Observation of very large and steep internal waves of elevation near the Massachusetts coast

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2004. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 31 (2004): L22307, doi:10.1029/2004GL021052.We report on near-bottom waves of elevation with amplitude nearly half the 25 m water column, very steep, and propagating into a sheared turbulent wave-guide. The waves contained trapped cores transporting parcels of water shoreward. These large waves depart strongly from weakly-nonlinear and weakly-nonhydrostatic conditions and challenge established paradigms. They can also represent an important factor in the across-shore transport of plankton and contaminants.Funding provided by ONR, grants N00014-01-1-0172 and N00014-03-1-0553