Does littoral sand bypass the head of Mugu Submarine Canyon? - a modeling study

A newly developed sand-tracer code for the process-based model Delft3D (Deltares, The Netherlands) was used to simulate the littoral transport near the head of the Mugu Submarine Canyon in California, USA. For westerly swells, which account for more than 90% of the wave conditions in the region, the sand tracers in the downcoast littoral drift were unable to bypass the canyon head. A flow convergence near the upcoast rim of the canyon intercepts the tracers and moves them either offshore onto the shelf just west of the canyon rim (low wave height conditions) or into the canyon head (storm wave conditions). This finding supports the notion that Mugu Canyon is the true terminus of the Santa Barbara Littoral Cell.