Kg. Speer, THERMOCLINE PENETRATION BY BUOYANT PLUMES, Philosophical transactions-Royal Society of London. Physical sciences and engineering, 355(1723), 1997, pp. 443-457
Plumes of buoyant fluid rise in a stratified environment until their b
uoyancy with respect to the environment reverses, they become heavier
than their surroundings and gravitational forces bring them to a halt.
Obstacles to turbulent plume rise, occur in the form of external stra
tification and two-component mixing, which changes the buoyancy of the
plume. Volcanic eruptions introduce large amounts of heat to the wate
r column, and the question arises as to whether or not such eruptions
can drive plumes up to the sea surface, and create a significant sea s
urface temperature anomaly. A turbulent plume model is used to estimat
e the magnitude of an eruption which might be capable of driving a plu
me across the ocean's thermocline, which poses a substantial barrier t
o vertical motion-more so, for instance, than the tropopause with resp
ect to atmospheric plumes. The confining effect of Earth's rotation he
lps to maintain stronger anomalies in the horizontal spreading phase o
f the motion at the sea surface. Plumes which cannot attain the surfac
e may also have substantial temperature and salinity anomalies if thes
e quantities vary in the the source or water column through which the
plume rises and entrains water.