Remember, all the freshwater that creates a plume actually comes from a watershed.
Since most of the water in a watershed ends up flowing off the surface into rivers, rivers act as large drains, carrying much of the rain that falls in an entire watershed to one point. In a sense, watersheds are like large basins with a drain that flows into the ocean.
When rain falls, it can dissolve some substances and pick up and carry others. Because rivers carry all the water to one point, they also concentrate all those substances they pick up along the way.
So the plume we see in the ocean can contain a lot more than just fresh water.
My Journal:
What else do you think might be carried in the water as it flows through the watershed? How might it affect the ocean?
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