This project is a laboratory study of the incorporation of ocean bottom sediment into a sea ice cover. Such a phenomenon is widely observed in the shallow waters of the Beaufort sea off the northern coast of Alaska where the sea ice may contain large concentrations of fine-grained sediment. The included sediment has a significant effect on the transmission of light through the ice and thus affects marine biological processes beneath the ice. The mechanics of the process by which sediments are entrained and concentrated are poorly understood. Preliminary studies and laboratory tests indicate that wave action predominates in transporting suspended sediment to the ice cover. This project will develop a theoretical model of such a transport mode and test the model with an oscillating wave tank which will quantify the retained sediment as a function of wave frequency and experiment duration. The expectation is that the experimental data will allow a prediction of the subsequent sediment concentration in the natural environment as a function of regional climatic conditions and the ocean wave and current regime.
