What determines the color of tropical oceans? - Beyond Tiki

T TikiJosh Member Joined: Feb 01, 2005 Posts: 735	T TikiJosh Posted posted on Tue, Oct 3, 2006 3:28 PM On 2006-10-03 13:13, Coco Loco wrote: On several occasions, at several different oceans, various people have told me the color is from the suns reflection relevant to hemisphere, location, refraction, and depth. In Tangier Morocco, if you stand on the top level of the Kasbah (no, I'm not making this up), you'll see three different large bodies of water directly next to each other (Atlantic, Mediterranean, and The Strait of Gibraltar). They're each different colors. I was told that the color differentiation was due to depth differences. Yes. The changes in blue color from one place to another have a lot to do with the way the sunlight hits the water and is refracted and reflected, in relation to depth. Since water molecules absorb light from the red end of the visible spectrum first, most of the light that gets reflected is blue. In shallower water, it's possible to have some light penetrate to the bottom, and get reflected back out, so it's bright, light blue, almost like a swimming pool. Deeper areas won't reflect hardly any red light, so they tend to look very dark blue, almost black. Depth will definitely have an impact on what you see. Regarding your Kasbah story, the color differences you observe is related to what's called a "mixing zone" or a "boundary zone". What you are observing are three chemically and biologically distinct bodies of water. Each has it's own unique concentration of phytoplankton, trace minerals, etc. While depth can have an effect (see above), it's not likely the only reason for the observation you're reporting. On 2006-10-03 14:00, Chip and Andy wrote: Water color is like the color of the sky and there are as many reasons for the differences in each. The biggest three reasons for any difference in water color in large bodies are Temperature, Depth, and Content (mineral or other). And yes, absolutely right. So, what about the beaches that are brown? That's just from the sand, right? :wink: [ Edited by: TikiJosh 2006-10-04 14:57 ]

On 2006-10-03 13:13, Coco Loco wrote:
On several occasions, at several different oceans, various people have told me the color is from the suns reflection relevant to hemisphere, location, refraction, and depth.

In Tangier Morocco, if you stand on the top level of the Kasbah (no, I'm not making this up), you'll see three different large bodies of water directly next to each other (Atlantic, Mediterranean, and The Strait of Gibraltar). They're each different colors. I was told that the color differentiation was due to depth differences.

Yes. The changes in blue color from one place to another have a lot to do with the way the sunlight hits the water and is refracted and reflected, in relation to depth. Since water molecules absorb light from the red end of the visible spectrum first, most of the light that gets reflected is blue. In shallower water, it's possible to have some light penetrate to the bottom, and get reflected back out, so it's bright, light blue, almost like a swimming pool. Deeper areas won't reflect hardly any red light, so they tend to look very dark blue, almost black. Depth will definitely have an impact on what you see.
Regarding your Kasbah story, the color differences you observe is related to what's called a "mixing zone" or a "boundary zone". What you are observing are three chemically and biologically distinct bodies of water. Each has it's own unique concentration of phytoplankton, trace minerals, etc. While depth can have an effect (see above), it's not likely the only reason for the observation you're reporting.

On 2006-10-03 14:00, Chip and Andy wrote:

Water color is like the color of the sky and there are as many reasons for the differences in each. The biggest three reasons for any difference in water color in large bodies are Temperature, Depth, and Content (mineral or other).

And yes, absolutely right.
So, what about the beaches that are brown? That's just from the sand, right? :wink:

[ Edited by: TikiJosh 2006-10-04 14:57 ]

Post #258725 by TikiJosh on Tue, Oct 3, 2006 3:28 PM