This is a blog post of mine explaining in lay terms the role that turbulence plays in the physical Earth system.

http://dataminingtheworld.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/physical-earth-system-and-role-of.html

This is very interesting (though too general) question, but I guess, that in near future there will be not enough resources available to study it. But if not to take it too seriously there is excellent example by Kolmogorov noted in Timoshenko Medal Acceptance Speech by Grigory I. Barenblatt (imechanica.org/node/198):

"...I want to mention a simple calculation, by which A.N. Kolmogorov started his course on turbulence at Moscow State. He asked the listeners: What will the velocity be at the surface of the river Volga in Russia (close by its parameters to the Mississippi in this country) if by some miracle it becomes laminar ? The answer was striking: hundreds of thousands of miles per hour! Why then is it kept so slow ? The reason is that the flow is turbulent..."