Abstract
The results of a simple laboratory experiments on the stirring of continuously stratified fluid by oscillating vertical rods are described and analyzed. It is discovered that, if turbulent stirring is rather weak, the strong linear stratification is transformed into a step-like structure during each experimental run. This structure consists of nearly homogeneous layers separated by thin density interfaces. The initial average thickness of the layers depends quasi-inversely on the buoyancy frequency and is growing with time during the experiment. Thus, the number of layers decreases with time mainly because of merging of layers. The analysis of our laboratory results combined with the analysis of previous studies give strong support for the suggestion that the “staircase” structure formation may be not an exotic phenomenon in the shallow summer pycnocline of Arctic seas under the influence of drifting ice floes (Golovin et. al, 1996). The disintegration of such a pycnocline into a series of turbulent layers separated by thin density interfaces may enhance the vertical transport of sediments and increase the rate of frazil ice formation (Krylov and Zatsepin, 1992).
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© 1999 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Zatsepin, A. et al. (1999). Step-Like Vertical Structure Formation Due to Turbulent Mixing of Initially Continuous Density Gradients. In: Kassens, H., et al. Land-Ocean Systems in the Siberian Arctic. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60134-7_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-60134-7_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
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