In the case of salt water, sharp gradients can lead to stratification of different concentrations of salinity.

Front - region of sharp gradient in temperature or salinity, indicating a transition between two current systems or water masses.

There were sharp vertical gradients of temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen and electrical conductivity.

The sharp gradients in temperature and density also may act as a restriction to vertical movements of animals.

The land fell away in a sharp gradient here, giving onto flat fields and rice paddies.

A saucer like depression, not a hemisphere or the ground would have held a sharper gradient.

It would take a team of mountaineers to scale the sharp gradient of the rock face beneath us.

At this boundary a sharp gradient in temperature occurs between these two air masses, each at very different temperatures.

They included slanted drinking glasses ($8.30) that won't spill on sharp gradients.

It was necessary to build the Thameslink platform extensions to the south, since there is a sharp gradient to the immediate north of the station.