text: A buoyant sediment-laden river plume can induce a secondary turbidity current on the ocean floor by the process of convective sedimentation. Sediment in the initially buoyant hypopycnal flow accumulates at the base of the surface flow, so that the dense lower boundary become unstable. The resulting convective sedimentation leads to a rapid vertical transfer of material to the sloping lake or ocean bed, potentially forming a secondary turbidity current. The vertical speed of the convective plumes can be much greater than the Stokes settling velocity of an individual particle of sediment. Most examples of this process have been made in the laboratory, but possible observational evidence of a secondary turbidity current was made in Howe Sound, British Columbia, where a turbidity current was periodically observed on the delta of the Squamish River. As the vast majority of sediment laden rivers are less dense than the ocean, rivers cannot readily form plunging hyperpycnal flows. Hence convective sedimentation is an important possible initiation mechanism for turbidity currents.