Looks Like the Ocean Will Have A Greener Color Palette in the Future

We know this because it's already happening

Hiya!

When I describe something as “ocean blue,” you know I’m talking about a deep, rich blue color because you know what the ocean looks like. But in a few decades, this color might instead tell future generations what color the ocean used to be. Why? Because their ocean could very well be green. How do we know this? Because it’s already begun changing.

I know, right? I guess we’re still living in some science fiction alternate reality. Our oceans are turning green. I mean, that wasn’t even on my radar as something that could or would happen. Yet, scientists have known about and studied this transformation over the last two decades and suspect global warming is causing it. Color me surprised (ha!). But beyond the aesthetics, what sort of impact could a transformation like this have?

How the Ocean Gets Its Color

Several factors create the ocean’s coloring, but part of why it looks blue is due to light scattering — similar to what occurs in the atmosphere that makes the sky appear light blue. Other reasons for the ocean’s blue hue include the way light reflects as it bounces off particles, sediments, decaying matter, and whatever else lurks under its surface.

But absorption plays a much more significant role.

See, almost all sunlight is absorbed by the oceans, except for shallower waters near coastlines. Water molecules and organisms living in the water gobble up the longer red, yellow, and green wavelengths within the sunlight’s electromagnetic spectrum while rejecting the shorter wavelengths in the blue and violet range. Thus creating a rich blue pigment.

Plants do something similar. Chlorophyll, a molecule within plants, absorbs the red and blue wavelengths from sunlight and rejects the green wavelengths, which is why many plants are green.