Hydrothermal heat enhances abyssal mixing in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current

• Published in: Geophysical Research Letters
• Main Authors: Downes, SM, Sloyan, BM, Rintoul, SR, Lupton, JE
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Amer Geophysical Union 2019
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Oceanography; Physical Oceanography; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1029/2018GL080410; http://ecite.utas.edu.au/133811

Upwelling in the world's strongest current, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, is thought to be driven by wind stress, surface buoyancy flux, and mixing generated from the interaction between bottom currents and rough topography. However, the impact of localized injection of heat by hydrothermal vents where the Antarctic Circumpolar Current interacts with mid-ocean ridges remains poorly understood. Here a circumpolar compilation of helium and physical measurements are used to show that while geothermal heat is transferred to the ocean over a broad area by conduction, heat transfer by convection dominates near hydrothermal vents. Buoyant hydrothermal plumes decrease stratification above the vent source and increase stratification to the south, altering the local vertical diffusivity and diapycnal upwelling within 500m of the sea floor by an order of magnitude. Both the helium tracer and stratification signals induced by hydrothermal input are advected by the flow and influence properties downstream.