The Huanghe (Yellow River) is one of the world's largest in terms of sediment discharge to the ocean (approximately 1.1 billion tons per year) and largest in terms of suspended matter concentration 25 grams per liter. This award will allow retrieval of both river and estuarine data for the Huanghe. The former data set includes measurements of average daily discharge (of water and sediment) at a number of selected stations along the river, from above the loess hills that form the primary sediment source downstream to Kenli (20 kilometers from the river mouth). The estuarine data include hydrographic, current meter and suspend matter observations and samples collected synoptically during three cruises 1984 and 1987 for periods of 2 to 3 days. The river and estuary data both include several stations across the channel cross section, thus allowing proper width-and- averages to be calculated and compared with numerical models. These unique data sets will allow characterization of transport patterns of the Huanghe along its path with respect to time and distance as well as discharge patterns into the adjacent Gulf of Bohai. The present study focuses primarily on the estuary itself: how the sediment discharged at its head propagates through the estuary and is discharged to the delta front.
