Why is the ocean blue in colour??

Question

I have heard that it is because of the reflection of the sky.Is this true????

Answer 1

Nope. Deep water absorbs light waves, except for those high energy waves on the blue end of the spectrum. They tend to be reflected by the water, thus giving a body of deep water its blue color. This is why pool water seems blue at the deep end and clear in the shallow. The deeper the water, the more blue light is reflected. Bath water is too shallow to reflect much light, so it seems clear.
To quote David Feldman in "Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise?", "When sunlight hits clear water, red and infared light absorb rapidly, and blue least easily. Accoding to Curtiss O. Davis of the California Institute of Technology's Jet propulsion Laborotory, 'only blue green light can be transmitted into, scattered and then transmitted back out of the water without being absorbed.' By the time the light has reached ten fathoms deep, most of the red light has been absorbed."
When deep water in the ocean or in lakes is green or red, it it usually due to small plants and animals (plankton and diatoms) in the water.

Answer 2

No, it is not because it is reflecting the sky.
It is the high concentration of Salts in the water that causes the water to reflect the blue part of the spectrum. This happens in any water that has higher concentrations of salts.
Lake Havasu, on the border of Arizona and California, also has a high concentration of salts and it is also blue like the ocean.
The name "Havasu" originates from a Native American word meaning blue-green waters.
Pure fresh water that does not contain any dissolved salts does not reflect blue.
Even pool water contains salts, Sodium Hypochlorite is the Chlorine in the pool.

Answer 3

The ocean is really a greenish Gary, it only looks blue when the sky is blue. Have you not noticed that when ever the sun is not out and there are clouds in the sky the ocean looks Gary or greenish and it also has something to do with the salt content in the water. think about it.

Answer 4

Water has an intrinsic color, and this color has a unique origin. This intrinsic color is easy to see, as can been seen in the Caribbean and Mediterranean Seas and in Colorado mountain lakes. Pure water and ice have a pale blue color, best seen at tropical white-sand beaches and in ice caves in glaciers (green colors are usually derived from algae). It is neither due to light scattering (like the sky), nor dissolved impurities (e.g., Cu2+). Because the absorption which gives water its color is in the red end of the visible spectrum, one sees blue, the complementary color of orange, when observing light that has passed through several meters of water. This color of water can also be seen in snow and ice as an intense blue color scattered back from deep holes in fresh snow.

Crater lake, Oregon, USA, is widely known for its intense blue color and spectacular view. The appearance of the lake varies from tourquise to deep navy blue depending on whether the sky is hazy or clear.

Answer 5

I think it is partly due to this and partly due to the fact that water is a little like the air in the atmosphere. When seen over a long distance or in the case of water, when it is deep, it does something to the refraction of light and makes something that is clear, look blue. Think about this, why is the sky blue in the first place? Outer space is black isn't it?

Answer 6

No. The ocean is blue for the same reason the sky is blue, which is, water is not totally clear, but is actually slightly blue. When you have a lot of it, the blue tint is more apparent.

Answer 7

Yes

Answer 8

Yes it is. the photons in the sun first enter through the sky and refelect on ocean hence being blue because the sky is blue. if this didn't happen it would be very creepy because the water would be clear and you could see through it and stuff.

Answer 9

Dat's the fact! It's becoz of the reflection above the sea... dat's e blue sky. And the sparkle dat u see is the reflection effect from e sun

Answer 10

Yes it's true, because if you notice when the clouds are over a lake or river, the water is sometimes green.