Topographic forcing of supercritical convection in a porous medium such as the oceanic crust |
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| Authors: | Beverly Karplus Hartline CRB Lister |
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| Institution: | 1. Geophysics Program, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 U.S.A.;2. Department of Oceanography, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195 U.S.A. |
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| Abstract: | We have performed laboratory experiments using a Hele-Shaw cell to model a saturated, porous layer with various sinusoidal upper boundaries. Our intent was to determine the range of conditions over which boundary topography can control the pattern of thermal convection within a porous layer, and thereby take the first step toward understanding why heat flow seems correlated with hypsography in many areas of the ocean floor.These experiments indicate that above the critical Rayleigh number, topography does not control the convection pattern, except when the topographic wavelength is comparable to the depth of water penetration. Scaled to the depth of the layer, the convective wavenumbers are restricted to values between 2.5 and 4.8—a range which brackets π, the natural wavenumber for convection in a porous slab with planar, isothermal, impermeable boundaries. Topographies within this range control the circulation pattern perfectly, with downwelling under valleys and upwelling aligned with topographic highs. Other topographies do not force the pattern, although in some cases, the convection wavenumber may be a harmonic of the topographic wavenumber. Unforced circulation cells wander and vary in size, because they are not locked to the topography.For these experiments we employed eight different topographies with non-dimensional wavenumbers between 1.43 and 8.17, and we studied the flow at Rayleigh numbers between zero and five times the critical Rayleigh number. The amplitude of each topography tapered linearly (over a factor of three to six) from one end of the apparatus to the other, and the mean topographic amplitude was 0.05 times the depth of the layer. Under these conditions, amplitude has only a minor effect on the structural form and vigor of supercritical convection.Our results may apply to submarine geothermal systems, sealed by a thin layer of impermeable sediment draped over the basement topography. In this case, the convection wavelength—as measured perhaps by the spatial periodicity of conductive heat flow—may be a good measure of the depth to which water penetrates the crust. Where the circulation correlates with the bottom topography, it may be because the topographic wavelength is comparable to the depth to which water penetrates the porous crust. |
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