Premium
Observations and Modeling of a Hydrothermal Plume in Yellowstone Lake
Author(s) -
Sohn Robert A.,
Luttrell Karen,
Shroyer Emily,
Stranne Christian,
Harris Robert N.,
Favorito Julia E.
Publication year - 2019
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 - 10.1029/2019gl082523
Subject(s) - plume , panache , geology , hydrothermal circulation , buoyancy , stratification (seeds) , flux (metallurgy) , acoustic doppler current profiler , mass flux , neutral buoyancy , salinity , water mass , heat flux , geophysics , atmospheric sciences , oceanography , current (fluid) , meteorology , heat transfer , mechanics , seed dormancy , physics , germination , botany , materials science , seismology , dormancy , metallurgy , biology
Acoustic Doppler current profiler and conductivity‐temperature‐depth data acquired in Yellowstone Lake reveal the presence of a buoyant plume above the “Deep Hole” hydrothermal system, located southeast of Stevenson Island. Distributed venting in the ~200 × 200‐m hydrothermal field creates a plume with vertical velocities of ~10 cm/s in the mid‐water column. Salinity profiles indicate that during the period of strong summer stratification the plume rises to a neutral buoyancy horizon at ~45‐m depth, corresponding to a ~70‐m rise height, where it generates an anomaly of ~5% (−0.0014 psu) relative to background lake water. We simulate the plume with a numerical model and find that a heat flux of 28 MW reproduces the salinity and vertical velocity observations, corresponding to a mass flux of 1.4 × 10 3 kg/s. When observational uncertainties are considered, the heat flux could range between 20 to 50 MW.