U.S.-Venezuela Cooperative Research: A Numerical Study of anOcean-Strait-Inland Sea System: the Lake Maracaibo System

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The objective of this work is to study various physical processes occurring in coastal and inland waters by implementing an advanced three-dimensional finite element scheme (model) to simulate quantitatively the hydrodynamics of the Lake Maracaibo system in Western Venezuela. Lake Maracaibo and its ocean access represent a very complex system. Despite the capability of the finite element method for handling complex geometrics and spatial scales, very few three-dimensional field studies have been attempted using this method, and these have lacked sufficient field data for adequate comparisons. Collaboration with a Venezuelan group offers an opportunity to verify models by direct comparison to existing field data from the Lake Maracaibo system.