EVENTS OF WIND INTENSIFICATION AND RELAXATION IN THE BAY OF SANTA MARTA (COLOMBIAN CARIBBEAN): OCEANOGRAPHIC IMPLICATIONS

Abstract

Events of wind intensification and relaxation bring changes in their components that can be favorable or not to the coastal upwelling because there is a change in the alignment of these with respect to the coast line. In order to assess the oceanographic dynamics in the bay of Santa Marta during 2014 and 2015 in response to changes in the zonal and meridional wind component, wind data were analyzed in an adjacent marine point at Santa Marta’s bay and measurements of temperature, salinity and dissolved oxygen were conducted in the water column during the months of March, May, July, and October 2014 and 2015 at a fixed station in the bay up to 18 m deep. Interannual oceanographic differences were found in March and June, which were explained by intra-seasonal variations in the wind field during 2015; in March alternating events of wind intensification and relaxation occurred with changes in both magnitude and direction, which explain the increases in temperature and water advection from La Guajira with lower oxygen values. In June 2015, an event of wind intensification, associated with changes in magnitude but no direction, was recorded, which explained the decrease in temperature, which was lower than the one in 2014. That month was characterized by strong winds and waves, but the directions were not favorable to the coastal upwelling, which explained that no low values of dissolved oxygen as expected in this type of events were found.