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A thermocline (also known as the thermal layer or the metalimnion in lakes) is a thin but distinct layer in a large body of fluid (e.g. water, such as an ocean or lake, or air, such as an atmosphere) in which temperature changes more rapidly with depth than it does in the layers above or below.
The thermocline starts at the beginning of the summer at a relatively shallow depth with little temperature difference across it. As the summer progresses, however, and more surface water is heated, the thermocline's temperature difference and depth both increase.The bottom water warms slightly due to heat transfer from the above waters, but overall the bottom water is less affected.owever, the statement that the water below a thermocline is always clearer than the top water is not always true. Oxygen-poor bottom water can kill a lot of the fish and mussel life, then anaerobic bacteria start thriving and can perversely cause the bottom water to have less visibility than the top water.