Role of Near-Bottom Currents in the Distribution of Sediments within the Southern Bay of Campeche, Gulf of Mexico

Can Continental Shelf River Plumes in the Northern and Southern Gulf of Mexico Promote Ecological Resilience in a Time of Climate Change?

“…Though not consistently cyclonic [8], an eddy typically develops in this area in the spring (April) and often persists for the remainder of the year [61]. It is seen in the October 2015 image to be entraining and transporting coastal water with a high Chl-a concentration offshore from the Campeche Bank (Figures 4 and 7D).…”

“…The El Carmen inlet marks the boundary between a terriginous siliciclastic coast and shelf province to the west and the carbonate shelf of the Campeche Bank [61]. From Terminos lagoon to the northern portion of the Yucatan Peninsula, rivers are absent from the landscape.…”

“…Salas-de-Leon [61], however, observed that a cloudy plume issuing from the western, strongly ebb-dominant, 6 km wide El Carmen "inlet" of the Laguna de Terminos often does turn to the right (east) where it influences circulation on the Campeche Bank (Figure 4). With a discharge that can reach 12,000 m 3¨s´1 , largely contributed by the 36 psu Yucatan coastal current that enters the estuary through the eastern Puerto Real inlet, this jet outflow has a greater magnitude than that of all of the UGCPR rivers combined, though with a mean salinity of 22 psu it is less buoyant than the river plumes to the west [56].…”

“…The Palizado distributary of the Usamacinta River, which discharges into the western portion of the Terminos Lagoon near the El Carmen inlet with a flow of 300 to 500 m 3¨s´1 , is responsible for most of the freshwater entrained in the El Carmen outflow. Salas-de-Leon et al [61] concluded that the strength of the El Carmen estuarine jet explains the sharp divide on the adjacent shelf between calcareous muds of the Campeche Bank and the siliciclastic sedimentary province to the west (Figure 4).…”

Provenance discrimination between Atasta and Alvarado beach sands, western Gulf of Mexico, Mexico: Constraints from detrital zircon chemistry and U–Pb geochronology

“…When combined with the nearby Coatzacoalcos River that discharges to the southern Veracruz coast, fluvial input to the Veracruz to Campeche “fertile crescent” rises to 200 km 3 per year (Kemp et al, ). Rivers run‐off in the southwestern Gulf produces a strong stratification of salinity and density that reaches 42 km offshore from the river mouth, affecting the top 15 m of the water column in autumn (Monreal‐Gomez, Salas de León, Padilla Pilotze, & Alatorre Mendieta, ; Salas de león et al, ; Salas‐de‐León et al, ).…”