Intrusions and turbulent mixing above a small Eastern Mediterranean seafloor-slope

TL;DR

This study investigates turbulent mixing above a small seafloor slope in the Eastern Mediterranean, revealing buoyancy-driven convection as a key turbulence mechanism in weakly stratified layers away from steep topography.

Contribution

It provides observational evidence of turbulence characteristics and mechanisms above flat topography, highlighting buoyancy-driven convection as dominant in such environments.

Findings

Turbulence is weaker than above steep slopes but stronger than in open ocean.

Instabilities are short-lived, indicating local buoyancy-driven convection.

Turbulence occurs mainly near the seafloor in weakly stratified layers.

Abstract

Growing evidence is found in observations and numerical modelling of the importance of steep seafloor topography for turbulent diapycnal mixing leading to redistribution of suspended matter and nutrients, especially in waters with abundant internal tides. One of the remaining questions is the extent of turbulent mixing away from and above nearly flat topography, which is addressed in this paper. Evaluated are observations from an opportunistic, week-long mooring of high-resolution temperature sensors above a small seafloor slope in about 1200 m water depth of the Eastern Mediterranean. The environment has weak tides, so that near-inertial motions and -shear dominate internal waves. Vertical displacement shapes suggest instabilities to represent locally generated turbulent overturns, rather than partial salinity-compensated intrusions dispersed isopycnally from turbulence near the slope. This conclusion is supported by the duration of instabilities, as all individual overturns last shorter than the mean buoyancy period and sequences of overturns last shorter than the local inertial period. The displacement shapes are more erratic than observed in stronger stratified waters in which shear drives turbulence, and better correspond with predominantly buoyancy-driven convection-turbulence. This convection-turbulence is confirmed from spectral information, generally occurring dominant close to the seafloor and only in weakly stratified layers well above it. Mean turbulence values are 10-100 times smaller than found above steep ocean topography, but 10 times larger than found in the open-ocean interior.