30.8
30.3 30.6
30

30

20

Temperature (C)

30

.2

.4

30.3

30.5

15

30.3

30.2

10
5
0
30
Salinity
25

36.2

20
36.3

36.2

36.3

10

36.2

Distance above sea-bed (m)

15

0
30
25

22.3

22.4

20

22.5

22.5

15

22.6

10
22.6

5
0
30
50 cm s

SPM (mg l )

25
20

14

14

15

30
38

10

38 46
18

20

22

30

0
14
16
18 August

22

30 38 46 54

30
30

46

22

00
02
19 August

04

F 3. Temperature, salinity, sigma-t and SPM concentration fields measured at site W3, in August 1997, during spring
tides. Along-gulf velocity vectors drawn in the lower frame are at 12 m and 15 m above the sea-bed. Arrows pointing to the
left indicate outflow from the Upper Gulf. Casts were made every half-hour.

Suspended sediment flux in the Gulf of California 753

30
Temperature (C)

30 30.5
.6

15

30.4

30.6

30.6

20

30.5

25

10
30.7

30.8

30.8

0
30
Salinity

36.3

10

36.5

36.5
36.9

36.7

0
30

22.6

.7

22.6

22.7

22.7

22

10

22.5

22.4

15

22.5

20

22.5

22.5

25

22.5

Distance above sea-bed (m)

36.3

36.3

15

36.3

36.3

36.3

20

36.1

25

22.8

0
30

SPM (mg l )

25 cm s
25

20
15
10
5
0

10
18
22

22
11 August

14
00
02
12 August

10

10
14 18

18
04

06

22
08

10

12

F 4. Temperature, salinity, sigma-t and SPM concentration fields measured at site W3, in August 1997, during neap
tides. Along-gulf velocity vectors drawn in the lower frame are at 12 m and 15 m above the sea-bed. Arrows pointing to the
left indicate outflow from the Upper Gulf. Casts were made every half-hour.

754 L. G. Alvarez and S. E. Jones

1

50 cm s

SPM (mg l )

Distance above sea-bed (m)

20

16

12

8
4
4

4
8

8
12

16

16
0
12
08
24 June

16

20

00
04
25 June

08

12

12

16

16
20

20 16
00
04
26 June

12
08

F 5. SPM concentration vs time and height measured at site J in June 1996, during neap tides. Along-gulf velocity
vectors are drawn at 1 m and 5 m above the sea-bed. Arrows pointing to the left indicate outflow from the Upper Gulf. Casts
were made every half-hour.

measurement levels. This modulation can be seen in

the time series of instantaneous fluxes measured 52 m
above the sea-bed, at the level of the maximum gravity
current flow (Figure 7). Spring tide fluxes were nearly
symmetric about zero, except during neap tides, when
fluxes were predominantly out of the Upper Gulf
(
), reaching up to 6 g m
2 s
1. Vertically integrated instantaneous fluxes yielded maximum transport per unit width near
40 g m
1 s
1 during neap
tides, 290 g m
1 s
1 during spring tides, and an
average of
12 g m
1 s
1 over the full fortnightly
cycle.
In addition to the ADP time series, calibrated OBS
profiles from site W3 have provided independent
SPM concentrations and instantaneous flux calculations for two short periods during spring and neap
tides. Fluxes estimated from both ADP and OBS
measurements are in good agreement, as shown in
Figure 8, which shows time series of fluxes at 52 m
above the bed. Along-gulf fluxes during the 15-h
neap-tide series show maximum near
6 g m
2 s
1.
These figures are also similar to the neap-tide maximum flux (
5 g m
2 s
1) measured 6 m above the
sea-bed at site J during the two-day preliminary survey
in June, 1996.
Figure 9 shows time-averaged instantaneous flux
profiles. The average over a springneap cycle (147
days) yielded a residual flux out of the Upper Gulf, as
shown in Figure 9(b). This residual flux is one order
of magnitude smaller than the maximum instantaneous fluxes. The remarkable contrast between
spring- and neap-tide fluxes is better shown by

averaging the fluxes under each tide condition. Since

the neap-tide outflow events lasted around three days,
the average over six semidiurnal cycles was obtained
for each tide condition. It was found that near-zero
residual SPM fluxes prevailed during spring tides
[Figure 9(c)], while during neap tides they reached

25 g m
2 s
1 [Figure 9(a)]. The average fluxes
during spring tides show only a very weak vertical
structure. In contrast, the average fluxes during neap
tides display a significant maximum at 4 m above the
sea-bed, which is the same level as the maximum
velocity of the gravity current.

