the south and the net water movement is northward. Below an indefinite depth water 

 masses are unaffected by wind stress but, may flow in a direction counter to surface water 

 in order to maintain continuity. In general, Bumpus (1965) found a clockwise circulation in 

 the inner bight. He also found that there was a residual bottom current into the estuary 

 which is an expected consequence of less dense freshwater outflow. This same phenomenon 

 is also found in other estuary-ocean systems which have been studied. Littoral drift or 

 longshore transport forms in response to waves impinging at angles to the shoreface. 

 Volumes of sand carried in the breaker zone vary greatly depending on wind and current 

 energy and directions; however, net volumes over a number of years for the same geographic 

 area are fairly constant. Taney (1961), and the U.S. Army, Corps of Engineers (1971), 

 estimate that 450,000 to 600,000 cubic yards of sand (net volume) annually move from east 

 to west for parts of the south shore of Long Island. Caldwell (1966), estimated that a 

 minimum of 500,000 cubic yards of sand is transported northward along the northern New 

 Jersey coast. 



Additional studies on water velocities, directions and overall circulation patterns are 

 being conducted in the Inner New York Bight by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

 Administration (NOAA) as a part of a comprehensive oceanographic research program. 



II. GEOMORPHOLOGY AND SHALLOW SUBBOTTOM STRUCTURE 

 1. Natural Effects. 



a. Continental Shelf Morphology. Sea floor morphology and the features present are 

 complex and varied; their origins are difficult to attribute to simple geologic processes. The 

 Inner New York Bight region is in a very unusual geologic site— it straddles two major 

 geomorphic provinces. Unlike other areas to the north and to the south, it has been 

 influenced by both differential subaerial erosion of the near surface Coastal Plain strata and 

 by several episodes of Pleistocene glaciation. Primary glacial erosion and deposition had a 

 profound effect on this region. The formation and orientation of Long Island, a glacial 

 depositional feature, has reduced the fetch of northeast winds and modified the water 

 currents, waves and tidal actions. These factors have had and still have a profound influence 

 on modifying the inner shelf morphology and surficial sediment distribution since the last 

 major transgression of the sea about 10,000 years B.P. The area is also unusual because of 

 the influence man has had on modifying natural sea floor morphology by dredging channels 

 for cargo vessels and by large-scale waste disposal in the Hudson Channel region. 



A striking feature on the bathymetric chart of the region (Fig. 4) is the Hudson River 

 (submarine) Channel which is a topographic sea floor expression of a deeper buried river 

 channel (shown in the seismic records) connecting the subaerial Hudson River Valley with 

 the deeply incised Hudson Canyon at the Continental Shelf edge. The Hudson Channel 

 system is probably the best defined of all of the channel-canyon systems which dissect the 

 Atlantic Continental Shelf. (Shepard and Dill, 1966.) 



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