The effects of Tehuantepec and Papagayo Eddies on the Biological Production

Distribution of chlorophyll in surface ocean observed from space (SeaWiFS, 1997-2000 mean) shows some strong singles in the region where the Tehuantepec and Papagayo eddies occur. It seems that the eddies have some effects on the Biological production. Could we do some little work on that?

Can the low-frequency currents along the EPR result in low-frequency earthquake?

Recently, Dr. Thurnherr and I just published a paper on GRL: Subinertial variability in the deep ocean near the East Pacific Rise between 9° and 10°N (http://www.agu.org/pubs/crossref/2011/2011GL046675.shtml). When I was thinking about the broader impacts of our work, I came to a question that whether the low-frequency variability we observed in the deep ocean can affect the seismicity near the ridge crest. Prof. Tolstoy’s team at Lamont has written several papers mentioning that tides are related with the seismicity over mid-ocean ridges and that is partly due to the tidal lodging effects. From our study we know the low-frequency variability in the deep ocean near the EPR is related with the westward-propagating mesoscale eddies, which can also affect the bottom pressure over the ridge crest. Actually our bottom pressure data over the ridge crest indeed show some low-frequency variability. It seems natural to have this question that whether the mesoscale eddies have the same effects of tides, right? To test this hypothesis, we need to find a huge microearthquake data, and compare with the features of mesoscale eddies revealed in the satellite data.

References:
[1] D. Stroup, D. Bohnenstiehl, M. Tolstoy, F. Waldhauser, and R. Weekly. Pulse of the seafloor: Tidal triggering of microearthquakes at 9◦50′N East Pacific Rise. Geophys. Res. Lett., 34:15, 2007.
[2] D. Stroup, M. Tolstoy, T. Crone, A. Malinverno, D. Bohnenstiehl, and F. Waldhauser. Systematic alongaxis tidal triggering of microearthquakes observed at 9◦50′N East Pacific Rise. Geophys. Res. Lett., 36, 2009.