With inflow and overflow both zero and fixed reservoir volume , the transient balances are and . Therefore
The last equality uses the initial steady state. Define , where the latter is the pre-shutdown flow. The post-shutdown double-diffusive reservoir cooling equation is
Separate variables. An explicit primitive of is
Differentiate it to verify the three powers. Hence
For , increases monotonically to one only at infinite time, with up to the choice of time origin. The reservoir approaches , but its salinity tends to , leaving the positive salt contrast . Thus and the double-diffusive flux shuts down asymptotically. The assumption of a stationary interface and continued applicability of this flux parameterization is part of the reservoir model, not a claim about every actual hydrothermal pool.