River plumes


Figure 19 : Predicted surface salinity distribution in the plume of the Burdekin River, Great Barrier Reef, during the 1981 flood. This prediction includes headland mixing in order to reproduce the observations of Wolanski (1994). Note the patchiness in the plume. Checked distance scale represents 100km.
Anim 32 : Animation of the predicted surface salinity field in coastal waters of the Great Barrier Reef during the 1981 flood event. The Burdekin River discharge was the largest of all the rivers. The predictions are very sensitive to the initial conditions; in this case a pre-existing river plume was assumed to exist along the coast, this is seen to be quickly swamped by the new plume.


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