Discussion
There has been considerable interest recently in
converting acoustic signal strength measured by
acoustic Doppler current profilers to SPM concentration (Jones et al., 1994; Thorne et al., 1996;
Holdaway et al., 1999). The calibration methods
adopted have ranged from obtaining simple height
dependent calibration coecients to full consideration
of particle size dependence and attenuation of the
signal received from a given layer by SPM in the
intervening layers. Most studies have concluded that
the technique is sensitive to variations in particle size,
and it has been shown that SPM attenuation can act
to increase apparent concentrations by up to 26%
in high concentration environments (Holdaway
et al., 1999). This study considers spreading and
attenuation by water but not by SPM; nevertheless, a

Suspended sediment flux in the Gulf of California 755

(a)

(b)
69

70

71

72

73

37.0 36.5

10
20

.0

65

64

63

62

61

36

60

36.

30
0

10

20

30

40

40
50

35.5
35.4

60
70

Depth (m)

59

35.5

.5

20

36.

Salinity

30

66

67
0
37
10

36.0

Depth (m)

68
0

68
69
0
2
2
23. .5
0
10

70

71

73

72

22

.5

20

Salinity

66
67
0
23.022.5
10

65

64

63

62

61

22.0

60

59

22.0

20

30

t
0

30
10

20

30

40

40
50
22.5

60
70

69

71

72

73

66

67
0

65

64

10

20

10

25

10
20

63

62

10

30
0

10

20
30
Distance (km)

40

60

59

5
5

SPM (mg l )

30

61

5
15

20

20

25

10

10

70

15

Depth (m)

68
0

23.0

10
10

40
50
60

70
80

SPM (mg l )
0

10

20

30
40
Distance (km)

50

60

F 6. Vertical distributions of salinity, sigma-t and SPM concentration measured on 14 August, 1997. (a) transect A and
(b) transect B shown in Figure 1.

convincing calibration has been found using samples

from a range of heights above the bed.
At short ranges (15 m) and low concentrations
(<1000 mg l
1), the attenuation of the acoustic signal
by suspended fine sand is only slight. This eect can

be neglected in estuarine sediment suspensions if

concentrations are less than 100 mg l
1 (Thorne
et al., 1993). In our measurements, the range was
longer and the concentrations were lower: maximum
spring tide concentrations 1 m above the sea-bed

756 L. G. Alvarez and S. E. Jones

40

30

SPM flux (g m

2 1

s )

20

10

10

20

30

40

12

14

16

18

20
August 1997

22

24

26

28

F 7. Instantaneous horizontal SPM fluxes derived from ADP data, 52 m above the sea-bed (the level of the gravity
current core), at site W3. Along-gulf (solid line) and across-gulf (dotted line) fluxes are 5-min averages.

reached 85 mg l
1 only during short time intervals.

