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Subproject 6 of the Canadian Arctic Shelf Exchange Study aimed to understand cross shelf transport of organic and inorganic material from the Mackenzie River delta to the Arctic Basin. Intense field data collection has been followed by numerical modeling for storm resuspension and sediment transport events. The work herein describes the results of both the field collection and the modeling. Critical thresholds of erosion were measured for the first time in this area using two novel pieces of equipment, a pre-calibrated piston grid erosion device and the miniflume, a small annualar flume, which are described. Wave, currents and suspended sediment concentrations have been measured at several locations throughout the shallow delta area and compared with model outputs, focusing on wave energy dissipation and resuspension during an intense storm. Results of the current work are discussed in terms of the conceptual models in which sediments are transported hundreds of km along the Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula, and out to the shelf break.
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