Nearshore Sticky Waters

Wind- and current-driven flotsam, oil spills, pollutants, and nutrients, approaching the nearshore will frequently
appear to slow down/park just beyond the break zone, where waves break. Moreover, the portion
of these tracers that beach will do so only after a long time. Explaining why these tracers park and at what
rate they reach the shore has important implications on a variety of different nearshore environmental
issues, including the determination of what subscale processes are essential in computer models for
the simulation of pollutant transport in the nearshore. We propose a
possible explanation, along with a dynamic model description of the underlying mechanism responsible for the parking of tracers, not subject to inertial effects, the
role played by the bottom topography, and the non-uniform dispersion which leads, in some circumstances,
to the eventual landing of all or a portion of the tracers. We refer to the parking phenomenon
in this environment as nearshore sticky waters.