Turbidity Currents Carrying Shallow Heat Invading Stable Deep-Water Areas May Be an Unrecognized Source of “Pollution” in the Ocean
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: When turbidity currents carrying shallow heat enter stable stratified lakes or oceans, they can trigger changes in temperature, dissolved chemicals, oxygen concentrations, and nutrient mixing through the stable stratified environmental water. Although it is common for warm turbidity currents to invade stable regions, the impact of turbidity current characteristics on environmental entrainment and the impact of temperature changes caused by the mixing of warm turbidity currents with the environment remains poorly understood. In this study, systematic experiments on warm turbidity currents were conducted to understand how sediment-driven turbidity currents lead to mixing in stable stratification using existing environmental entrainment numbers. The experimental results show that the dimensionless numbers Rs (the ratio of the change in environmental water concentration caused by salinity to sediment load), RT (the ratio of the change in environmental water concentration caused by temperature difference to sediment load), and R0 (non-dimensional density ratio) control the flow process of warm turbid plumes, and corresponding functional relationships are summarized. The frequent occurrence of warm turbidity currents events caused by increasingly prominent environmental problems cannot be ignored, as it directly affects the deep-water environment of lakes or coastal oceans, which may be an important contribution to heat transfer that has not been evaluated in previous ocean events.
Source: Water
DOI: 10.3390/w16233521
Authors: Hao Tian, Guohui Xu, Jingtao Zhao, Yupeng Ren, Hanru Wu
Language: English
Subfield: Oceanography
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,955
OpenAlex ID: W4405194048