Fig. 3: Example of an epsilometer profile measured during the discharge of the CCFZ sediment plume.

The profile was obtained 38 min after the start of the 45-min discharge. The water being sampled at this time would have been discharged into the ocean about 6–7 min earlier (i.e., the time it takes for a fluid released from the discharge nozzle to descend to neutral buoyancy in the dynamic plume and be carried by ocean currents past the epsilometer). a Temperature and salinity data. b The density and buoyancy frequency (N²) derived from data in a; the density profile is significantly smoother than the temperature and salinity profiles as changes in the latter two result in smaller relative changes in density. c The turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate (ε) detected by the two independent turbulence probes (s1 and s2). The inverse dilution factors (as a percentage of the initial concentration) of sediment and Rhodamine tracer are presented in d with error bounds indicated for each by the min and max signals associated with the corresponding sensor calibrations. An additional epsilometer profile and a comment on the observations can be found in Supplementary Fig. 6 and Supplementary Notes 1, respectively.