Thermal structure of two-dimensional surface discharge of the heated water into a rectangular resesvoir is investigated by a laboratory simulation with a shallow open channel and a relatively large reservoir. Experimental study is focused on the nature of interfacial mixing between a flowing layer of the hot water and the underlying cold water. For various conditions, mean temperature field, surface velocity distribution and turbulent mixing process have been quantitatively observed. It is found that the Richardson number strongly affects the integral structure of the flow field, and the buoyancy plays a role to control the turbulent diffusion process.