Farther up, near the top of the water column
analysed, concentrations were 50% lower. Hence,
attenuation by suspended particles was assumed to be
small. However, uncertainties introduced by changes
in the particle size may be important in natural
environments. Since bed sediments of the Upper Gulf
are poorly sorted, changes in the bed stress due to the
oscillatory tidal current are likely to change the size
distribution of suspended sediments. Moreover, the
presence of fine silts and clays is expected to cause
flocculation and therefore increase the eective
particle size. Our measurements were not sucient
for a detailed evaluation of these eects; however, a
comparison with earlier studies has provided bounds
for the expected uncertainties in concentration.
Thorne et al. (1991) have accounted for the eect of
variable particle size by introducing a constant k0 that
incorporates the scattering properties of the particles
in suspension. In their study, the particle size varied
from 55 to 210
m and the detection range was up to
1 m using a 3 MHz system. A change in particle size

by a factor of four produced 20% change in k0. It

was also estimated that a 10% uncertainty in k0
translated into a 20% uncertainty in concentration
values. During our observations the median particle
size near the bed varied within a factor of four (40 to
180
m) throughout the springneap cycle (Jones
et al., in preparation). Therefore we can expect that
uncertainties in the acoustically estimated concentration were less than 50% in the lower levels of the
concentration profiles, and it can be assumed that the
eects of variable particle size and attenuation by
suspended sediment have introduced uncertainties
having magnitude similar to the error of the regression
equation. Conversion of ADP signal strength to SPM
concentration has therefore allowed the estimation of
instantaneous and time-averaged horizontal fluxes of
SPM between 27 and 107 m above the bed under
contrasting flow and SPM concentration conditions
during a fortnightly cycle. A more detailed calibration may be needed before finer details of the
temporal and vertical variation of flux profiles can be
relied upon.

Suspended sediment flux in the Gulf of California 757

20

20

SPM flux (g m

2 1

s )

(a)

(c)

10

10

10

10

20

10

20

30

40

20

20

s )

2 1

SPM flux (g m

20

30

40

40
(b)

(d)

10

20

10

20

20

10

40
10
20
30
Time (h) after 21:00 11 August 1997

40

40
10
20
30
Time (h) after 14:00 17 August 1997

F 8. Instantaneous SPM fluxes measured 52 m above the bed at site W3, obtained from OBS (dotted line) and ADP
backscatter (solid line): (a), (b) are across-gulf and along-gulf during neap tides; (c), (d) are across-gulf and along-gulf during
spring tides. The vertical axis scale in (d) is twice as large as in the first three.

The near-bed region could not be calibrated using

the method described as no concentration samples
were collected in this near-field region of the transducers. This region may contribute significantly to depthintegrated fluxes as measured concentration profiles
often indicate sharp increases toward the bed. However, currents decrease rapidly in this region and the
flux profiles during periods of high flux indicate a
maximum at 4 m above the bed, well above the limit
of measurement. Therefore, it is likely that the main
features of near-bed flux have been measured in this
study.
It is unlikely that the short-crested waves observed
during the survey contributed significantly to the
resuspension and transport of sea bed sediments 25 m
deep. Linear theory predicts that the maximum orbital
velocity due to 15 m waves at 5 s intervals is less than
002 m s
1 at this depth. According to Gayman
(1969), the prevailing sea breeze waves probably do

not stir up sea-bed sediments in water depths more

than wavelength. The wave action of a 4 s wave is
limited to a depth of 6 m. Waves of longer periods are
rare.
The large range of the barotropic tide in the Upper
Gulf generates fast currents and large horizontal tidal
excursions that, during spring tides, reach 10 km near
the surface. However, according to numerical
models, tidal residual flows of barotropic character
in the Upper Gulf are 001 m s
1. (Carbajal,
1993; Argote et al., 1998; Marinone, 1997). Therefore, residual displacement of a particle due to tides is
less than 05 km in one semidiurnal period
and SPM fluxes produced by this mechanism are
approximately 03 g m
2 s
1. Gravity currents, first
observed in this region by Lavn et al. (1998), are
shown here to produce near-bed fluxes which, despite
their short duration, are one order of magnitude larger
than those induced by tidal residual currents, at least
1
4

758 L. G. Alvarez and S. E. Jones

15

Height above bed (m)

Mean sea level at

25 m above bed
(a)

(b)

(c)

10

0
3

2.5

2 1.5 1 0.5
0
2 1
SPM horizontal flux (g m s )

