How does the Amur River discharge flow over the northwestern continental shelf in the Sea of Okhotsk?

• Behavior of the Amur River runoff was studied with a coupled ice-ocean model.
• Two possible routes carry the river runoff to the dense shelf water (DSW) pathway.
• The runoff, DSW, and the easterly wind geophysically interact to form the routes.

The paths of the Amur River discharge on the continental shelf in the Sea of Okhotsk are still unknown despite their significance in transporting dissolved and particulate iron. In this study, we conduct a coupled ice-ocean simulation for the northern Sea of Okhotsk from June 1998 to September 2000 to answer the question: Does the Amur River discharge deposit materials to the pathway of the dense shelf water? In a series of numerical experiments, we identified two routes (the western and eastern routes) that could transport the river water more than 100 km offshore over the northwestern continental shelf. The two routes share the clockwise gyre in the Sakhalin Gulf and the northeastward flow on the northwestern continental shelf. These features are connected through the westward jet along the slope from the Sakhalin Gulf (the western route) and the northward transport over the shelf break canyon (the eastern route). The river water, the dense shelf water, and the easterly wind are in a fine geophysical balance for those features, and all are required for the formation of the two routes. The model results show that these unique joint effects in the Sea of Okhotsk allow the Amur River discharge to be effectively transported over the northwestern continental shelf, unlike a general river discharge that flows along the coast, and deposit materials into the pathway of the dense shelf water.