The Impact
The data collected in 2018 coincided with a large river discharge and sediment input to Bute Inlet from the melting snowpack high in the mountains that surround Bute Inlet. This resulted in an unprecedented number (> 80) of density flows being observed at the mooring closest to the river deltas, some of which potentially merged with one another. The largest of the flows observed during the monitoring period ran out through the full array of instruments over a distance of 40 km from the river mouth and is largest flow that has been directly observed in Bute Inlet to date.
Together with surveys from previous years, these data give valuable new insights into the long-term evolution of the channel system. The high resolution surveys inform us of how channel features, such as crescent-shaped bedforms and knickpoints, evolve under the influence of the density flows. Analysis of the carbon content of the sediment is providing new information regarding the transport and burial of organic carbon by the flows.