The existence of double-diffusive convection and the associated, visually dramatic and dynamically significant salt fingers (as a molecular instability mechanism that can naturally arise in the ocean) was first recognized in the late 1950s. Since then, research in this area has increased almost exponentially, and new applications of the basic phenomenology continue to arise. At this time the importance of double-diffusive convection (DDC) has been recognized in fields as diverse as geophysics, astrophysics, metallurgy and chemistry as well as in the parent field—ocean physics. In each of these fields the small-scale, DDC phenomenology has been shown (or at least postulated) to be a critical driver for large, even global scale processes. Examples include DDC as a mechanism for maintaining the ocean thermocline and thus the global circulation pattern and DDC as a factor in convection of the Earth's mantle and at the core-mantle boundary.
A cross-section of 30 collected papers presenting research on double diffusive convection (DDC) and the associated, dramatic salt fingers in the fields of geophysics, astrophysics, metallurgy, chemistry, and ocean physics. The volume presents theoretical, numerical, and laboratory studies of DDC, including studies of the effects of shear on the kinematic tilting, the evolution of salt fingers, the formation of traveling interfacial waves at finger boundaries, and nonlinear DDC instability mechanisms. Includes illustrations, graphs, and photographs. Lacks an index. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
