Re: Glacier Color

[William Beaty <billb@ESKIMO.COM>]

On Thu, 31 Aug 2000, Doug Craigen wrote:
> In my summer swing through northern British Columbia I was reminded of
> all the brilliantly coloured mountain lakes.  These have very little
> laundry or dish detergent in them.  Its the green ones that really catch
> my eye.  I've generally assumed BC's green lakes are related to CuO
> rather than plant life (possibly nickel or cobalt, but judging from the
> mining industry in BC copper seems more likely).

Metal ions would be too small to cause scattering, but maybe algae could.
The microorganisms visible under an optical microscope are way than
optical wavelengths, so the lake water would look like dark green milk.
Perhaps really tiny algae cells could make it look like green glass.

I've always wondered if Na has any "color."  In a 100m column of pure
water with lots of NaCl added, does the water remain slightly blue as it
does when pure, or does the added salt do anything?


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