A comprehensive study about alongshore wave energy flux in the coast of Buenos Aires, Argentina

Alongshore wave energy flux (Pl) was analysed for the coast of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Pl is frequently used to estimate the alongshore sediment transport rate. Pl was estimated from simulated offshore wave parameters obtained from a validated regional SWAN model forced by NCEP/NCAR I, NCEP/DOE II, ERA-Interim and JRA-25 global reanalysis for the year 2005. It was obtained that Pl flows eastwards/northeastwards and increases irregularly from Bahía Blanca to Mar del Plata. Negative and positive space imbalances in Pl along the coast could explain the natural erosive and constructive processes detected between Mar del Plata and Punta Médanos. High inter-annual variability was noted in Pl data series computed from simulated wave parameters using SWAN model forced by NCEP/NCAR I for the period 1980–2012. Anomalous Pl values were detected in 1983, 1993 and 1998 which are in agreement with reported ENSO events. Concluding, the applied methodology seems to constitute a very reasonable alternative to study the space and time variability of Pl at the Buenos Aires coast, between Bahía Blanca and Punta Médanos.Fil: Echevarría, Emilio Roque. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y los Océanos; ArgentinaFil: Dragani, Walter Cesar. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y los Océanos; ArgentinaFil: Wörner, Stefania. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y los Océanos; Argentina. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; Argentin

Meteorite impacts in the ocean: the danger of tsunamis on the coast of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina

Comets, meteorites, or asteroids impacting against the Earth are not unusual events. Such impacts on the ocean could produce tsunamis which can reach coastal areas. This paper aimed to analyze the tsunami wave heights on the coast of Buenos Aires Province produced by a meteorite impact in the South Atlantic Ocean. This subject is carried out using a simplified analytical model based on the energy flux conservation. The worst scenario was obtained in the case of the meteorite falling at the deepest continental slope edge, on a transect orientated normally to Mar del Plata coast (around 42° S–54° W). The hazard would quickly decrease if the meteorite impacted farther this location. It was also inferred that, if the meteorite fell on the Patagonian or Brazilian continental shelves, or in the Pacific, Indian or North Atlantic oceans the dangerousness would be drastically reduced. Finally, the possible implementation of this simple analytical model is analyzed in different regions of the World Ocean.Fil: Perez, Iael. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Wörner, Stefania. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Dragani, Walter Cesar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y los Océanos; Argentina. Instituto Franco-Argentino sobre Estudios del Clima y sus Impactos; ArgentinaFil: Bacino, Guido Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; ArgentinaFil: Medina, Rubén. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Ecología, Genética y Evolución de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Ecología, Genética y Evolución de Buenos Aires; Argentin

An Estimation of the Possible Migration Path of the Pacific Oyster (Crassostrea gigas) Along the Northern Coast of Patagonia

In 1981, the Pacific oyster Crassostrea (Magallana) gigas was illegally introduced for aquaculture purposes in San Blas Bay located on the southern coast of Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. The presence and colonization of oysters north of Río Negro Province, 100 km to the southwest of San Blas Bay, was reported in 2005. There remains a controversy about whether or not the oyster was capable of migrating southwest to Río Negro Province from San Blas Bay, which motivates the present investigation. While one part of the local community supports that the Pacific oyster migrated naturally southwestwards reaching the northern coast of Río Negro in 2005, another faction denies this hypothesis. The aim of this work is to determine whether or not the planktonic larvae of this invasive species could have reached the mouth of Río Negro. We assume that the oyster can produce larvae after 2 years of being set on the bottom and the larvae can drift as zooplankton during 1 month. Longshore mean current was considered as the single forcing in natural transporting of oyster larvae along the coast. Shallow water wave parameters were computed from deep water wave parameters obtained from the Simulated WAves Nearshore (SWAN) model driven by NCEP/NCAR I global reanalysis. The migration path was computed from longshore current intensities, which were estimated using the modified experimental expression given by Longuet-Higgins. Results obtained in this paper support the possibility that the Pacific oyster larvae could have arrived at Río Negro Province, between 2002 and 2005.Fil: Wörner, Stefania. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Dragani, Walter Cesar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Echevarría, Emilio Roque. Universidad de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Ministerio de Defensa. Armada Argentina. Servicio de Hidrografía Naval; ArgentinaFil: Carrasco, Mauro Fabián. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia "San Juan Bosco"; Argentina. Universidad de Chubut; Argentina. Provincia de Chubut. Secretaría de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación Productiva; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Baron, Pedro Jose. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia "San Juan Bosco"; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Centro Nacional Patagónico. Centro para el Estudio de Sistemas Marinos; Argentin