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Several transient wave trains containing an isolated plunging or spilling breaker at a prescribed location were generated in a two-dimensional wave flume using an energy focusing technique. Surface elevation measurements of each transient wave train were made at locations before and after breaking. Applying a nonlinear deterministic decomposition approach to the measured elevation, the free-wave components of the transient wave train were derived by excluding the contribution from bound-wave components. The comparison of the amplitude or energy spectra of free-wave components before and after a breaker can accurately reveal the energy dissipation as a function of frequency. It is found that the energy loss is almost exclusively from wave components at frequencies higher than the spectral peak frequency. Although the energy density of the wave components of frequencies near the peak frequency is the largest, they do not significantly gain or lose energy after the breaking. It is also observed that wave components of frequencies significantly below or near the peak frequency gain a small portion (about 12%) of energy lost by the high-frequency waves. These findings are quite different from the empirical formulas presently used for determining wave dissipation due to wave breaking. Hence, they have important implications to the ocean wave energy budget, specially to the energy transfer at frequencies below and near the spectral peak frequency.

Hydrographic data from the Gulf of Mexico (gulf) provide evidence that a western boundary current was set up by the interaction of an anticyclonic Loop Current (LC) ring with the continental margin of the western gulf during March-August 1985. The March 1985 geostrophic circulation reveals a remnant anticyclonic ring colliding with the slope. During this collision, two cyclonic rings were shed as the anticyclone transferred vorticity to the surrounding slope water. During July-August 1985, the ring triad weakened and evolved into a ∼900-km-long, north flowing, along-slope, western boundary current and cyclonic-anticyclonic ring pairs distributed throughout the central and western gulf. This western boundary current attained maximum northward flow speeds of 25 cm s−1 and an 8.3-Sv mass transport between 94°–96°W at 25°N. Our March-August 1985 observations reveal that the residence time and decay period of LC anticyclones in the western gulf may exceed 150 days. Within this time period the western gulf's cyclonic-anticyclonic vorticity field decayed ∼50%. Thus the western boundary current's evolutionary period, from its gestation to its absolute decay, is estimated to be of the order of 300 days. Although the presence of a western boundary current in the gulf has been attributed to the annual wind stress curl cycle [Sturges, 1993], our analyses of the western gulf March and July-August 1985 ring-driven geostrophic circulation and corresponding (January, February and May, June 1985) monthly mean synoptic wind stress curl distributions reveal that these constitute competing forcing mechanisms for the gulf's regional circulation. However, when very strong local forcing such as large eddies are present, the wind-driven background circulation is overwhelmed by such eddy forcing.

The winter water mass distributions in the western Gulf of Mexico, affected by the collision of a Loop Current anticyclonic ring, during January 1984 are analyzed. Two principal modes of Gulf Common Water (GCW) formation, arising from the dilution of the Caribbean Subtropical Underwater (SUW), are identified. Within the western gulf continental slope to the east of Tamiahua, the GCW is formed by the collision of anticyclonic rings. During these collision events, the SUW, entrapped at the core (200 m depth) of these features, is diluted by low salinity (36.1≤S≤36.3‰) water from the uppermost layer of the main thermocline. The end product of this mixture is GCW, which is further diluted by low salinity coastal water within the western gulf continental shelf. The second GCW formation mode is associated to the northerly wind stress which propagates over the western gulf during winter. During January, 1984, this wind stress gave rise to a 175 m mixed layer. This convective mixing destroyed the static stability of the summer thermocline and allowed for the partial dilution of the SUW with low salinity (S≤36.3‰) water from the western gulf continental shelf. Within the western gulf's upper 2000 m, the following water masses were identified to be present: GCW, SUW, Tropical Atlantic Central Water and associated dissolved oxygen minimum stratum, Antarctic Intermediate Water remnant, a mixture of the Caribbean Intermediate Water and the upper portion of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW), and the NADW itself. The topographic distribution of these water masses' strata was dictated by the cyclonic-anticyclonic baroclinic circulation that evolved from the anticyclone's collision to the east of Tamiahua. Between the cyclonic and anticyclonic domains, the maximum pressure differential of these water masses' core occurrences was 150 to 280 dbar. The topographic transition zone defined by these strata occurred between the cyclonic and anticyclonic domains and coincided unambiguously with the anticyclone's collision zone. Within the continental shelf, we identified low temperature (12°C) and low salinity (31‰) coastal waters contributed by river runoff. Driven by the northerly wind stress, these coastal waters were advected toward the south hugging the coastline. The coastal and continental shelf waters demarcated a sea surface temperature, salinity, and dissolved oxygen discontinuity region that coincided with the horizontal baroclinic flow transition zone associated to the anticyclone's collision.

During October-November 1986 the baroclinic circulation of the central and western Gulf of Mexico was dominated by an anticyclonic ring that was being bisected by two north and south flanking cyclonic rings. The baroclinic circulation revealed a well-defined cyclonic-anticyclonic-cyclonic triad system. The anticyclone's collision against the western gulf continental slope at 22.5°N, 97°W originated the north and south flanking cyclonic rings. The weakening of the anticyclone's relative vorticity, during the collision, was compensated by along-shelf north (26 cm s−1) and south (58 cm s−1) jet currents and by the anticyclone's flanking water mass's gain of cyclonic vorticity from lateral shear contributed by east (56 cm s−1) and west (42 cm s−1) current jets with individual mass transports of ∼18 Sv. Within the 0–1000 and 0–500 dbar layers and across 96°W the magnitudes of the colliding westward transports were 17.80 and 8.59 Sv, respectively. These corresponding transports were 85 and 94% balanced by along-shelf jet currents north and south of the anticyclone's collision zone. This indicates that only minor amounts (