if the sky is blue because of the reflection off the ocean, then why is the ocean blue? if you put ocean water in a jar or something it isn’t blue, but when the ocean is looked at as a whole it appears blue. is it similar to that thing with the blue jays in this week’s column?
Um, the sky looks blue because of the scattering of light. Shorter frequencies are scattered more and therefore enter your eye at all angles, making the entire sky look blue. Something similar happens with clean water.
The sky isn’t blue because it reflects off the ocean, it’s blue because of why Dr. Fidelius says it’s blue.
What I wanna know, now that Steeljaw has so kindly broached the subject and I don’t have to start a whole thread for it, is how come the Pacific looks blue but the Atlantic (as viewed from Nag’s Head in North Carolina) definitely looks sorta greenish-brownish? I’ve been to both oceans now, and the Pacific was definitely blue, blue, blue. And the Atlantic, the entire 3 days we were there, wasn’t. So what gives?
(And it was sunny both times.)
a few days this summer (about three weeks ago) the water of the atlantic off of sea isle city was sparklingly blue and clear. so clear you could see all the syringes and other hospital waste as you stepped in it.
just a joke, but it was beautiful and clear.
All the green in the water is plant life. Phytoplankton and that sort of little squishy things.
The brown is often dead plant life, or red algae, or soil run-off, or raw sewage.
In clear water areas there is much less life per volume measure. Look at coral reef environments, so much of the plankters have been filtered out by the reef denizens that you feel like you can see for miles. (Okay, I know there are other factors, like water temperature and mixing caused by currents, but his is a good first approximation.)
The Gulf Coast off Galveston is brown, an unappetizing feature after sailing in the blue Pacific off S. California. The locals say you have to go way out to get blue water. I always assumed it was the result of river sediment discharge. That would also be your case on the Atlantic. S. California rivers don’t carry much sediment (or water for that matter).
Well, okay, I guess that’s a couple of answers that I can live with, except that it was off the coast of Washington state (Ocean Shores), not southern California. I had always chalked up that “blue Pacific” stuff to Chamber of Commerce hype.
What about my question?
Is it the scattering, just like the sky and the feathers?
Well I have a cool explanation for why the sky is blue…but I’m lazy tonight. And Cecil gives a pretty good and simple explanation here:
And water will appear slightly blue for much the same reason, but the main reason bodies of water look as blue as the do is reflection from the sky.
I thought the ocean was blue because of all the Ty-D-Bowl (sp?) chemical in it.
Damn, and I thought this about Sonic Drive in calling drinking water “Ocean Water™” on the menu. What felchwit thought of that?