In situ observation of contour currents in the northern South China Sea: Applications for deepwater sediment transport

- First in situ observation of deepwater currents in the northeastern SCS.
- Contour currents in the northern SCS hold a tunnel-like vertical structure.
- Strong inter-seasonal variations of the contour currents observed.
- High SSC in water column occurs during low magnitude of the contour currents.

Deepwater currents and related suspended sediment concentration were obtained by an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP) mooring system in the northern South China Sea from September 2011 to May 2013 to characterize the occurrence of contour currents and to evaluate their sediment transport capacity. Magnitude of the current velocity generally varied in the range of 0-2 cm/s, with a dominant flow direction of ∼250° (southwestward). The observed contour current, defined as the along-slope component of the deepwater currents, has a tunnel-like vertical structure with the largest velocity occurring in the middle of the “tunnel” and decreasing outwards. Both the magnitude and the depth range of the maximum velocity display evident inter-seasonal variations, with the strongest velocity in summer and the weakest in spring, while the thickness of the contour currents was the highest in winter and the lowest in spring. We also found that passing-through of the deep-reaching mesoscale eddies significantly affected the magnitude and direction of the contour currents. The suspended sediment concentration (SSC) estimated from echo intensities of the ADCP is the highest at the near-bottom (>400 μg/L) and decreases upwards to <10 μg/L at water depth shallower than 1750 m. High SSC is mostly observed during periods of low magnitude of the contour currents, suggesting resuspension of sediment from the seafloor is not the major controlling factor of these high-SSC events. Our observation also suggests that the major role that contour currents play is to transport sediment from the sources through keeping sediment suspended above the lower continental slope of the South China Sea.