Journal
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
Volume 43, Issue 3, Pages 1202-1210Publisher
AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION
DOI: 10.1002/2015GL066472
Keywords
turbulence; abyssal mixing; microstructure; equatorial waves
Categories
Funding
- Robert and Marvel Kirby Stanford Graduate Fellowship
- NSF [1256620, 1260312]
- Division Of Ocean Sciences
- Directorate For Geosciences [1256620, 1260312] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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Little is known about mixing in the abyssal equatorial oceans in spite of its inferred importance for upwelling dense water. Here we present full-depth microstructure turbulence profiles obtained in the equatorial Pacific that show evidence for intense wind-generated abyssal mixing. Mixing was intensified over the bottom 700m where the diffusivity reached 10(-3)m(2)s(-1), of similar intensity to mixing driven by tidal flow over rough topography. However, here the mixing was found over smooth topography. We suggest that the intense mixing could have been driven by surface-generated equatorial waves through two possible mechanisms: (1) near-bottom wave trapping as a result of the horizontal component of the Earth's rotation and (2) inertial instability. The generation of lee waves over smooth topography at low latitudes and their subsequent breaking is another viable mechanism for the mixing.
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