On the Movement of Passive Admixture in a Stratified Zonal Flow Above an Isolated Submarine Guyot

Within the framework of a three-layer quasi-geostrophic model in the f-plane approximation, a numerical study of the effect of an isolated submarine obstacle on the movement of surface, subsurface, and deep patches of a passive admixture transported by a vertically homogeneous zonal current has been carried out. The influence of density stratification and velocity of the external current on size of the topographic vortex forming above the obstacle is investigated. The role of the initial sizes and shapes of admixture patches on the resulting pollution distribution pattern is revealed.