HYDRODYNAMIC ANALYSIS OF CIRCULATION AND ORIENTATION OF LAKES IN NORTHERN ALASKA

• Main Author: Rex,R. W.
• Other Authors: ARCTIC INST OF NORTH AMERICA MONTREAL (QUEBEC)
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1961
• Subjects: (*LAKES; ALASKA); (*HYDRODYNAMICS; LAKES); HYDROLOGY; WIND; LAKE WAVES; MARINE GEOPHYSICS; GRAPHICS; Arctic; Barrow; Alaska
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/AD0617969; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=AD0617969

The systematic orientation of elliptical lakes occurring in the unconsolidated sediments of the Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska has been attributed by some investigators to winds blowing along their major axes (Black and Barksdale, 1948) and by others to winds blowing along their minor axes (Livingston, 1954; Mackey, 1956a, b, 1957, 1958; Zenkovitch, 1959). The application of hydrodynamic principles resolves this question in favour of orientation of the lake minor axis parallel to the dominant wind direction. Details of predicting lake waves and computing longshore currents, orbital velocities associated with shoaling waves, orbital velocities required to move sediments, and equilibrium shoreline configurations are presented with an example for the Barrow area of Alaska. Data are provided so that the reader may repeat these computations for other cases. Although the area studied here is in the Arctic, the same hydrodynamic principles apply to oriented lakes, bays, and lagoons elsewhere in the world. One may reverse this line of reasoning and utilize geomorphological evidence to make meteorological deductions. The details of Black and Barksdale's (1948) descriptions of the Alaskan lakes suggest that the summer intensity of the polar northeasterly winds is decreasing and that there has been a recent increase of southerly winds. (Author) Research supported in part by Office of Naval Research, Washington, D. C. Pub. in mono. Geology of the Arctic, Toronto, 1961 p1021-43 (Copies available only to DDC users).