Monday, 25 April 2022Usually some children throw unexpected questions, why the sea water is blue. While the water that is usually used is clear in color.
So, if the question has been asked, you are also confused and just thought about it. Here's a long explanation. Actually sea water has many characteristics, not only the color is different from water in general.
But you can find some characteristics or differences from sea water:
1. Seawater has a fairly high salinity, where salinity is a high gram level. Especially the oceans that approach the equator will feel a fairly high salinity.
2. For seawater climate and weather do not really affect unless the climate is great. Where the climate will affect the sea water temperature. The rest of the seawater will have the same pH and temperature as it was originally. So that there are storms and the like do not affect.
3. Each depth has a different water temperature. If in ordinary water containers or rivers the temperature will be the same everywhere but different in sea water where each depth will be colder and less oxygen.
4. Seawater is affected by NaCl by 75%.
As we know that the color of water is clear and transparent. So you can see the actual color and shape of the container or place where the water is. If you mention these characteristics, that's how pure water should be. But what about the condition of the blue sea water? Even if you see it up close or far, there will be no difference, you will feel that the sea water is blue.
You must be wondering why sea water is blue and how does that color appear? not to mention whether the blue color has anything to do with the salty taste caused by the water? some people may be curious.
Explanation
So far, the human eye has caught the color of the water as clear, even though if you look closely, the water actually has a color that is blue. This can happen because the water scatters the color that comes from sunlight. The intensity of light from sunlight has a big influence on the color of the water. Unfortunately we can't see blue sea water everywhere because of sea water pollution.
This is also related to the condition of sea water which is different from ordinary water or mountain water. The salt content of sea water is quite high, even especially in the equatorial region. This will affect the sea water that should look clear will look blue. Even at certain depths the salt content is high and the color of the sea water becomes dark blue, if you look at it from a height you can clearly see the difference and it looks very beautiful but dark.
Presence of Phytoplankton
In addition to the above reasons, the blue sea is also caused by phytoplankton at the bottom. Usually they have different colors such as blue or green, this affects the appearance of the water which becomes bluer due to the presence of phytoplankton. Well, there was also the appearance of the color of the sea water which was a bit reddish. Actually the sea is not bleeding but because the sea water contains a lot of algae.
The ocean is a large ecosystem that contains a variety of animals, plants and living things whose species and appearance have not yet been detected. This happens because of human limitations in reaching the seabed even the deepest point of the sea. For this reason, the sea has different appearances and water conditions including color. The abundance of material such as fish, coral, plankton makes absorption of sunlight a bit difficult and disguises the true color of the water. So that only leaves a dark blue color for the ocean.
Other Reasons Why Seawater
Is Blue Apart from animals, plants and the level of salinity there is another reason why sea water turns blue. Although this reason is not the main factor, according to several studies there are about 20% of seawater affected by the color of the sky which is also blue. Actually, it is not known whether it is true that the color of the sky can affect sea water.
The basic explanation is because sea water is clear and reflects the light and colors of the sky. So when you look at the sea you feel like you see the color of the sky reflected. But the color of the sky doesn't really matter if there is a lot of material in the sea.
That's the row or reason why sea water can be blue and different from normal water. You can also see that the color of the sea water is blue but it can be different in each sea. The blue of the Pacific Ocean is darker than the sea in the Malacca Strait. This is because it is influenced by many factors as described above.
Lead image from unsplash