The Ria de Pontevedra is one of the Galician Rias Baixas, partially mixed estuaries on the north-west coast of the Iberian peninsula. The hydrodynamics of the rias is far from being fully understood. In this application, the hydrodynamics of the Ria de Pontevedra is studied by means of a 3-D baroclinic model. Our aim was to establish the circulation pattern driven by tide and the horizontal density gradient between river and shelf waters under estuarine conditions. The spatial variability of tidal velocities and salinities is studied. The residual component of the flow, related to transport, is described and discussed. As expected in a partially mixed estuary, a double-layered residual pattern is observed, with water flowing seaward in a surface layer and upstream in a bottom layer. A cross-channel residual flow, not described up to date, is presented.

This work is part of a Ph.D thesis by M. R. Villarreal, who gratefully acknowledges the support of a predoctoral grant from the Xunta de Galicia (Spain). This research was also carried out in relation to the project ‘ La Hidrodina´mica y el Ciclo Biogeoquímico del Silicio’, financed by the Spanish Comisión Interministerial de Ciencia y Tecnología (CICYT) under the number MAR96-1782.

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