OCEAN BLUE SMART TIMER FULL

Why are scientists studying the colour of the ocean? Often, the most beautiful Caribbean waters also tend to be shallower, and the composition of the ocean floor, mainly corals, can be responsible for a different way of reflecting light.

Of course, that does have an impact, but often the colours are given by the plant life that exists in many Caribbean waters, which can contribute to more green light being reflected. The crystal-clear waters of the Caribbean, which are usually closer to shades of light green rather than blue, you may have thought that it is because the water is cleaner. Some rivers or ponds, for example, may appear to be a muddy brown rather than blue, which is often due to the presence of sediments in the water, especially after the water has been stirred. This is often the result of characteristics of the water or the floor. You may have noticed that, sometimes, water can also appear to be colours other than blue. The deeper the basin, the darker and deeper the colour will be, as the more water there is, the lighter gets absorbed. This is mainly why different bodies of water can have different shades of blue. When light penetrates water completely, like in a drinking glass or a very shallow body of water, we see water as colourless, as not enough photons are absorbed. Do all water bodies appear blue?Įverything absorbs light at a different wavelength, and then reflects the remaining colours back at a viewer. This, however, only happens ups to a certain depth: actually, most of the ocean is completely dark as hardly any light penetrates deeper than 656 feet, and no light at all reaches deeper than 3,280 feet. Then, yellow, and green wavelengths are also absorbed, leaving blue and violet, which have the shortest wavelengths of visible light, and are therefore able to penetrate deeper. Like a filter, water molecules absorb the red parts of the light spectrum and leave behind colours on the blue spectrum, which are reflected to our eyes.Īs soon as we reach a depth of a few meters, then, most red and orange light has vanished entirely, absorbed by water molecules.

When light hits the ocean, the water absorbs colours with longer wavelengths first, reflecting to our eyes those with shorter wavelengths. The wavelength of other colours become progressively shorter, with blue and violet at the end of the range, with the shortest of all. Different colours of light possess different wavelengths, with red light having longer wavelengths.

OCEAN BLUE SMART TIMER FULL

Īs we know, sunlight contains the full spectrum of colours, as we see in rainbows, it contains all hues, from red to violet. The reason behind the ocean appearing blue does, in fact, involve reflection, but it is not simply a mirror of the sky. In these cases, the water isn’t reflecting the sky. But if we sink below the surface, however, the blue colour remains, and it does when we look at the ocean from space, too. Sure, water does reflect the sky on its surface: from the coast, it may appear blue on a sunny day, grey when it’s stormy, or even show shades of pink during sunset. So then, why does the ocean appear blue? And so do other bodies of water.įor many years, people believed (some still do!) that the ocean and other water bodies are a shade of blue because they reflect the blue sky. Of course, we all know that clean water is colourless, it is transparent. In this article, we will explain why the ocean is blue, so that you can finally understand how it works. There is one thing we all know for sure, however, and it is that the ocean and the sea appear to be blue. The rest, especially its deepest parts, remain unexplored. As you can guess from this information, the ocean is extremely important for life on our planet, and it works as its support system, mitigating climate change, producing oxygen, and providing humans with food and economic opportunities.ĭue to its vastness, only 5% of the ocean has been explored and charted by humans. The ocean contains more than 97% of Earth’s water, and it supports 99% of the total biosphere. Usually, due to historical, cultural, and geographical factors, we divide it into 5 major basins: the Pacific, Atlantic, Indian, Arctic and Southern Oceans. The ocean is a massive body of saltwater, connected throughout the globe, that covers roughly 71% of the total surface of the planet.

Ocean blue smart timer