Why is glacial water blue

Love the description and my first thought was how fun it would be to run our toes in bright turqouise glacial silt. We have never seen a glacial lake, but now we most definitely want to. The color really is unbelievable.

Wondering whether the water is too cold to swim in and whether people do swim in it? When the fine particles mix with the glacial water, which is ice cold I will add, it causes more green and some blue to be reflected back to the eye making it look turquoise. In non glacial lakes, it is more blues that are reflected. This is a brief summary obviously. It really is quite a wonder. Thank you for the kind feedback on the photography. Very kind of you. I love any shade of blue and any body of water, but glacial lakes and rivers have to be near the top of my list!

Your Canadian gems are just one more impetus for me to get myself there asap! Thanks for the info, too — so interesting. How fabulous that you have seen glacial lakes in such far flung spots Lexie. We await your visit and know you would always be welcome here. Thanks for reading and glad to hear you found it interesting.

I never knew….. Great and informative post Sue and stunning pictures! Thanks for sharing!! Ahhh, this post brought back happy memories for me! Happy to take you back, albeit virtually, to these pretty lakes Diane. We drive to Saskatchewan yesterday to see my Mom after not seeing her since January. Anyway…I purchased your second audio book for our road trip which made the drive much quicker.

Now I wish I could be invisible too! Oh, wow — thank you for supporting my audiobooks! I really appreciate that. Enjoy your visit with your Mom, and give her my best wishes. Hi Sue, I loved reading this and finding out why the water is so blue amongst other things!

It fills a little hole, so thank you for making me smile this week. A pleasure Debbie. We will very much look forward to hearing that you are planning a trip to Canada in the future. Of course we will be hoping for a stop here! Being your provincial neighbour I live on Vancouver Island , Lake Louise is one of my all-time favourite places. As I am also a fellow traveller, I look forward to reading more from the two of you.

Donna how lovely to meet a neighbour! Wishing you all the best. Anne I am delighted to hear you had the opportunity to see these marvellous lakes yourself. Thank you for your visit which is much appreciated. Nice to meet you, Sue and Dave. Your photos are stunning and showcase the beauty and the colours. These lakes truly are gems and we hope to one day see more of them outside of Canada.

Thank you for the kind feedback on the photos. Wishing you an excellent week ahead. Hi again, Sue, I began reading your posts and I became lost in the beauty of the photos and the interesting articles. I have subscribed to your blog. I have lived in British Columbia most of my life and for a few years in the Yukon Territory. The last 28 years on Vancouver Island. We love to camp and explore and I look forward to reading more of your gems. I am glad our paths crossed. Erica that is very kind of you.

You are surrounded by so much beauty as well! Vancouver Island really is a Canadian gem. Any of our visits have been incredible, with perhaps hiking the West coast Trail at the top of the list. That was long before we began blogging but what special memories. Exhausting ones I will admit. Really enjoyed your explanations and descriptions of glacial lakes, Sue, and comparing it to a recipe was a clever analogy.

The intensity or brilliance of the colour varies depending on the lighting conditions. There needs to be sunlight, even the most colourful lake is not going to look very spectacular on an extremely gloomy or cloudy day. The angle of the sunlight hitting the water and the angle of viewing also have an affect on the colour.

This is probably one of the reasons Peyto Lake looks so surreal from the viewing platform high above it. The photos below of Lake Louise are an example of how the same body of water can have a very different look depending on the lighting conditions and the time of year.

Lake Louise in early July. Lake Louise in August. Lake Louise in the first week of October. Taken the same day as the photo above about an hour apart. You can see how the angle of the sunlight is enhancing the brilliance and colour of the water. Lake Louise in the last week of October. People often want to time their trip to the Rocky Mountains to see the spectacular water colour that the glacier lakes are known for. They especially want to know when the world famous Lake Louise thaws.

What is surprising is the number of people that travel from around the world and arrive only to learn they came too early! Some of them booked with travel agents who should have known better or at least did some research. Visitors may get the wrong impression because they have seen or heard of the spring time weather in other parts of Canada such as the west coast where the cities of Vancouver and Victoria are located.

By April those areas are usually enjoying warmer temperatures and all the beauty of springtime flowers. Winter lasts much longer in the higher elevation of the mountains. From personal experience while living in the area we have seen Lake Louise free of ice as early as May 27th and as late as June 22nd. The elevation of a lake has one of the largest influences as to when it thaws. Generally the higher the lake the longer it takes to be free of ice. There are other factors such as the orientation of the lake, how much sunlight it receives and the angle of sunlight it receives due to the shade of the mountains.

Some of the lower elevation lakes in the valley bottoms thaw much earlier. The continuous erosion leads to the formation of spaces or large holes. The melting water from the glacier slowly fill the holes or spaces that had been formed by the moving glacier to form a lake. As the glacier moves, it also pulverizes the minerals on the rock over which it moves. The pulverized minerals settle at the bottom of the lake as sediments. Some of these sediments also known as rock flour are suspended in the water column.

Although some people have suggested that the turquoise color of the glacial lake is as a result of the reflection of the blue of the sky by the water surface, this is not accurate. Sediments or rock flour are responsible for the blue color seen on most glacial lakes. Rock flour is very light. Image of the Day Snow and Ice. Long and short. Deep and shallow. Salty and fresh. Blue and brown. Image of the Day Land Water. Floodwaters have worked their way through a series of parched channels, watering holes, and lagoons to start filling the iconic Australian lake.

When leaves, roots, or bark disintegrates in water, that changes the color of a river or lake, much like a adding a teabag to hot water. Image of the Day Water Remote Sensing.