1
down vote
Astute observation, and very interesting phenomena. I do know for a fact that the reason the column of water narrows as it gets further from the faucet is due to acceleration by gravity and an increasing fluid velocity. The higher the velocity, the lower the pressure. Since the pressure outside everywhere along the column is essentially the same, the column is forced to a narrower cross section further down the column - a vena contracta.
But as for the ripple, I can only offer a hypothesis:
The presence of your finger causes a sudden slowing of the velocity and therefore increase in pressure leading to a discontinuity and a sort of circumferential hydraulic jump. Some energy redirects the flow radially along the surface of your finger, but some energy is dissipated into the boundary layer of the column above your finger, generating cylindrical surface waves that travel in the slower boundary layer a short distance upward but then dampen out. Normally surface waves use gravity as the restoring force, but in this case the restoring forces may be surface tension, pressure variations or both.