EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (continued) 



significant wave heights in the range of 2 to 4 m. This result illustrated that bottom 

 sediment resuspension at the PDS was not simply a function of surface wave height. 



Detailed analysis of the near-bottom current data during the nine storms revealed 

 that high-frequency oscillatory currents could be induced by large-amplitude surface 

 waves, resulting in relatively high bottom stress and sediment resuspension as confirmed 

 by elevated near-bottom turbidity levels. The field observations of near-bottom turbidity 

 were useful for documenting that sediment resuspension had occurred during a subset of 

 the storms, but the measurement program was not designed to quantify the depth of erosion 

 nor the volume (per unit area) of sediment that had been eroded during the storms. 

 Furthermore, additional analysis and numerical modeling of the data to determine the 

 complex interactions between wave height, period, and duration, the speed and direction of 

 background currents, and the availability of fine-grained bottom sediments on sediment 

 resuspension at the PDS was beyond the scope of this project. 



