Premium
Tide‐induced salt‐fingering flow during submarine groundwater discharge
Author(s) -
Greskowiak Janek
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2014gl061184
Subject(s) - submarine groundwater discharge , plume , hydrogeology , geology , groundwater , seawater , estuary , groundwater flow , groundwater discharge , flow (mathematics) , hydrology (agriculture) , submarine pipeline , soil science , environmental science , aquifer , oceanography , mechanics , geotechnical engineering , meteorology , physics
This study investigated the stability of the upper saline plume (USP) within shallow tide‐affected submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) zones. In contrast to earlier studies, numerical modeling revealed a number of realistic hydrological and hydrogeological conditions where the USP becomes unstable and salt‐fingering flow occurs. These conditions were reasonably well identified in a stability diagram based on two dimensionless numbers that characterize the system. If fingering flow occurs, the SGD pattern is distinctly different from that of stable flow conditions: (i) freshwater discharge zones along the beach face are manifold and change their location with time, (ii) undulating freshwater/seawater interface that is extended along the groundwater flow path, and (iii) the total tide‐averaged fresh SGD rate varies considerably in an irregular pattern. This has presumably important implications on reactive transport processes in the subterranean estuary, as well as on the interpretation of field data on water and solute fluxes during SGD.