The color of any body of water is affected by many factors, including depth and clarity, as well as the presence or absence of microorganisms like plankton.
Close your eyes. Now, think of a dreamy vacation destination. Does it have palm trees slowly waving in the warm breeze? Blue skies and soft, golden sand? We bet your daydream getaway contains one more thing, too: turquoise waters.
Be it a honeymoon in Bora Bora, a friends-only weekend away in the Bahamas, or a family trip to the Greek Islands, that blue water has us all hooked. But how, exactly, does it get to be that unbelievable hue anyway? Firstly, it has to do with wavelengths—not the kind surfers like, but the distinct wavelength of each hue on the full spectrum of visible color.
“When light shines through water, colors with longer wavelengths are absorbed by the water, with the longest wavelengths absorbed first,” the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution explains. “Blue and violet…have the shortest wavelengths of visible light, so they are able to penetrate the deepest. Not only do they stick around, they’re scattered by particles in the water, making it seem as though the water itself is blue.”
However, as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) adds, most of the world’s oceans are “completely dark,” as almost no light can penetrate depths beyond 656 feet, and absolutely “no light penetrates deeper than 3,280 feet.”
So how, then, is the water in places like the Caribbean, South Pacific, and Greece such a specific shade of azure blue? As the Oceanic Research Group explains, it’s because not only are the waters around the islands shallower, but those same waters are also almost completely free of plankton, causing other waters to turn a more greenish hue. Additionally, these lighter blue waters are usually home to heavier sand and sediment, which churn up less, leaving the waters clearer.
One last thing that works in these little slices of paradise is the fact that the waters are exceptionally calm. These destinations tend to experience less “upwelling,” which NOAA explains is when the wind blows “across the ocean surface,” pushing the water away. “Water then rises up from beneath the surface to replace the water that was pushed away.” Though the water that rises up is nutrient-rich, it also comes with “high biological productivity,” which turns it a murkier shade.
So, there you have it—everything you’d ever need to know about why some waters around the world are bluer than others. Now, all that’s left to do is go see it in real life and appreciate all the scientific reasons why it’s so beautiful as you stare at it from sunrise to sundown.
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