ocean water (organic, area, island)

[saucemoney]

how come the water near the shorlines (santa monica beach, venice, ect) dont have a turquoise glow like in hawaii or south beach?

[Chicano3000X]

Man go in pacific, man come out with extra nipple..

[mayorhaggar]

It's the sand. In most of Florida you don't really get bright blue water either.

[sponger42]

Sand, silt, and sediment. Rocky bottoms keep the water clear and blue. Sandy bottoms yeild brown water. Sandy bottomed water can be blue if it is tranquil and the sediments settle out (like the west coast of Florida) but when the waves kick up, the water turns greenish or brown with silt.

Also, it can be affected by the type of sediment.

I love surfing in Hawaii or the Mentawai islands where the water is crystal clear and you can see the reef under you. There is very little sand so the water is clear if you are in it, and blue if you are looking at it from the shore.

On Taiwan's East Coast, the water is silty, but the mountains are young and the sediment is mostly granite or marble sands, which reflect the sky. So the water is an inviting blue.

California's coast is mostly dirt and organic sediments so water is generally green or brown. It's not very inviting, because it is cold and dark, but it is fun to surf because the waves are pretty good year-round.

[HarryKerryJr]

It's a COLD water ocean this far north. You need to go further south down to the warm waters of Mexico (like Florida, etc.) to see the effect of a warm water ocean. One get suffer from hypothermia pretty quick if one were to fall overboard a few miles out from from LA area and on north most of the year. This is why we don't have hurricanes here. Way too cold water. Hurricanes down in Mexico from the southerly pacific.

Further, as a rule, if it rains here, it is CHILLY to COLD. We rarely get warm storms. Most come courtesy of the Bearing Sea. While inland it can get warm, at the coast it is often cool to chilly and dank with the fog. It almost NEVER gets warm or HOT along the coast. We is too far north for warm water effect of pretty colors.