You don’t have to go all the way to Antarctica to do exciting oceanographic fieldwork! This week I’m lucky enough to bring a bunch of enthusiastic students out on Krisitin Bonnevie to explore the fjord “Bjørnafjorden” just South of Bergen. Many of them have never been at sea before, but a week of CTD’s and moorings and they are ready to go just about anywhere!
One of the aims of the cruise is too try to solve the puzzle with the mysterious tidal currents in Lukksundet… Lukksundet is a narrow strait connecting the Bjørnafjord to the Hardangerfjord in the south. The tidal currents are very strong here – nothing strange with that – what’s strange is that they turn every two hours!
The tides along the coast of Norway are semi-diurnal; there are two high tides and two low tides a day. We’d expect the tidal currents to have the same periodicity (i.e. to change direction every sixth hour), but to be shifted in time so that maximum tidal currents occur in between high and low tides. Obviously, something more complicated is happening in Lukksundet! I’ve got an hypothesis about what is going on… do you?
The students have deployed moorings within and around the strait, and hopefully we’ll be able to resolve the riddle when we retrieve the data on another student cruise to the fjord a month from now!
The students have posted photos and a film from the cruise here!
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