1. SEDIMENT TRANSPORT PROCESSES ON THE CONTINENTAL SHELF OF NORTHWEST FLORIDA
This project involves the development and deployment of a dedicated submersible instrument platform to monitor the hydrodynamics (waves and currents) on the inner and mid-continental shelf of northwest Florida. A preliminary geophysical survey identified the presence of transverse ridges on the inner-shelf that are statistically coherent with the height and extent of dune development on the adjacent barrier island. As a result the ridges appear to be an important control on the response of the island to tropical storms and hurricanes.
While the formation of the ridges remains unclear, their relationship with the island morphology suggests that the inner-shelf stratigraphy and morphology is dominated by shoreface and shelf processes and not terrestrial processes as originally thought. Deployment of the transport station in early 2008 will help to determine how these ridges evolve over a range of wave activity and the resulting shelf morphology and stratigraphy.