In domestic literature, the stereotype that the sea is blue has long been entrenched. For example, Maxim Gorky, who lived in Italy for many years.
Information has come about the lead-gray Baltic or the characteristic ocher color of the Yellow Sea. But no one believed these people. The stereotype is the blue sea. Therefore, children paint the pond mentioned in this color, and parents have to answer the traditional question - why? Let's try to figure out what exactly makes it blue.
Blue Sea Physics
In small volumes, water is a transparent substance. The liquid begins to take on a distinct blue color. Well, the key question is why blue? Because water absorbs the sun's rays. At the same time, the shortest ones are blue in color, penetrate into the water, scattering in all directions, giving the unsteady body a negotiable color. A strengthening of the water column only increases the color intensity.
Other reasons for the color of sea water
In addition to the main factor - the absorption and propagation of specific fragments of the spectrum of the sun's beam, there are several additional ones.
Cloudy, weather conditions. This means that the water mass works like a big mirror. Therefore, it reflects the color of the sky above itself. In this place it will be appropriate to mention the Mediterranean Sea again. 6-8 months a year, while the sky above the pond is cloudless, it pleases local residents and vacationers with an amazing azure wave color.For contrast - remember the lead-gray color of the Baltic and North Sea waters, over which clouds of steel color hang 75%.
Weighted particles that are in the water can change its color. A classic example is the Yellow Sea. The Yellow River flows into it, which had previously washed hundreds of tons of suspension from the Loess Plateau. Due to personally erosion, one of China's steepest rivers has a characteristic yellow color. In addition, at the place of its confluence with the named body of water at a distance of 200 km from the mouth on both sides are water masses of a specific yellow color.
Neighboring with Yellow, the South China Sea has a different color - green. It is given by algae and phytoplankton in water. The Sargasso Sea has the same color of water. The reason is the intensive development of microorganisms and aquatic plants in reservoirs of low latitudes.
Black Sea water color
A completely separate story has the color of the water of the Black Sea. It really differs in its color scheme from other seas of the oceans. They are not just gray, blue or alluring azure, but dark blue, sometimes turning black. Cause? Hydrogen sulfide reserves, which fill 85% of the Black Sea basin. It is they who give the water masses of this part of the World Ocean a unique color. Which can not "stretch" neither a clear sky, nor the sun's rays.
Explaining to the children why the sea is blue, it is necessary, firstly, to break the stereotype about the primary color of the reservoir. Secondly, it is worth introducing the child to the whole variety of colors of the planet’s water masses. Better - in practice.
