Potential transport pathways of terrigenous material in the Gulf of Papua

Abstract

This work discusses potential transport pathways of terrigenous material in the Gulf of Papua (GoP), New Guinea, using Lagrangian tracers as proxies for clay minerals and finer particles. The tracers are transported by currents from the East Asia Seas implementation of the Navy Coastal Ocean Model. The results suggest that clay minerals input from rivers along the northwest coast of the GoP accumulate on the inner shelf with high concentrations near the mouth of the Fly and Purari Rivers. Finer particles, which are also representative of dissolved metals, are transported eastward along the GoP coast into the Solomon Sea as well as into the Torres Strait to the west. The results also suggests that some finer particles are entrained by eddies within the northern Coral Sea. These results are in qualitative agreement with observations from the region. Copyright 2006 by the American Geophysical Union.