Join us for a special summer Physical Oceanography Seminar from Ian Adams, PhD Student in the Department of Marine Science at the  University of Georgia, titled "Hydrothermal Vent Plumes: The influence of hydrothermal fluid flow - An exercise in fine scale realistic modeling."

Abstract: The InterRidge database defines 700+ active and inactive venting sites scattered across deep ocean ridge systems across the world. The number and significance of hydrothermal vents continues to grow. As more are continually discovered, understanding their characteristics and contributions becomes more important. Our research focuses on the elucidation of underlying physical characteristics of hydrothermal vent plumes and their influence on the surrounding ocean. The hydrothermal vent is a large and localized source of high temperature effluent. This injects high levels of energy into a very low energy region. As the plume rises it transports energy (via advection of heat and turbulence) as well as deep ambient fluid (via entrainment).

To look at the heat and mass transport within hydrothermal vent plumes, we have focused on two modeling studies. The first looks at the detailed properties of a single plume using large eddy simulation (LES). The second examines the cumulative effects of multiple venting fields on ridge scale currents and fluid transport. Each of these projects is described briefly below.

In our LES study of a single, focused plume and how it interacts with the ambient ocean, of particular interest are the turbulent properties of the rising plume. This gives us detailed information on the ultimate fate of the energy injected by the hydrothermal vent. To investigate how the hydrothermal energy is interacting with the deep ocean (via heat and mass transport), we examine the critical factors of vertical and horizontal mixing, fluid entrainment, and turbulent kinetic energy dissipation.

We use FVCOM to account for hydrothermal input from both diffuse and focused flows from entire venting fields. Characterization of contributions from the venting fields gives us the ability to examine their impact on regional ridge-scale fluid flows. Real world forcings form a realistic basis for the model. Here we examine the resulting heat and mass transport as well as the induced currents throughout the ridge system.