What makes the ocean in tropical places so amazingly blue?
Guest9924 A better question is, "what makes the ocean in most places an icky green?" Algae or other microscopic life forms in the water I think. Actually, I have seen pretty blue water at Catalina Island, off the coast of California near Los Angeles. All you need is reasonably clean water over a shallow, white sandy bottom. Report (0) (0) | earlier Guest8667 The ocean appears blue because blue light is scattered by the water with the red end of the spectrum being absorbed more rapidly. Tropical waters tend to be oligotrophic, that is, low in nutrients, thus there is very little plankton growth. The plankton are what give the water a greenish color. How blue the water appears also depends on depth and bottom type. Blue water can also be found in non-tropical latitudes when you are outside of the direct nutrient inputs from the coast. Tropical water actually has lots of plankton (much less relative to other areas) and under the right conditions, blooms can occur almost anywhere
