Formation of thermal plumes in an autocatalytic exothermic chemical reaction

The reaction of chlorite and thiourea is bistable and displays a lateral instability that generates a traveling wave of sulfate, acid, and chlorine dioxide. The wave was visualized by the addition of barium chloride, which gave a white precipitate of barium sulfate. The wave propagates with three distinct regions of varying precipitation intensities. One of the regions is made up of a complete convective roll that forms powerful thermal plumes which rise to the surface of the reactant solution. The plumes originate from a coupling of Marangoni convection with multicomponent convection.