{
  "abstract": "Melting of a vertical ice face in otherwise quiescent saline water generates a buoyant plume that rises along the ice. Heat and salt transfer through the thin near-wall boundary layers controls the melt rate and must be parameterized in models that do not resolve these layers. In plume models, the three-equation framework of Holland \\& Jenkins (1999) is commonly coupled to transfer laws based on plume-induced shear. Under weak-shear conditions, however, laboratory experiments and simulations show that melting is controlled by buoyancy-driven convection and is approximately independent of plume velocity. Here, we develop a boundary-layer theory that unifies these two transfer regimes. The melt rate is set by the boundary-layer thicknesses, which in turn is governed by two competing length scales: a viscous length and a buoyancy viscous length scale. The resulting flux laws recover existing shear-driven and buoyancy-driven models as limits, retain the algebraic structure of the three-equation model, and predict a regime transition when the two length scales become comparable, corresponding to a plume velocity of roughly 6-8 cm/s for typical fjord conditions. We test the theory using large-eddy simulations that resolve the diffusive sublayers adjacent to a melting vertical ice face. In these simulations a melt-driven plume starts in the buoyancy-driven regime and transitions into the shear-driven regime. The melt rates across the transition are well described by the unified theory.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 6,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Yuchen Ma"
    },
    {
      "name": "Paul R Holland"
    },
    {
      "name": "Ken Zhao"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jonathan Nash"
    },
    {
      "name": "Pierre Dutrieux"
    },
    {
      "name": "John Ryan Taylor"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c8fkpw3ddq7r7.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.31223/x5bj82",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "c8fkpw3ddq7r7",
  "issns": [],
  "landing_url": "https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/15719/",
  "language": null,
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "bepress",
      "Fluid Dynamics"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Oceanography"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Physical Sciences and Mathematics"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Physics"
    ],
    [
      "bepress",
      "Turbulent boundary layer"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1910|Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7225181524",
  "pdf_url": "https://eartharxiv.org/repository/object/15719/download/27565/",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-11-03",
  "publisher": null,
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c8fkpw3ddq7r7.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-04T12:20:46Z",
      "native_id": "15719",
      "source": "eartharxiv",
      "url": "https://eartharxiv.org/repository/view/15719/"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "bepress:Oceanography and Atmospheric Sciences and Meteorology",
      "subfield": "atmospheric"
    },
    {
      "field": "earth",
      "origin": "bepress:Oceanography",
      "subfield": "oceanography"
    },
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "bepress:Fluid Dynamics",
      "subfield": "fluid-dynamics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Transition from buoyancy-driven to shear-driven melting in a buoyant plume at a vertical ice face",
  "title_text": "Transition from buoyancy-driven to shear-driven melting in a buoyant plume at a vertical ice face",
  "type": "preprint",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-05T12:20:12Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/c8fkpw3ddq7r7",
  "venue": "EarthArXiv",
  "versions": []
}