Abstract :
A three-dimensional nonlinear baroclinic model is used to model the circulation in the Ballenas Channel,
Gulf of California, Me´xico, which was inferred from current meter observations over three sills that
surround the area. The suggested circulation consists of deep inflow that follows two paths: the first one
is a direct spill of water through San Lorenzo sill into Ballenas Channel, the second one, a larger route that
starts at San Esteban sill, then flows north of the island passing over Tiburo´n and Delfı´n basins, and then
turns to the south reaching the North Ballenas Channel sill and then spills into Ballenas Channel.
Following the latter result, a previous modeling effort to reproduce the circulation was partially obtained,
the long path was not reproduced and it was believed that finer horizontal resolution was needed. In this
work, the bathymetric resolution was increased by a factor of three and the full path of this deep
circulation is now obtained and corroborated.
