Mineral resources such as poly-metallic nodules are widely distributed in submarine hydrothermal activity areas and cold seep activity areas are rich in gas hydrates and marine oil and gas resources,which are of great significance for the research on the marine biodiversity,global climate change,seabed tectonics and fluid geology. As an important indicator of active hydrothermal and cold seep,the submarine plume is a direct site for seafloor in-situ research. It is particularly of great importance to find the activity areas of submarine hydrothermal and cold seeps by detecting submarine plume. The gas or fluids which seep from the shallow or deep layer to seawater not only changed the physical property of the submarine sedimentary strata but also changed the topography and geomorphology of the seafloor and increased the degree of roughness of the seafloor since the gas seepage and relevant products (such as the methane derived authigenic carbonate, pockmark and mud volcano and others) could cause the seafloor sediments to redistribute. The drastic submarine gas or fluid venting will also form submarine cold seep plume in the overlying water column. Therefore,it is accessible to use sonar,multibeam bathymetry data and seismic exploration and other acoustic methods to detect the submarine plumes according to various acoustic responses. During the process of rising and diffusion of submarine hydrothermal plume, it will exchange material with the surrounding water column,and physics,optics and chemistry and other gradient of parameter and constituent will change. It is the main route to understand submarine hydrothermal plume and its scope of distribution to detect the change of those gradients. The prominent presentation of submarine hydrothermal activity is the eruption of high temperature fluid from the seafloor. Therefore,high heat flow anomaly often happens on the seafloor. And it will result in anomaly of overlying water column and the special submarine topography and geomorphology will form. Since the difference between the physical and chemical properties of submarine hydrothermal plume and surrounding seawater is obvious and various kinds of anomalies exist, it is accessible to detect submarine hydrothermal plume and confirm its scope of distribution with modern investigation technology equipment. The morphological characteristics of submarine plume in different detection methods and the applicability and limitation of different detection methods are summarized. The suitable detection method for submarine plume detection are discussed. If the conditions permit,the cross-disciplinary detection methods with complementary advantages shall be used for the detection and interpretation of submarine plumes, which can improve the correctness and accuracy of the detection and reduce misinterpretation. The acoustic method can provide an effective method for further research on attribute characteristics of submarine plumes. In addition,the relevant direction of detection research for submarine plume is discussed.