Bottom Water - Estuaries

Estuaries

Bottom water by an estuary of a river discharging into a saline body exhibits peculiar transport of mud. Due to fresh/saline water intermixing by the estuary, a horizontal isohale gradient is created, with lower salinity levels upstream, which generates the upstream flow of the bottom water. Mud particles carried by river begin settling down as the current and turbulence decrease. When the particles nearly reach the floor, they are carried back to the head of estuary to accumulate at the point where the salinity of the surface and bottom waters become comparable and the bottom flow decreases. This process results is a distinguished pile of mud at this point.