Abstract

Abstract Growing evidence is found in observations and numerical modeling of the importance of steep seafloor topography for turbulent diapycnal mixing leading to redistribution of suspended matter and nutrients, especially in waters with abundant internal tides. One of the remaining questions is the extent of turbulent mixing away from and above nearly flat topography, which is addressed in this paper. Evaluated are observations from an opportunistic, weeklong mooring of high-resolution temperature sensors above a small seafloor slope in about 1200-m water depth of the eastern Mediterranean. The environment has weak tides, so that near-inertial motions and near-inertial shear dominate internal waves. Vertical displacement shapes suggest instabilities to represent locally generated turbulent overturns, rather than partial salinity-compensated intrusions dispersed isopycnally from turbulence near the slope. This conclusion is supported by the duration of instabilities, as all individual overturns last shorter than the mean buoyancy period and sequences of overturns last shorter than the local inertial period. The displacement shapes are more erratic than observed in stronger stratified waters in which shear drives turbulence and better correspond with predominantly buoyancy-driven convection turbulence. This convection turbulence is confirmed from spectral information, generally occurring dominant close to the seafloor and only in weakly stratified layers well above it. Mean turbulence values are 10–100 times smaller than those found above steep ocean topography, but 10 times larger than those found in the open-ocean interior.