0.5

F 9. Profiles of time-averaged instantaneous alonggulf SPM fluxes measured at site W3 in August 1997: (a)
averaged over six semidiurnal cycles in neap tides, (b)
averaged over 147 days, and (c) averaged over six semidiurnal cycles in spring tides. Negative values indicate fluxes
out of the Upper Gulf and the dashed lines indicate the 68%
confidence interval.

during summer. Therefore, the gravity current can be

expected to be the main cause of SPM flux during
each neap tide, and hence to contribute significantly
to net fluxes during summer. Furthermore, the
salinity observed in Wagner Basin has been explained
in terms of water mass formation occurring throughout the year, in the shallow areas. The dense, high
salinity water mass flows down-slope toward the basin
as sporadic gravity current pulses (Lavn et al., 1998).
Thus, sediment fluxes induced by the near-bottom
gravity current may occur not only during summer,
but all through the year. The present study has
revealed that a net transport of fine sediments is
occurring out of the Upper Gulf. However, contrary
to what has been speculated, the barotropic tidal
residual is not the main cause. The baroclinic gravity
current was found here to be the dominant mechanism for near-bed SPM flux toward deeper waters.
The bathymetry shows several narrow along-gulf
submarine ridges up to 40 km long and 15 m high.
The ridges o Baja California form 5 to 10 km wide
channels having an asymmetric cross section with
gentler slopes on the western side (Figure 1). By
joining the head of the Upper Gulf with the Wagner
Basin, these channels must play an important role in
along- and across-gulf exchange processes, especially
in those that take place near the bed. As suggested in
Figure 6(b), sediments in suspension seem to be
conveyed through the channels to the deeper waters of
Wagner Basin. The transect made along the second
channel o Baja California revealed a down-channel

decrease of SPM concentration, in support of this

idea. The horizontal intrusion of turbid water at 50 m
depth indicates that part of the suspended sediment
load reached the edge of the Wagner Basin, while
another fraction seems to have settled along the current path. If sediments are settling mainly on the
western side of the channel, an asymmetric crosssection would develop in the long term. This process
could also explain the seaward growth of the shallow
western shelf, in agreement with the suggestion by
Carriquiry and Sanchez (1999) that this shelf is a
slowly prograding feature.
One can speculate on an asymmetric sediment
deposition based on rotation eects. The earths rotation constrains a gravity current to flow along the
western boundary of a channel (in the Northern
Hemisphere) if time and space scales are suciently
large. A crude estimate can be made to test whether
the conditions in the Upper Gulf would allow for this
adjustment: The shallow head and western side of the
Upper Gulf are the sources of heavier water which is
02 sigma-t units denser than the water found
further oshore (Lavn et al., 1998). By taking a 10 m
water depth, the internal Rossby radius of deformation gives a cross-flow scale of less than 4 km, which is
about half the width of the channels and about one
tenth their length. Since the time scale for geostrophic
adjustment is 1 day (2/f) and the gravity current
event lasts at least 3 days, then this current could
evolve into a flow along the western boundary of the
channels. This type of buoyancy driven flow along a
boundary has been observed in laboratory rotating
tanks by Wadhams et al. (1979) and Griths and
Hopfinger (1983), among others. Thus, a plausible
explanation for the eastward progradation of the western boundary of the channels involves the settling of
suspended load that the gravity current transports
mainly along the western side of the wide along-gulf
depressions. More observations at adequate scales are
needed before a precise evaluation of this concept can
be made.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Rafael Ramrez, Vctor
Godnez, Salvador Sanchez, Neil Fisher and David
Probert for their assistance with the intensive field
and laboratory work. The technical support of Juan
Francisco Moreno is also acknowledged. Thanks
are given to the crew on R/V Francisco de Ulloa of
CICESE, under the command of Capt. Gerardo
Sanchez. NOAA wind data were made available by T.
Gerrodette. Jose Ochoa and two anonymous reviewers
provided useful comments and suggestions to improve

Suspended sediment flux in the Gulf of California 759

the manuscript. This study was funded by the Consejo

Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologa of Mexico (grant
3007P-T).
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